More than any other dealer the country merchant knows his customers personally. With the right per sonality, he can hold trade that will be proof against any alluring offers from city stores. He can base his credit risks on absolute knowledge cf his custom ers, and thereby cut down bad (lc,- a minimum. And he can, if he will, carry a stock that will reflect perfectly the normal demands of his trade. The fact that he does not always do this is no argument against the possibility of his doing it.
20. Why the general store loses trade.—The weak nesses of the country general store are partly in herent and partly avoidable.
The stocks in each line are necessarily small. This is an inherent disadvantage. Patrons of a country general store will buy from it those staples that in volve anywhere little opportunity for selection and which they must have at once, but they will often go to the city for luxuries and for articles that are usually referred to as "shopping lines." Another weakness of the country store is the mere fact that it is in the country. As long as country conditions differ from city conditions, the city will have a lure for the counby dweller, just as the coun try has a lure for most city dwellers. This lure would draw some trade to the city, even if the same goods, in the same assortment, at the same prices which the country visitor finds in the city store were on the shelves of the local dealer.
Moreover, many country stores lose trade because they are inefficiently conducted. While this is not true of all country stores, it is true of many of them. Poor advertising, poor selling, poor buying, lax cred its—these and many other avoidable faults are chiefly responsible foi much of the country trade that goes to the city. Those country stores that are efficiently conducted have little occasion to bewail the cityward trend of trade.
21. Opportunity of the country. store.—Some peo ple think that the country general store is doomed. If so, what is to take its place? There is nothing that can or will entirely take the place of the general store. Where the inhabitants of any community are too few to support a number of specialty shops, the only way in which the great majority of the needs of the community can be satisfied is over the counters of the general store. Such a store may lose some busi
ness to the city and to mail-order houses, but the great bulk of the country trade must remain with it. For many manufacturers the general store is the only possible avenue to country buyers; and, as an in creasing number of country merchants realize their opportunities and responsibilities, adopt modern merchandising methods and improve generally in buying, selling and advertising, the country store, in stead of dropping out of the merchandising system, will prove an increasingly prosperous and profitable outlet for many articles of merchandise.
22. Reasons for department store strength.—The city department store is looked upon by many re tailers of other types as their most feared competitor. It is true that it has unusual competitive strength. Its size, its advertising, its sales have an element of the spectacular about them that would draw trade even without more substantial reasons. Tbese more substantial reasons, however, are the basis for the de partment store's great success. In competition with 6ity specialty stores, with small specialty and country stores in the surrounding territory, and with exclu sive mail-order houses if it does a mail-order busi ness, it draws great volumes of trade. Disregarding for the present the mail-order phase of competition, its strength is based on a number of factors: 23. Department store economies.—The depart ment store offers the opportunity of unusual econo mies in operation. Theoretically, the overhead ex pense for two departments or stores under a common roof should be less than for the same two stores under separate roofs and separate ownership. Thus, if an expenditure for advertising draws people into the store to inspect the special offers of one department, and results in their purchasing not only the special offers but also the goods in other departments which claim their attention, the advertising expenditure is doubly efficient, and the charge for advertising against each dollar's worth of goods sold is less than it would be if the publicity produced sales in one de partment only. The list of theoretical savings,might be extended to great length.