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IIEARST’S SUNDAY AMERICAN, ATLANTA, C.A., SUNDAY, DECEMBER 7, 1913.
13 A
S
Merchants and Manufacturers' Bulletin
Silvey Sales Force
On Week-End Visit
■p... ..llesforce of John Silvey & Co.
n the house for a week-end
•hut Is, all are present but Gen
ii. Oorry, who Is detained in
. te-rltory. Southwest Georgia, to
,nte ..penlng bill. General Cor-
tp< nd a ideasant Sunday, and
,, you General.
f i- , i v member of the sales force
it in glowing reports, and pros-
., .. for a big spring business are
t.riK' for Silvey & Co.
I> H, Jeter, who has been connect
ed with the firm for the past two
years, took on a new territory down
the Georgia Road, on the first of No
vember last, and proceeded to lead the
entire force on November sales. If
the force keeps up this record-break- .
ing salesmanship, Silvey & Go. will
have to adopt a slogan, something on
the order of the following:
“Silvey Salesmen Surely Sell.”
PLATE GLASS SCARCE.
Stocks of plate glass in this coun
try seem to be especially well deplet
ed. and immediate deliveries of or
ders of any size are said to be prac
tically impossible to get. Collections
in that field are especially good, from
allaccounts.
Shoe Manufacturing in
The Southern States
Our Efficient Mail
Order Service -
ENABLES YOU TO KEEP THE
ITEMS THAT SELL CONSTANTLY.
INCREASED PROFITS RESULT WHEN
STOCKS ARE FULL.
ORDER NOW.
RIDLEY -WILLIAMSON WY ATT CO.,
Wholesale Dry Goods and Notions,'
Atlanta, Georgia.
V
./
We make Picture Mouldings and Picture Frames
for Whatever Purpose You Want Them.
Samples of Mouldings Sent to Dealer on Request.
Especially Prepared to Handle all Orders Same Day
Received.
BINDER FRAME MANUFACTURING CO.
Atlanta, Georgia. Chicago, Illinois.
More Efficient Methods Are Being
Adopted by Progressive
Distributors.
CAPITAL CITY TOBACCO CO.
176-178 Marietta St. Atlanta, Ga.
IMPORTERS AMO JOBBERS
The Only Exclusive Tobacco House in Georgia
When in town gome to see us or write us for new price list.
It will be worth your while.
THE EDISON DICTATING MACHINE
SAVES HALF THE TIME. EXPENSE AND TROUBLE OF LETTER
WRITING
Made In Orange by Thomas A. Edison. Sold, demonstrated knd guar
anteed in Georgia by
BAYLIS OFFICE EQUIPMENT CO.
Office Furniture—Commercial Stationery
No. 1 South Broad Street. Phone 241
E. L. ADAMS CO.
WHOLESALE GROCERS
OUR MOTTO: First Quality Merchandise
and Prompt Service.
McCLURE TEN CENT COMPANY
Importers, Jobbers, Distributors
GOODS TO RETAIL AT 5c TO $1.00
Write us about opening a store or department of this kind for you
Vollmer Manufacturing Co.
We Cater to the Retail Jeweler Only
Manufacturers and Designers of Fine Jewelry. Engrav
ing, Diamond Setting and Watchmaking a specialty.
Special Designs in Platinum. Let us do your diamond
mounting and repair work.
Bell Phone
Ivy 1670
Moore Bldg.,
Atlanta, Ga.
THE MAIL ORDER COFFEE ROASTERS
ATLANTA COFFEE MILLS COMPANY
Blenders of High-Grade Coffees
Special Blends
EUREKA, ATCO, SQUARE DEAL
Rich !n Flavor, Fresh and Pur.
Ask Your Grocer.
Buy Your Coffee Direct From
the Mill—Roasted Daily
402 Edgewood Avenue, Atlanta, Ga.
GEORGIA PRODUCTS DAY
EVERY DAY WHEN YOU WEAR
ARAGON
SHIRTS- —PANTS---OVERALLS
MANUFACTURED BY
A. M. ROBINSON COMPANY
59 North Pryor St Atlanta, GecrgSa
The wide-awake jobbers and
wholesalers of dry goods and kindred
lines in the West are keenly alive to
the urgent necessity of making very
radical changes in the present meth
od of sampling dry goods, furnishing
goods and ready-to-wear garments.
The present method is burdensome
to the salesman and the cost is out
of proportion to sales.
