Another development to be noted was the rise of large department stores and other new forms of re tail establishments. They often based their appeal for custom on some new form of service to the pub lic, some new idea in merchandising which the pub lic appreciated and to which it quickly responded. The department store and the chain store taught the public what might be done in merchandising, and they have been powerful agencies in educating the small merchant in new ways of serving consumers and in new ways of making profits for himself.
Finally, the extraordinary development of adver tising has had great influence on retail merchandis ing. It has taught the people to know values and has developed new wants; it has introduced the mod ern problems of trade-marks, proprietary goods and all the complications that have followed in their wake; and lastly it has ushered in the much dreaded mail order competition.
3. Status of the retailer.—All these developments have appeared within the space of a few years—fifty at the most; and they have meant almost a revolu tion in retail merchandising. They have been good for business. Wben any business is easy it does not occupy a high place in public opinion, because it does not always attract to itself the best brains of the na tion. If it becomes difficult, if it finds itself con fronted with problems to be solved and new rela tions to be worked out, it takes on a new lease of life. Such has been the history of retailing. The retail business today offers more opportunities for the young man of brains, energy, ambition and de termination than a great many other businesses in which he might engage. It is a business that offers social as well as financial distinction. It has come into its own. The old "storekeeper" is a disappear ing type. In his place is found the real merchant, keenly alive to everything that affects his business, serving the public always, and receiving a just reward for his services.
4. New basis of competition.—The changes that have occurred in retailing in the past fifty years can be summarized as the change in the basis of compe tition. The old basis of competition was price. The new basis is service. Nowadays even if a store gets trade because of its low price appeal, and many of them do, it ho/ds trade because the low price is only one of the forms of service the store offers to its cus tomers. The service that holds business and that draws trade from competitors may be such a simple thing as a policy of courtesy, a "thank you" attitude and a willingness to please; but it is on just such sim ple, yet important, things as these that great busi nesses are built and prosper.
5. Factors in. competition.—We have found that there are many kinds of retail stores. We are to con sider the comparative competitive strength and weak ness of the more important ones, in order to find out their relative value as distributors of manufactured goods, and to See which kinds of stores seem to offer to the manufacturer the most promise of future use fulness. Such a study should help the several types of retail dealers to analyze their businesses, and to direct their activities in ways that will take most ad vantage of their natural points of strength and will do the most to minimize their points of weakness. Every retailer competes (1) with many other retail ers of the same type as himself, (2) with retailers of other types, and (3) with the direct-selling manufac turer. The second of these classes of competition is our chief subject of inquiry.
6. Competitive strength of the specialty We have already referred to the importance of the specialty store. It is found everywhere, in large cities and in smaller towns that have outgrown the country general store. In the city, aside from other stores of the same type, its chief competition comes from the dep-artment store; in the country its chief' competitor is the mail-order house. As mail-order competition is to be conSidered in a chapter by itself, our present consideration has to do chiefly with the status of the specialty shop in the city as a competitor of the department store in the same city. That this competition is real is not to be denied.
7. Convenience.—It is readily seen that one of the most important sources of the competitive strength of the specialty store lies in its convenience to the public. The great department stores do a large business in groceries, meats, household equip ment, clothing and other staples; but it would be hard to conceive of a city in which a few great central department stores could monopolize this type of busi ness. The "corner" grocery store, the local drug store, the exclusive haberdashery, the specialty shoe shop, offer conveniences that the public demands. In outlying districts these small specialty shops serve as neighborhood centers; in the down-town dis tricts they have an appeal all their OW11. They ex ist because a large proportion of the buying public finds that they offer conveniences in imtnediate de livery, personal service, complete stocks, etc., that many department stores cannot in the nature of things offer.