Dawson Black: Retail Merchant Part 54

CHAPTER XLIII

MARTIN SPRINGS A SURPRISE

The next week I went with Charlie Martin and Fred Barlow to Boston to buy the automobile accessories which we had decided upon when old man Barlow and I had fixed up that gasoline deal.

He had come to the house one evening and suggested it was time to get busy.

"Fred knows the automobile business thoroughly--and Charlie is well up on it also," said Barlow, "so I would suggest that, as I have to put up the money, if necessary, on what you buy, you let Fred and Charlie go with you. Their knowledge should be helpful to you."

"That's a good idea," I agreed; "we'll go next Monday."

"I'll tell Fred to be ready to go with you then," Barlow said. He was silent for a minute, then he went on, "Fred has to buy a lot of automobile accessories for his people, so perhaps, by pooling his and your orders, you can get prices shaved a bit."

I looked up with surprise. "I thought Fred had left his Detroit people."

"He has," said Barlow, abruptly, "but he has made new connections recently."

I wanted to ask what they were, but Barlow's att.i.tude warned me not to.

So, the three of us went to Boston and bought a complete stock of automobile accessories. I followed Fred Barlow's lead, for he certainly was familiar with the goods.

The next day the men came to make arrangements for putting in the gas tank. While they were measuring the pavement, and deciding just where to fix the pump, Stigler happened along.

"Morning, Stigler," I said, with an attempt at joviality; "how's business?"

"Fine," he responded. "How's bread mixers going?" He sneered as he spoke, and I felt myself getting mad.

"So, so," I replied--then, in an attempt to equal up the score, I added, "Too bad your five-and-ten-cent store proved such a fizzle!"

He turned sharply on me and snarled, "You keep yer d.a.m.ned tongue still when yer see me. I don't let whelps like you talk 'big' to me and get away with it, savvy?"

Without another word he walked away, leaving me taut and trembling with agitation.

I had been given to understand that Stigler's plan of continual price cutting had cut his profits to the vanishing point. He had brooded over it so much that it had become a mania with him. Unfortunately, he held me responsible for his troubles.

I told Betty about it as a good joke on Stigler, but she didn't laugh, instead she said gravely, "Leave that man alone, my dear; he is dangerous. Don't pick quarrels with him, or you may come to blows, or worse. Remember, dearest, that I need you more than ever--now."

How dear she was, and how brave and happy she kept while waiting--I could not let her have anything to worry about until after.

Charlie Martin had asked if he could come around to the house that evening, and, of course, I had said, "Yes."

Charlie had grown to be one of us almost, and I hardly realized how much I had come to depend on him until the thought of losing him occurred to me.

I don't know how I had happened to get into the habit of looking upon Charlie as a fixture with me. I knew his people were fairly well to do, and that the eight dollars a week I paid him were a mere bagatelle toward his living expenses. One gets into the habit, however, of accepting things on surface evidence, until one loses sight of the motive which is at the back of the evidence. For instance, if I had thought a bit, I would have known Charlie hadn't worked for eight dollars a week just because he needed a job.

One thing it taught me was that I must not confuse the apparent with the real. Thereafter, whenever a man said anything to me, I remembered that there was a motive at the back of what he said, and that if I was going to understand other people I must understand the motive which impelled their action. For instance, I knew that, when a man came in to buy a saw from me, he had a reason for buying that saw. The more I knew of his reason for buying it, the more able I was to sell him just what he wanted.

If a man put up a business proposition to me which looked good for me I remembered that it was not for me that he was doing it. I was not the reason which impelled him to give me a good deal. It was something which he eventually was going to get out of it himself. So I said to myself, "Why does he want to do this for me?" And if I could not find a good logical reason I left it alone until I could.

"Dawson," said Charlie, after dinner--he had got to calling me Dawson outside of business--"Do you know why I have been working for you for the last few months?"

"Why, no, unless you've just wanted to do something."

"I never do anything just because I want to fill in some spare time," he smiled. "My business training has taught me that I cannot afford to make a lot of waste motions. I came to your store because I wanted a small-store experience."

"We're not so small," I protested.

