LIBRARY OF THE UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA. GIFT OF Received Accession No. . i8g$. Class No. IT IS HARD AND YET IT IS EASY A SCHILLING & COMPANY SAN FRANCISCO Copyrighted 1896 by A Schilling & Company 732880 MONEY-MAKING IS HARD in the grocery business because there are so many There is money in ways to Tail and so few ways to succeed. Money- groceries making is easy, because, when the way is found, it is so clear and agreeable to follow. A merchant who goes about his business; selects his goods carefully; buys them at a fair price; sells , . , by man age- people what they want; keeps his store clean and good- ment . looking; and delivers his goods on time that mer- chant is going to make money. He can make more money by careful and proper newspaper advertising. But this is a dangerous sub- ject. A great deal of money has been lost in adver- J . . advertising. tising because people do not understand it; they think that advertising is cutting up antics in the papers and saying smart things without regard to what they mean. They are wrong. Advertising is not advertising unless it puts the reader or looker into a mood to buy antics; 4 MONEY-MAKING your goods. Whatever attracts attention and at the same time makes people respect you and like you and, above all, want your goods that is advertising, and that is money-making, whether they see it in the papers, or on the fences, or in your store window, or in your store itself. It is not costly. It takes considerable attention, but not much money. WHAT IS ADVERTISING? That is, what makes people think of you, and come to you, and buy of you ? Some time ago, we saw a grocer's window in San Francisco plastered with signs of all sorts: a cigar sign, three theatre bills, a chewing-gum sign, a cigar- ette sign, one minstrel-show bill, one chew-tobacco sign, and one soap-powder sign. We actually had to peek in between the signs to see what was in the win- dow lamp chimneys !* This is not-advertising. * Since we began writing this book, that grocer has closed his store. MONEY-MAKING 5 Another example of not-advertising is the following: not dirt; A printer we know of, a good printer, has so dirty a shop thaf it is almost impossible to believe that he can do clean work. If we had seen his shop before we saw his work, he would never have done anything for us. These are not-advertising this dirty printer's shop and the ugly ungrocerlike grocer's window. They turn people away. Not-advertising, then, is turning customers away. not a lot of Dirt or untidiness is not-advertising: telling lies, vulgar and unpleasant whether with your mouth, or with signs, or in the things, papers, is not-advertising; discourtesy is not-advertis- ing; having loafers in the way is not-advertising; too much pressing the sale of things that are not wanted is not-advertising; too much talk is not-advertising;- selling goods that will not give satisfaction is not- advertising. You see advertising is something more than spend- ing money in the newspapers. It is making every move of your business such as to bring people to you not sending them away to your neighbor grocer. Everything that a business man does is, in a broad sense, advertising or not-advertising. ADVERTISING IS This i. Clean store. Maybe the dirt on your floors does not get into your sugar; but if your floor is dirty do you blame your customers for suspecting your sugar and your tea too ? and this; 2 . Good management. Having everything on hand, ready to put your hands on; not keeping your customers waiting for change and for wrapping up longer than necessary. Clever newspaper advertising can be ruined by bad store management. and this 3. Neat clerks. Your store has cost you a good deal; maybe you have advertised for customers. So, when a customer comes to your store, you can't afford to let her be turned away by ill-mannered or slovenly- dressed clerks or loafers. and this. 4. Good manners. Courtesy to everybody, well- dressed or not, lookers or buyers maybe they will buy to-morrow. It is impossible to suggest a standard of manners for the many different kind of stores ; but this is certain: a store should never be stuck-up, and it never should be rowdyish ; it should always be com- MONEY-MAKING fortable. Whoever comes into it should feel that she Your . . . , customers is welcome. Of course, your store is your own and are your you can act as you like in it; no one has a right to guests; question you. But, if you do not make people comfort- able, they will go where they are made comfortable. You will lose their trade. (This does not apply to grocers who have a " monopoly " in their region; and yet people will buy more freely if they are made to enjoy it. Besides, someone may start a new store some day, if the old one is not popular. The same is also true of para- graph 7.) Above all, avoid the extremes of roughness and toadyism especially the latter. Courtesy is always acceptable. 