8. Lower selling is said that nationally advertised articles can be sold more quickly and easily than non-advertised goods. The customer who asks for a definite kind of razor, or shoes, or breakfast food knows exactly what he wants ; the salesperson has only to wrap it up and hand it over the counter ; he need spend no time in convincing the customer of the merits of the article. The time spent in making sales is a big item of expense in retail stores, and stores that are operated efiiciently are constantly trying to find ways of helping the clerk to eliminate waste motions, waste steps and waste minutes. It is certain that the selling of well-known standard goods can be accom plished in less time, and therefore with less expense, than the selling of unknown brands. The Retailers' 3Ien's Apparel 3Iagazine says: Retailing of advertised goods is frictionless. The adver tised brands are called for by name—there is no dickering, no uncertainty to buyer or seller; the sale is closed quickly. Additional profit in advertised goods lies in the time saved in waiting on customers.
There is no argument against this contention. If goods are really effectively advertised by the manu facturer among the people who trade with any store, that store can save time by selling the brands that are called for. Of course if any store's customers are not reached by the mediums carrying a manufactur er's advertisements, the manufacturer's goods might just as well be unadvertised so far as that store and its patrons are concerned. In such a case, the goods must take their chances with other unknown brands.
9. Quicker sales and more turnovers.—If nation ally advertised goods can be sold inore quickly and with less expense than others, and if there is more de mand for them, their sale should result in more turn overs of capital and larger profits than can result from the sale of unbranded or privately branded lines. This should be true even if the profit on each sale of the advertised brand is less than on each sale of the non-advertised brand. Suppose that there are two similar articles, one advertised and the other not advertised. Each sells to the consumer for ten cents. On the former the dealer gets a gross profit of two and one-half cents; on the latter, of five cents. As sume that there is real demand for the advertised line, and that the dealer can sell one hundred pieces of it during the time it takes him to sell twenty-five of the other. His gross profit on the advertised brand would be $2.50; on the non-advertised brand, $1.25. It should also be noted that nationally ad vertised goods are usually more staple than others ; they do not often have to be closed out at the end of a season at a loss or at a greatly decreased profit. Even a small reduction in the usual price will ordi narily move them readily.
10. Manufacturers' selling of the strongest arguments for nationally advertised goods is that the retailer who handles them is aided in many ways in his advertising by the manufacturer. Practi cally all progressive retailers are now convinced of the desirability of local advertising for themselves.
Preparing effective advertisements is difficult, how ever, and many retail advertisements are weak and in effective. The advertising manufacturer is usually glad to aid the dealer in his advertising. He sends him suggestions for copy, not only describing the manufacturer's gbods but also the other lines in the dealer's stock; lie furnishes cuts of his goods, electros for complete advertisements, street-ear cards, window displays, inside store signs of all kinds, form letters to go to the dealer's customers, booklets and many other kinds of advertising.
It is sometimes said that much of the advertising material furnished by the manufacturer is worthless, and that, when it is not worthless, it is ninety-nine per cent advertising for the manufacturer and his goods, and only one per cent advertising for the retailer and his store. There has been too much basis for this criti cism of the value of the manufacturer's advertising helps. But the situation is changing. More and more the manufacturer is trying to give advertising aid that will help to advertise the dealer first and the manufacturer second. The necessity of making a store's advertising individual and characteristic of the store's spirit and purpose is being increasingly realized, and the progressive manufacturers are now giving advertising service that really serves.
11. Customers resent substitution.—Many custom ers resent substitution, and the store that offers some thing "just as good" when an advertised brand is re quested, loses good-will and trade.
This is undoubtedly true, and yet substitution is no crime, even tho some manufacturers would try to make it so. To try to sell a substitute when a cus tomer asks for a. certain manufacturer's goods is not "stealing the market" of the manufacturer. If a stranger desiring a certain brand of goods were to go into a store solely because he knew he could find the desired brand there, and if the salesperson were to try to sell him something else when the desired arti cle was really in stock, there would be some question of the ethics of the clerk's action if the clerk knew of his sole motive for entering. But such cases are very rare. Ordinarily a customer visits a store be cause the store is known to him, or it is convenient, or it has been recommended to him by spoken or printed advertising. If he asks for some specific thing, and if the merchant can sell it to him and is ready to do so, all well and good; but if the merchant prefers to sell or to try to sell something else, he is at perfect liberty to do so, unless of course he has previously accepted the exclusive agency in his town for the article asked for. If he has an exclusive agency, honesty requires him to do his duty by the manufacturer; otherwise the question of substitution involves neither law nor ethics. The only question is one of business policy; the merchant must balance against his desire to sell a substitute, the possibility of losing the customer by reason of the attempted sub stitution.