With the change from the time
when the selling of dry goods in the
piece was the important end of the
business to the “ready-made” era the
lines of the traveling salesman’s sam
ples have grown until to-day it is not
an unusual thing for large wholesal
ers to have on the road an average of
from twelve to fourteen trunks with
every general salesman.
In Other Important Lines.
The other important mercantile
lines—groceries, hardware, furnitufe,
queensware, clothing, etc.—have so
reformed their loose and expensive
sampling plans (or should one say
lack of plan that to-day if a sales
man would solicit an opportunity to
i present his wares—men’s clothing, for
| instance—on the strength of a state-
| ment that “he had fifteen trunks of
i clothing samples on display at the
| hotel,” the merchant would tell him
| he was representing a "back number”
concern and that he felt no interest
in looking at the line of a concern so
evidently unprogressive.
As an evidence of the great interest
there is in this new movement in the
I dry goods trade to reduce sample
I lines, a two days’ convention was held
| in Omaha to consider this subject
f in detail.
New Plans Shown.
The representatives brought with
them trunks of samples to show what
| each one was doing in his own way to j
• help solve the problem of reducing
i salesmen’s samples and the exchange
i of ideas was very instructive and will
| undoubtedly lead to great reforms.
It was shown that such important
lines as blankets, duck coats, sheep
lined coats, mackinaws, shirts, under
wear, sweaters, children’s dresses,
aprons, children’s coats, bath robes,
, bedspreads, blankets, notions, muslin
underwear, ladies’ waists, knit hoods,
etc. (all bulky lines, which no house
can profitably sample in made-up gar
ments for filling in business), can be
represented by means of photographs
with snatches of the fabric and print
ed description attached.
Omaha Houses Lead.
Some of those present were going
into their third season with the new
sampling plan and furnished compar
ative figures showing not only sub
stantial reductions in the expense ac
count, but greatly increased sales on
the very lines where the change in
method of sampling had been most
radical.
The Omaha houses seem to have
gone farther along the new way than
those from any other market, and it
was generally conceded that while
the “pmaha idea” was a novelty, now
it would unquestionably set a new
standard.
It was a constant expression with
everyone that while the saving in
traveling expenses was an important
consideration, the point which would
count most in the movement for a
general adoption of the new plan was
the fact that it would greatly increase
the efficiency of every salesman who
carried a dry goods line.
Penny Change of
Great Importance
In Retail Business
The importmce of “splitting the
nickel” and making prices and change
on the basis of the cent is one of the
most profitable details of the retail
business.
“Make Penny Change,” ‘‘Split the
Nickel” or “Common Sense Merchan
dising.” Call it what you may, the
net result for all those who use the
system remains unchanged and spells
thriftiness and prosperity '
What constitutes the very corner
stone of a going manufacturing and
jobbing business? Satisfied custo
mers who meet their, obligations
promptly. What, then, Van be done
io help improve the present status of
things and bring about to a greater
degree the above-desired condition?
Make “penny change.”
Why* is it that the business of so
many apparently good retail mer
chants dwindles? Has It ever oc
curred to you that it was because he
did not “split the nickel?” The bases
from which a business is figured are
sales, per cent of profit on sales and
per cent of expense to sales. The
difference between these last two
should spell net profit. He depends
on his ability to make up his short
profits, on even-money sales, by long
•nes on the same basis, and “thereby
nangs the tale” which usually spells
i disaster. His guess as to his average
1 per cent of .profit, sooner or later,
works the wrong a ay, and he b
omes, in the familiar terms of the
i jobber, “a lame duck.”
This process of trying to strike a
i satisfactory average profit by the
i merchant on an even-change selling
, visis is largely responsible for the
i mail-order business which leaves oui
inme towns. The mail-order houses
earned the trick of “penny change.”
They figure a per cent of profit and
n an item which costs 4 cents they
ist at 7. while our dealers’ price is: 10
er.ts. it is by a comparison of such
rh e# that the- home customer loses
There Should Be a Factory in
Every Large City—Great In
crease of Business.
Bv J. K. ORR, JR..
What of the progress and prospects
of shoe manufacturing in the South?
Its progress has been shown in an
increase of volume from Southern
factories of practically 500 per cent
in the past five years.
And why should its prospects be ,
set at a single notch lower than that
accomplished by New England ami
the Middle West?
Shoe making is a game in which
no one section has any natural ad- |
vantages.
