Besides these two common modifications of the ordinary method of marketing thru a jobber, there are other ways in which some manufacturers vary the usual forms of the jobber's services. Nevertheless the jobber stands ready to give the kinds of service that have been mentioned. Is this service worth what is paid for it? Could the manufacturer perform it for less? In many cases, no. It is true that a large number of manufacturers do not deal thru jobbers; some of their reasons are to be considered in the next chapter. But the fact remains that the jobber is in a position to give valuable and cheap service in con nection with many kinds of manufactured goods, and that the manufacturer who can obtain his cooperation has enlisted the support of an efficient and an econom ical selling aid.
10. How the jobber serves the retailer.—Altho the fact that the jabber lowers the cost of wholesale distribution of many manufactured articles is an im portant point in his defense, his chief justification is found in the fact that his services make possible the existence of the thousands of neighborhood retail stores which our buying habits demand. The best way to understand what the jobber does for the re tailer is to imagine a typical successful store of the smaller sort—a neighborhood grocery store, for ex ample. This store has on its shelves possibly 1,000 or more different kinds and brands of goods. They are usually made by several hundred different manufac turers. The store has been buying its stock from three or four jobbers. Now suppose that all the jobbers are eliminated overnight. The retail merchant wakes up some morning to find that there are no more job bers; he must buy every item in his stock direct from the manufacturer. VVhat would be the effect? 11. Difficulty in keeping complete stocks.—The retailer in such a case would have great difficulty in keeping complete stocks in any line. When buying from a jobber he can keep a memorandum of needed supplies, and give a lump order when the jobber's salesman makes his rounds. Even with this easy method of ordering, the average retailer finds it ex ceedingly difficult always to have on hand a supply of even the commonest staples. With no jobber to supply him, the necessity of constant reordering from many manufacturers would be an obstacle to the re tailer's success which could only be avoided by an elaborate and expensive system of stock records and purchasing procedure.
12. Necessity of seeing many salesmen.—The ac tual time spent in seeing the salesmen of several hundred manufacturers or in ordering from their cata logs would be enormous. Under the jobbing sys tem, the retailer finds that a great part of his time is taken up with seeing competing jobbers' represen tatives and the salesmen of the comparatively small number of manufacturers that sell direct. With the jobber eliminated, only the largest stores, employing many responsible buyers, could survive.
13. Unbalanced stocks.—The retailer would have great difficulty in keeping a well-selected and a well balanced stock. The average dealer, necessarily without specific knowledge of the quality and sell ing value of every competing line in his stock, would be importuned constantly by a horde of salesmen to stock large quantities of one line at the expense of another. One of the greatest services rendered by the jobber is the aid his salesmen give the retailer in keeping a carefully selected, carefully balanced stock of goods. The jobber is keenly aware of the neces sity of cultivating the continued good-will of his trade; he knows that his own success depends on each of his customers; he knows that the secret of retail success is largely a matter of minimum stocks, quick turn overs of capital and frequent purchases. With the jobber gone, it is not to be expected that each one of a multitude of competing manufactiirers would have the same solicitude for the individual retailer's continued success that the jobber now has for his cus tomers. The jobber ordinarily does not push any one kind of goods. He tries to build up the retailer's business as a whole, and he renders valuable service by aiding him with all kinds of buying and selling plans.
14. Need of more capital.—In many lines the re tailer dealing direct with the manufacturer would have to purchase in much larger quantities than if he bought from the jobber, because the solicitation of small orders would not pay the small one-line manu facturer. The dealer would require larger capital than is now needed in his business. If his business remained of the same size he would have more capital tied up in goods, he could turn his capital less fre quently and consequently his profits would be lower. He would either have to go out of business or his prices to his customers would have to be greatly in creased.