5. Frankness. Don't be afraid to offer a sugges- or your tion to a customer for fear she may think you may have an "axe to grind." There is no reason why you should not make money, and why should she complain if you do ? If you don't make money, how can you stay where you are and bring to your customer the goods she wants from the different parts of the world ? Let your customer See (without telling her) that 8 MONEY-MAKING you are friendly that your business is making money by serving her; and that the more you can serve her the better you like it, because that means more money-making. Help them. 6. Help. Do your customers a good turn now yotTgood an< ^ then, though it may cost you a little something. A cent spent in this way will very often seem a dollar to them. A little help given with a great deal of courtesy goes a long way towards creating good will. Don't lose the benefit of doing your customer a favor by telling her about it. That makes her feel mean, and you don't want anyone to feel mean in your store. Help her as if it were a pleasure to you. That will make it a pleasure, and you will get ten times the good-will that you would get if you did it grudgingly. Serve them. y. Good goods. You can't afford to lose a cus- tomer. There is nothing absolutely nothing that keeps customers but money's-worth right along. So- called advertising may get an occasional customer; but poor goods will lose you that customer some day, and your advertising will turn out to be very costly unless money's-worth stands back of it. MONEY-MAKING 9 (For a possible exception to this see note under paragraph 4.) 8. Honesty. The best policy in the world so Be honest with them. good that some people, not naturally honest, have " adopted " it on account of its " paying " qualities. People are better judges of human nature than of goods. Your customers know almost nothing about sugar and tea, but they know something about you, and they judge your sugar and your tea, to a very great extent, by their knowledge of you. If they think you are tricky, they buy of someone else. Would you yourself buy your eggs of a tricky farmer ? Under this head comes substitution. If a woman orders Royal baking powder and really wants it because she understands how to use it, it is not wise to send her Schilling's Best just because you can make more profit on it no, not even if you know it will please her better. For, if, without trying the baking pow- der, she finds out that you make more money on Schilling's Best, she may suspect you of putting your interest ahead of hers in this and in other matters. But, if you persuade her to try Schilling's Best, that is not substitution; it is a proper regard for your cus- tomer's interest. 10 MONEY-MAKING YOU can g. Generosity. A powerful means of success afford to be , . , , . . J more than when wisely administered and not excessive. Let honest. your customers feel that they are always sure of a full money's-worth at your store, and go beyond it if you can safely. In fact, wherever it is possible and safe, let your customers understand that they may bring back what they don't like and get their money. This money-back idea we think so well of that we have made it, in connection with first-rate quality, the Generously key-note of our business. We don't want a customer to keep our goods unless she likes them. We would rather have her good-will than a profit, so we say to you : whenever your customers do not like Schilling's Best, give them back the full price that they paid for it, and let us pay you the full retail price. One advantage of money-back is: it takes away the risk of buying, and that makes buying more free, it pays Another advantage: It implies that goods are so mostly good that customers won't want money back. because it is not The usual way of advertising goods is to shout, common. best, fa st f Best!! BEST!!! The better way is to say, your money back if you dorit like them; for, although people are not good judges of quality, they know what they like. MONEY-MAKING II If you are doubtful about the value of "money Money- back if you dorft like it" work the idea hard on Schilling's Best all money-back goods and see what its effects are. Then, if you choose, apply it to some of the other things in your store and stand the loss if you have to (and stand the increase of trade, if the size of your store will permit). But whatever you do, do it freely. Do it as if you liked it. Make your customers feel at ease. But money-back is expensive when goods are not right. 10. Windows. A man shows his character in his face, in his dress, in what he says, in what he does. So should your store show its character on its face, in its dress, by what it says, and by what it does. Let your windows show what is going on in your Don't keep store. Let them contain your latest and best news. ^"oJrldf Don't put in sugar, don't put in soap. Put in some- thing that you would not be expected to keep, or something that nobody else in town has, or something that you think particularly well of, or, once in a while, a good healthy bargain, or something beautiful in short, put in something of real interest. 