6 THE MICHIGAN TRADESMAN. THE BOYCOTT IN BUSINESS. How Department Stores Have Grown--- The Advantages They Offer. From the Dry Goods Chronicle. About twenty-five years ago the begin- ning of a radical change in business methods was preceptible. The big fish began to eat up the little ones; and the process has continued in a rapidly in- creasing degree, until it has become evi- dent that the little fish are fast approach- ing extermination. It is not more than ten years since department stores began to seriously menace the existence of small retail merchants in every branch of trade, but within that time the prin- ciple of concentration has swept every- thing before it, and established new channels of distribution to consumers of nearly all kinds of goods. Ten years ago each of our large cities had several prosperous firms of moderate size, in each branch of business. In all America there were not a dozen retail firms remarkable for their great transactions; the small merchant, deal- ing in a single specialized class of goods, was everywhere the rule. Now the small dealer everywhere is wither- ing away, and hundreds of large firms supplant thousands of small ones. Ten years ago, such firms as Marshall Field & Co., Jordan, Marsh & Co., the Jobn Shillito Co. and others were giants among pigmies; now there is hardly a minor city that cannot boast a firm that equals the big guns of ten years ago. We might name a hundred such in Albany, Utica, Pittsburg, Syracuse, Rochester, Milwaukee, Omaha, Denver— everywhere; such firms as Porteous, Mitchell & Co., Brown, Thomson & Co.. JI. B. Wells & Co, Dey Eros., Adams, Meldrum & Anderson, Daniels & Fisher. A few years ago all were the leading retail dry goods merchants of their respective communities, with a moderate and strictly local business. Now they are of colossal growth. They are great merchants, whose aunual sales are counted by millions, and who draw their customers from a radius of hun- dreds of miles. This tendency to concentration in re- tail distribution is one of the most nota- ble phenomena of our time. It is the result of an economic law that is univer sal and irresistible, namely, that defect- ive and wasteful methods cannot sur- vive when opposed to better and more economical methods. Distribution by small retail dealers is clearly shown, by comparison with the newer system, to be a wasteful and imperfect method. Itis at a fatal disadvantage in every vital particular. In comparison with great department stores, small retailers pay more for their goods, are burdened with a much larger percentage of expense, lose far more from dead stock, and make more losses through non-paying custom- ers. They are, moreover, greatly infe- rior in equipment, attractiveness and or- ganization. Department stores are successful be- cause they avoid the wasteful and ineffi- cient methods of smail retail stores. They save a profit out of what tke ordi- nary retailer wastes, and draw away his eustomers by offering a wider choice, more attractive goods and lower prices, as the result of better organization and greater economy. The whole problem is summed up in a few words—perfect or- ganization, using the best methods. It is worth while to glance briefly at “the best methods,’’ in this connection The very root of the whole matter is di- vision and specialization of labor: that is, the division of store duties into small groups, and making each the sole and special care of one intelligent man who knows the particular thing thorougbly and is capable of doing it well. Every manufacturer knows the won- derful efficiency and superior productive- ness of sub-divided labor—the enormous saving that results from dividing a job into a dozen parts, giving each of a doz- en men one of the dozen parts, and ‘“‘keeping bim everlastingly at it,” and at that only. This potent principle is con- spicuously absent from the small retail business; in department stores it is ap- plied with as much saving as in manu-; facturing. Concentration of energy is what tells. The intelligent man who eoncentrates on one thing will do that thing well; the intelligent man who tries to do many things will surely do some of them badly. Most small retailers try todo too many things; they spread themselves out in the effort to cover too much; and, as a rule, they only half do what they under- take. Most prosperous retailers pride themselves on knowing and directing all the details of their business. This is a great mistake. Most small merchants are slaves to details, and for that reason they never grow beyond a certain point. As the details become more numerous, they become so burdened by and absorbed in them, that their business is clogged and can no longer expand. Success is made up of careful attention to details; the secret of success is in doing all those details well; and the secret of doing them well is not to do them yourself, but to employ others to do them who can do them better and at less cost than you can do them. Every do-it-all retail merchant may ac- cept as gospel truth that many things he cannot do as well as his rival, who does not do it all himself, but divides it among half a dozen capable helpers. The do-it-all man can’t buy silks, or dress goods, or gloves, or hosiery, as well as the specialists in silks, or dress goods, or gloves, or hosiery, who buy for his rival. who each do but one thing, aud who can do it better than the man who half does many things. The do-it-all man cannot know as much as they know about all the sources of supply, about all the various offerings, about prices, about the taste of consumers. He cannot select with their intelligence, he cannot make his stock as attractive, he cannot watch it as closely, he cannot keep up his assort- ment as well, he cannot keep his stock as lively, he cannot keep as free from dead stock. The reason is obvious: no man can attend to hundreds of details as well as he can attend to a few. All these are well-established truths. They are clear as daylight to the mind, and deeply confirmed by experiences. It is useless to strive against them. The principle of specialization in depart- ments is now firmly engrafted upon the business of distribution, as well as manu- facturing, and the fate of old methods is sealed. Nevertheless, there are still some who hope to turn back the irresisti- bie tide, and to force a return to the old system that is now dying because it can- not compete with more economical meth- ods. We have recently seen in New York and Brooklyn abortive attempts to stem the tide, to check and depress the big stores and to protect and preserve the little ones. The sentiment beneath these attempts is very general everys where, and seems to be crystallizing into active effort In Chicago, a move- ment against the department stores has assumed large size; and the boycott has been adopted as the weapon. Last week, ameeting of West Side retail dealers was held, to effect an organization to op- pose the growing movement of trade to- wards the great department stores. About two hundred retail merchants joined the organization, and many en- tbusiastic speeches denouncing monopoly were made. The organization’s plan of campaign is to form a sort of local pro- tective league, whose members are to mutually pledge themselves to buy only from neighborhood merchants who are members, and to refuse patronage to all others. Itis hoped by this means to pledge a large part of C: icago’s popula- tion to boycott the great bazaar stores of the South Side. To speak of this movement as absurd and puerile is to characterize it mildly. Men may engage in a crusade to benefit themselves; they will never long support a crusade that is obviously to their own hurt. If thousands of people in Chicago travel miles to buy from the department stores, they doit only because it is for their own advantage. They may de- nounce the grab-all bazaars, but they will keep on buying from them just as long as they can get more for their money there than they can get anywhere else. Dry Goods Price Current. 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