The machinery used by all the fac-
Dry Goods Sales and I, N. Binder Returns
Collections Increase From Chicago Visit
OF WORLD TO
MET IT FI
Monster Convention Seems Cer
tain for Panama-Pacific
Exposition in 1915.
J. K. Orr, Jr., Vice President of the J. K. Orr Shoe Company.
The International Federation of
Commercial Travelers, an organiza
tion numbering 400,000 members in
America, Is to hold its 1915 congress
in San Francisco. A committee from
this organization is now in Europe
interesting like associations there in
a world's congress, which has been
assured, says President Ben Schloss,
of the international federation.
England has accepted the invita
tion and a splendid delegation >f
commercial travelers is expected from
Great Britain, while France also has
tentatively responded to the call.
Moreover, New Zealand has entered
and promises a large delegation, so
that it is certain every nation suffi
ciently civilized to enjoy the “boost
ing” of the commercial traveler will
be enrolled In the membership of thi«
first world’s congress of federated
commercial travelers.
Just how many will come to Sin
Francisco It is not possible to conjec
ture, buT they will number In the
thousands, not only because of the
two congresses that wi” oonven ?,
but also because there will be cele
brated in San Francisco still anoth- r
event unique in the history of com
mercial travelers’ associations.
“GROUCH" IN BUSINESS.
Take note of the manner of man
who comes around to your office and
spends an hour telling you that
business is on the down grade and
that the country is going to the dogs
Fight against the influences which,
it not combated, would bring you to
the conclusion that the sun is setting
upon the constructive period in the
history of the United States.
Ask the man who thinks so how
many hours of constructive panning
he gives to his business each day.
Notwithstanding the warm weather
during November sales and collections
show a gain over the corresponding
month a year ago. This condition em
phasizes the fact that conservative
I operating does not necessarily mean
limited buying nor selling, but a carc-
I ful attitude among merchants to see
that goods are properly selected and
in sufficient quantity to meet cus
tomers’ needs.
Retail merchants' preparations for
their January sales are being felt in
the increased demand for goods of all
descript Ions.
From letters received from different
sources a number of buyers will visit
this market right after Christmas
to pick up good bargains for their
season-end sales.
Israel N. Binder, of the Binder
Frame Manufacturing Company, la
back on the job after a two weeks’
trip to Chicago, where the company
operates a large plant.
Mr. Binder reports that every min
ute of his time while in Chicago was
spent in completing arrangements
whereby the company will be in a po
sition next year to handle business in
the most prompt and efficient service
that time and money can control.
The Binder Frame Manufacturing
Company, by the way, is the only
plant of its kind in the South.
tories all over the country is the
same, and is practically all made and
furnished by one concern.
Leather and other material is
bought in the open market and is
Just as accessible to Georgia as to
Massachusetts: skilled labor natur
ally follows its own opportunities, so
that it is Just sane to say that
the South can not make its own
shoes as to claim that it can not
print its own newspapers.
The present season has been in
many ways a big help to the growth
of Southern shoe manufacturing.
Conservative buying during the
summer followed by a bumper cotton
crop caused a rush of business that
found the retail merchants of the
South needing shoes and needing
them quick.
Many dealers who had long bought
all their shoes in the more distant
markets, turned gladly to the newer
convenience of at-home factories for
help.
Repeat orders from many of the
most critical shoe stores show that
Southern-made shoes not only have
the call on convenience, but have
proven themselves up to the best
standard on syle, quality and value.
The Red Seal shoe factory, here in
Atlanta, has this fall pushed its out
put 40 per cent above its previous
high water mark, and we have been
glad to hear that other Southern fac
tories have had all the busine**s they
could handle.
Shoe are now being made in Vir
ginia. Tennessee ami Georgia, and
it is my opinion that within the next
few years there will be at least one
shoe factory not only in every State,
but in every progressive city through
out the South.
E
IBM RETAILERS
LOSE ONTO
However, Prices Keep Up in the
South on Persistence of
Good Demand.
Although thus far only general con
ditions can be described, it is the
prevailing belief that the next three
mon.ths will show a very substantial
advance in importations in a good
many branches of business. The ef
fect on costs of living is still some
distance off, but forecasts made in
trade circles are to the effect that
iffirrent levels of prices in this coun
try in a number of important lines
will be decidedly lower.
The importations of important food
stuffs that have taken place from for
eign centers of production, notably in
the case of meats, have had an appre
ciable influence already, in prevent
ing increases of cost that would
otherwise have occurred. In the man
ufactured goods, while changes have
been relatively small thus far. there
have been some distinct alterations of
prices and more important ones are
looked for when tftne has been given
for distributors to contrast prices
abroad and at hom^e and to make
their purchases in the most advan
tageous markets.