"Well, let's say small compared to Bon Marche in Paris, or Selfridges in London, or Marshall Field in Chicago, or such young concerns. However, I think I know more about small-store conduct than I did before, now that I've had some experience. You see, I studied retail merchandising, but that was only half the battle, you know. All I learned there was no use whatever until I found whether I could actually apply it.

"As you know," he continued, "I went to Detroit and studied the automobile business--not from the manufacturing end, but from the distribution end--because Fred Barlow and I had a hunch that there was a big future in automobile selling, if we could discover it."

"I should think there was a big 'present,'" I remarked.

"Yes, there is a big present for the manufacturers, and some few distributors make a fine thing out of it. But the distribution end struck us as being very inadequate."

"Fancy you two young fellows deciding that the big bucks up in Detroit don't know how to sell automobiles!"

"I guess you're right, at that," agreed Charlie; "but the outsider often gets a different slant on things from the fellow who is continually on the job. But that's neither here nor there," and he waved his hand as if to brush aside the discussion. "The point is that Fred and I went to Detroit together and studied the automobile business from the distribution end, and, of course, we also learned how they are made. We then looked into the accessories, and found out quite a lot about selling them. Then we decided we wanted retail-store experience, particularly in hardware. So Fred has been studying the practical side of retail-store management in his dad's office, while I have been studying it in yours."

"Do you think that's quite fair?" I said indignantly, "for you and Fred Barlow to use his father and me as suckers?"

"Don't get vexed," he said quietly, "until you know the reason for our actions." Then he continued, "I don't think you have any cause to complain at what I've done for you, Dawson. I think I've been worth my eight dollars a week."

"Of course you have. Forgive me."

"Here's the idea," he resumed. "The hardware stores of the country are at last waking up to the fact that automobile accessories are logically a department of the hardware store. We feel, however, that the garage itself is a logical department of the hardware store. The hardware store in the past has lost several lines which ought to belong to it. Look at the number of hardware lines the drug stores sell, and the department stores also. If the hardware stores had been on the job it would have been impossible to have bought a bicycle anywhere than at a hardware store.

"Now, we have to admit that, of late, the hardware repair shop has not been a flourishing, profitable department. In fact, many hardware stores have eliminated it, sending outside such odd jobs as must be done. We believed--in fact, we still believe, that the hardware store of the town should also be the leading garage of the town, and that the garage is the natural development of the tin shop. Many hardware stores are selling gasoline, and, as you know, automobile accessories are becoming quite common in a hardware store.

"If we had a garage adjacent to our hardware store," he continued, "we could not only supply a man with accessories, but attach them to his car. If a man has a breakdown, we are in a position to repair his car, and then exercise our selling ability to sell him accessories.

"Just look at the average garage! Did you ever know of a garage man who made a display of accessories? If the present garagemen were on to the job they could put the hardware man out of business, so far as accessories are concerned." Here Charlie paused for a minute, and then added: "Except, perhaps, in the larger cities.

"As you know, my dad has quite a little money, and he is willing to set me up in business. Fred Barlow's dad has a little money, also."

I smiled at this, because it was known all over town that old man Barlow was one of our wealthiest citizens.

"Fred and I and our dads," he continued, "have formed a little corporation under the t.i.tle of Martin & Barlow. What we plan to do is to operate a chain of garages in connection with the best hardware store in each town. We are going to run a garage in Farmdale here, in that place exactly opposite Barlow's store. We are also going to have a display window in the garage where accessories will be shown. The hardware store will also contain a big display of accessories, which will be under our control. We are going to pay Mr. Barlow a small sum for rent of s.p.a.ce in his store. Fred or I will be in charge of that to begin with.

"We have a man coming from the Michigan Car Company to look after the garage. We will also have the exclusive agency for this territory for the Michigan car. That is how it will work out," he continued, after a moment's pause.

"We shall train one of Barlow's clerks to look after the accessories department in the store. We shall then have our own man who will go around selling cars in this locality. We shall also have a man in the garage who understands repairs of all kinds, and particularly the Michigan car, for which he shall carry a complete line of parts."

"Will that pay Barlow?" I asked.

"Yes, for in return for his providing a salesman for the accessories department, we will give him a percentage of the profits from that department, besides guaranteeing him a small sum for rent every month.