The Price Current from Wichita, Kansas • 5

i i I if VOLUME XXV WICHITA, KANSAS, OCT. 25, 1913 NUMBER 13 ii lfH(g CMPEtelW EBUY SELLING SUCCESSFUL and 1 i 0 Osage City Merchants Say That by Buying in Large Quantities and Selling for Cash They Can Meet Any Outside Competition. butchers and grocers together and notify your customers that after a certain date you will sell more for less money, but for Cash Only, and Only Cash. Try it and be convinced. We, the butchers and grocers of Osage City, Kansas, know what we are talking about.

We have tried it, are how trying it and will never change to the miserable old credit system. If you change to the cash system you will, wonder why you did not try it long ago. A few years ago The P'rice Current' advocated co-operative buying among retail merchants, stating that we believed it to be I the salvation of the small merchant, as it would give him the opportunity of buying goods just as cheap as the large merchants who buy in car load lots. Many said that the theory was all-right but it would not be practical as it would be impossible to get a number of merchants to agree as to price, time and what to buy. We admit that ten to fifteen years ago co-operative buying would not have been a success for the reason that every merchant was an enemy of his competitor, but him with the empty sack and you never see him any more, no not any more will you see this good customer of yours.

He has the meat, you have the sack and the sack is empty. For years we took the scraps home for our dear wife and family, and bur customers of the credit system took the best cuts out of our shop and enjoyed a fine dinner, and we ate the scraps and held the sack. My wife WHO SHALL CONTROL RESALE PRICES? By John A. Green, Sec'y Nat'I Ass'n Retail Grocers. aw i i knows what the goods cost and what they should sell for.

If one merchant puts on a special sale on an article, not another merchant in Osage City attempts to meet his price and for that reason they have some very successful special sales with no price cutting. In speaking of mail order competition Mr. Gamba, secretary of their association, said: "We do not advertise the mail order house's business, but, instead, we spend our time and money advertising our Of course we keep in touch with prices of the mail order hodses and then we convince our customers that we can sell them better goods at less money than they can buy at the mail order house, and we do this by simply talking our own goods." In buying in car load lots, say, for example, sugar, they solicit each member to find out how many sacks each will take and if the amount should total up short of a car load each mem-ber's order is increased accordingly without any misunderstanding or kicks from the members. They pay cash for all goods bought which entitles them to the lowest car load prices. Mr.

Gamba says that they would not think of going back to individual buying, for by co-operative buying they can compete with any competitor that tries to enter their territory. Regarding the selling for cash, the grocers and meat men of Osage City went on a strictly cash basis Jan. 1, 1913, and not a member in association would think of returning to the credit system. Mr. Gamba, a member of the Gamba Brothers, who are in the meat business, in speaking of the cash business, said: "We have had everything to contend with since we began to sell for cash only.

Meats of every description went up in price and it was a very hard proposition to make prices attractive, but with all this inconvenience we are selling more meat for cash now than we sold for credit last year. "We sold meat for twenty years on the old credit system and we know all the hardships, worry, misunderstandings and hard feeling such a system causes to both merchant and consumer, especially the merchant, when some fine morning he discovers that one of his best customers leaves This is a question that has puzzled the best minds of all parties in the trade of manufacture and distribution. Some of the best men in the business have decidedly opposite views, one contending for a free hand, the other for protection from what is termed by them the "trade pirate." The very great majority of the retailers are for a re-sale price on standard goods. The great question of today is, What is the best means to get the food supply from the producer (manufacturer or farmer) to the table? Is the present system the most desirable, is it the most economical, is it satisfactory to the consumer? Having: spent thirty years in the business of retailing what is termed groceries, and studying conditions in the trade both in- this country and many parts of Europe, I am satisfied that the present system is both the best and most economical. If this is so, this question naturally arises: How can each factor be paid for the service rendered, and the public guaranteed the goods at a price which will be right and just? Retailer Most Important Factor.

The retailer is the most important factor, inasmuch as it is he who must explain the merit of the goods and stand sponsor for all the manufacturer advertises, and it is he who must furnish the service demanded by the con-sumer. A friendly word for the goods by the retailer will go a long way toward the perpetuation of the sale of the, article and no manufacturer can expect this assistance unless the retailer 4s assured a profit Next comes the consumer, the peo pie who are dependent on all parties. (Continued on Page Twenty) A. E. Johnson, President Osage City Retailers' Association.

the merchant of today realizes that to be successful the merchants of a town must be friends and work shoulder to shoulder and by such, co-operation their business will prosper. The merchants of Osage City, have demonstrated beyond a doubt what co-operative buying will do. They have a local association composed exclusively of grocers and meat men and all have confidence in each other SinceJan. 1, they have bought in car load lots: Six cars of sugar. Four cars of potatoes.

One car of plums. One car of soap. One car of oyster shells. Making a total of thirteen cars Resides all of their local shipments that they buy in large quantities. If every city in the state of Kansas the size of Osage City would do the me the mail order houses would have small picking.

They do not re ulate the price but every merchant E. Gamba, Secretary Osage City Retailers' Association. remarked, that one particular customer was living too high -and would soon leave the town and also his bill for meat behind. She was right. You, merchant reader, have undoubtedly had the same experience time and time again, and you never realized the injustice you did yourself and your family and especially the honest patrons who are then forced to pay in the long run for the meat the "dead- beat" eats and Does Not Pay For.

The happiness of the Cash System is that you open up in the morning with a smile ready for business. No bad accounts to worry about, no credit to refuse for none ask for it, no books to keep. Try this only system the first of the month or by, the first of the year at the very latest and get all the.