Advices from a good many of the 1
manufacturing centers, particularly
in the South, supposed to be affected
by the new rates, however, do not
indicate any decline in business, but
on the contrary the persistence of
good orders, so that the stress of for
eign competition will make itself felt
only some time %fter the strengthen
ing of import business predicted in
consequence of the greater interest
now being shown. The new condi
tions will, however, produce a sharper
stress of competition.
One reason for the more active in
terest in the American market that is
being exhibited in Europe is the
slackening of business demand In
some lines, which has. been generally
good heretofore and the consequent
effort to get better openings for busi
ness in the United States. Should
this condition continue and become
more intense, as it is predicted in
many quarters will be the case, the
result will be a steady advance in
Importations of foreign-made goods.
This 9tate of things applies not only
in textiles, but in crude and unman
ufactured lines such as cement and
various forms of metal products.
EXPORTS FOh WEEK.
Exports of domestics and cotton
duck from New York in the week end
ed November 22 were valued at $232,-
063, a loss of $273,901 from the week
previous. The greatest amount ship
ped to \ single foreign market, valued
Steps Taken to Set Prices That
Will Hereafter Yield Dealer
Profit.
Strange as it may sound, sewing
thread is sold in England by most re- I
tailors or drapers, at a loss. Very I
recently the J. and J. ('oats combine j
circularized the whole retail trade of
England asking if it were not possible
to have the manufacturer agree upon
a price at which thread would be sold
In future at retail, so that a reason
able profit might be assured.
The returns from these circulars
showed that the retail trade of Eng
land was almost unanimously in favor
of the set price system on thread, anil
favored some similar plan whereby
losses on other staples handled by dry
goods rnen might be avoided.
One large manufacturer of cotton
goods entered upon a plan similar in
all respects to the plans in vogue here
of selling a finished and packaged
fabric at retail „at a fixed price, or at
a minimum price. A cloth of stand
ard quality has been taken for trial.
There is in England no counterpart
of our Sherman anti-trust law, and
the question has not come up there as
to what extent the common law re
garding merchandising in the matter
of restraining competition may be
violated. Nothing in the way of suits
to vex merchandisers has yet come
forward, and where trials of the set
price system are being made care is
being taken to avoid all semblance of
conspiracy to hold prices on a mo
nopoly plane.
It is most interesting to note that
while manufacturers in this country
are trying to break down prices on
the theory that they enhance the cost
of distribution and give opportunity
for the sale of a great deal of inferior
merchandise at the highest accepted
retail price, over in England efforts
are under way to adopt the very sys
tem that is coming into strong dis
favor here.
trip
To Atlanta is avail
able to the mer
chant who buys an
adequate bill from
the members of the
Merchants’ Asso
ciation.
Write to
H. T. Moore
SECRETARY.
Rhodes Building,
Atlanta.
I low’s Your
Circulation?
They say there’s lots of money in the
country, and you know folks will
spend it at Christmas time.
Don’t yon think on a season like this
it pays to push your shoe sales?
The forehanded man will he ready.
The Hed Seal dealer is usually fixed on
sizes. He knows how to get them quick.
If you haven’t our 1914 catalog, say
so on a postal.
If you are interested in floor goods
under price, come to Atlanta and get
in on our December Clearance Sale.
We clean the decks twice a year.
These lots are sold for wliat they will
bring—and bring quick.
They might stimulate some stag
nant stock yon may have and help your
circulation.
J. K. Orr Shoe Co.
Red Seal Shoe Factory
Atlanta
Merchants contemplating going
into business will lose nothing by con
ferring with ns. No charge for con
sultation. Catalog or salesman on re
el nest.
THE HIR5HBERG CO.
WAV 3
HERE
5t£dioneryan& Dru^lstsSunOxia
0-15-17NfXSON ST
Ai i4a.nt<n
AVERY’S CYCLONE STALK CUTTER
Stalk-Cutting Time Is Here
Easy
Riding
No
Neck
Weight
No Stalks too Tough for the Cyclone. Does the Work and Does It Right.
Agents wanted in every city in the South. Write for descriptive circular,
prices and attractive proposition to Agents. It will pay you.
B. F. AVERY & SONS, Inc., 584 Whitehall St., Atlanta, Ga.