Then again, the conservative trader very seldom handles his stock in the same way as the branch of a huge store. Here again, the methods of his predecessors—the methods he has learned years before — suffice him. He cannot see the necessity for up-to-date fixtures which will either show his stock in a presentable manner or contain it in an orderly fashion when it is not on show. In such shops, one finds the stock in hopeless disorder when a customer wants a certain line of goods ; or stock is left lying about in such a way that it is soiled, and the trader is compelled to offer goods which have lost their freshness. liven apart from the inconvenience of badly stored stock and the undesirability of showing soiled goods, the general effect produced by a disorderly arrangement has a bad influence upon the mind of the customer, who must contrast it in his own mind with the newly established store so smartly fitted up, in which everything seems to have its proper place and can be produced in an orderly manner directly it is wanted.
The difference between the methods of a big retailer and a small indi vidual trader is very often one of mere arrangement. The company con ducts its business, asking itself always, " How can the thing be done better ?" The imlividual trader settles down to the opposite extreme and is inclined to make the resources which have lasted for generations serve year after year, even when in his own mind he is convinced that they are not entirely satisfactory. The big store usually provides for improved methods, setting apart a portion of its income, and allowing a certain amount for depreciation. The old-established individual store, on the other hand, rather resents any expenditure on the mere problem of con ducting the business itself. The selling proposition in the individual shop is also often at a disadvantage when compared with the up-to-date methods of a company with many shops. Very often the proprietor of the smaller business has been engaged in the same business all his life. lie has grown up with it, and grown used to it, and it takes hint all his time to see any flaw in his own business methods. The branch establishment of a big store is usually under a manager who has been trained to store methods, and when he gets responsibility he is still under the inspection of art official who is also imbued with ideas on up-to-date store-keeping. When the
branch manager shows a tendency to become slack in his methods—a tendency which is always a characteristic of advancing age and security— he is usually pulled up pretty quickly by his branch inspector. In the case of the privately owned store, the reverse is the case. The man at the head has gained his experience largely in the one business, and with advancing age and prosperity he is not inclined to unduly exert him.telf in improving his own methods. Indeed, the day comes when (even early in life) he is content with the methods that prevail, and regards any innovation as inconvenient to his personal comfort. That attitude which may be discovered in himself imperceptibly, sets the tone of the whole establishment, and means the difference between prompt and aggressive selling service and salesmanship which is scarcely sufficiently interested to efictively deal with a customer at all. The customer himself who samples a store of the new type and a store of the old type is again forced. to contrast the prompt, ready, and tactful service which is given to hint in the one establishment with the slow, casual, and nonchalant attention which is too often a feature of the privately conducted business.
These are general indications of the weak spots in the privately con ducted store, and they are frequently observable in the business of the man who complains most of increasing competition. These are grave weaknesses in his business, and they must always place him at a great disadvantage in conducting his operations against the up-to-date store keeper, but when he complains of the keenness of competition on the part of the latter, he does so in a tone which suggests that he regards the position as inevitable. As a matter of fact, these grave objections to his business conduct could be altered by any man who had the necessary interest in his business to realise his deficiencies and the necessary initiative to secure a revolution of his methods. GEO. EDGAR.
Late Editor, "Modern Business."