The Evening Herald

MORE ON COMPETITION

THE instinct or law of self preservation appears to operate with all its force in business as well as in life. When a man's life is threatened by another the law permits him to defend himself, even to the extreme of taking the life of his assailant. Sometimes, however, the supersensitive person may think his life endangered when it is not, or he may mistake the source of danger and hence take a wrong means of protecting himself.

When the merchant notes that his patrons are diminishing in number, that the total of his business each month or each year is less while the trade of his competitor--either the local merchant or the distant mail order concern--is increasing, he is almost sure to see the cause in the misconduct of his competitor rather than in defects of his own methods.

For example, the opinion commonly prevails among retailers that there is about so much business in a community and that by the operation of a fixed law each merchant will receive about his share of business; the amount, the total, is the same, and if the distribution is unequal the merchant who gets more than his share of trade must have cut prices, supplied inferior stock or used some other unfair method to secure the patronage. This is why price cutting campaigns are sometimes started.

While of course the purchasing and consuming capacity of each community is limited, yet that capacity is rarely reached. While one merchant may use unfair methods to attract trade, yet he may increase his trade beyond that of his fellow merchants by perfectly legitimate methods. A great many elements or factors are involved in each purchase and many forces not apparent on the surface determine the direction in which trade shall flow. Everybody knows that water flows down hill only, and yet to the casual observer a stream appears as level as a lake. Only a knowledge of the basic fact that water seeks its level sustains him in his belief that the stream does flow down hill.

The retail merchant who nowadays faces competition either local or foreign or both might as well recognize the basic fact that to hold his trade he must give to the public, to his trade, not only good service, but the best service, and he must in addition convince the people of his community that he is giving that service. He will only injure himself by attempting to discredit his competitors, especially when his claims may be subjected to immediate tests that will prove their unsoundness.

The same law precisely applies to this competitor that applies to him -he can not gain a customer and hold him year after year by deception; and this is just as true of the catalog competitor as of the local competitor. The time has gone by when the simple declaration of a retail merchant-an interested party --that catalog goods are inferior will be accepted without question. The merchant making such statements must know it is true and be prepared to prove it or he would better not make it at all.

One fact the local retailer should never forget nor leave out of his sales argument and that is that he, owing to his permanent location, can inject more elements of service into each business transaction than can any other retailer. If he does not introduce these elements into a sale he is simply withholding a part of the commodity he has to offer which his outside competitor can not give. He ought to know if he is a retail lumberman, exactly what he gives besides the lumber to his customers with every one thousand feet of stock they buy. One thing he always can and always should give and that is

perfect satisfaction --a commodity that is not easily bought by mail.

American Lumberman.