12 MONEY-MAKING Change your windows often to keep people in- terested and curious. People pass your store every day and have no idea what good things you have in your store unless you show them. They think you are an average grocer, while you may be far above the average. And yet how can you expect them to know it, if you take no pains to tell them? Put in signs where they will help bring out the " point" of your window; otherwise leave them out. ii. Signs. Your signs are salesmen. Let them be decent and neat and straightforward; let them say something and mean something. .Your store is for business: to sell goods in, and to make money in. Anything whose purpose is not to sell goods or make money is in your way. If it is pretty, it belongs in your house but not in your store. Of course there may be a sign so charming, so full of pleasant sugges- tion, that it makes a customer bubble over with good- will toward the article advertised; but this is rarely the case, and most grocers make the mistake (cited in the beginning of this book) of littering up their store with signs. MONEY-MAKING 13 We have lately made some signs that will help you if you use them right. The proper use for them is to hang them where they will not interfere with anything and where they can be easily read. We have tried to We have J ' some follow our own counsel and have tried to make them good ones. straightforward and agreeable, so that your customers will be glad to see them. Below is a fac simile of one of these signs reduced in size the original is 7x11 inches. o Schilling's Best tea makes meat and potatoes luxurious. MONEY-MAKING This is the other side of the same card : o Have you heard of money^back tea? We sell it. You may have as many of these signs as you want. There is a catalogue of them at the end of this book. Each sign has a number. In ordering, simply give the number. They are all printed in black type on white cardboard, like the sample above, and have a hole in the top to hang them up by. They are printed on both sides, one sentence (generally) on each. They should help your business; but they can MONEY-MAKING I 5 hinder your business if you let them get dirty, or use A11 y u re want. too many of them, or put them where they are offen- sive, or advertise articles that you don't keep. Don't keep them after they have got dirty or fly- specked; send for more. 12. Newspaper advertising. What we said about signs is true of newspaper advertising as well; but in the newspaper you have more space, you can change your wording oftener, and you can be a little more conversational. Let your advertisements mean business. Let them be what you are or what you would like to be: straight- forward, modest, frank, winning. Every man wants be believed; have your advertisements believable. Some men, when they take a pen in hand, become do it embarrassed; and they try to cover up their embarrass- ment with big words and high-sounding phrases and impossible statements. The fact is, it is hard to be natural so hard, that we are often asked by merchants to help them in their and advertising. In response to these requests this book naturally, has been prepared, these signs made, and some ad- vertisements written. As these merchants have asked :: l6 MONEY-MAKING YOU are us t o advertise, not their own business, but Schilling s welcome .... to our xtetfj we have confined our signs and written adver- experience, tisements to Schilling's Best; but the same principle applies to your business throughout; and, when you have understood it, you can carry it out yourself. Any suggestion that you can find in this book is yours, whether you sell Schillings Best or not. To grocers who sell all of the Schillings Best com- modities (tea, coffee, soda, baking powder, flavoring and our v ' advertise- extracts, and spices) we shall be glad to furnish ments. stereotypes (advertisements all ready to print of the various commodities.) Ten sample advertisements appear below and on the following pages. Schillings Best tea baking powder coffee flavoring extracts soda and spices n a n meon, U if are as good as they can be you choose. 1 1 i r i 1 1 not prudishly or foolishly or extravagantly perfect. For sale by Blank & Co. 234 Green Street MONEY-MAKING 1 7 Do you know why Schil- ling s Best tea baking powder coffee flavoring extracts Another. soda and spices are money-back. They are such as you want more than the money they cost, whoever you are. Money-back dealing- is organized honesty safety, if you prefer it. isn't this Schilling s Best tea baking powder coffee flavoring extracts soda and spices are money-back goods. so? 1 8 MONEY-MAKING You can make the ac- quaintance of Schilling s Why shouldn't they try tea baking powder . coffee flavoring extracts soda and spices for nothing, and welcome. Your grocer knows. There is no patent on goodness. But manufac- turers do not make Not clever. tea baking powder Just true. coffee flavoring extracts soda and spices so good as Schilling's Best, because most people like to be humbugged. MONEY-MAKING What are Schilling s Best tea baking powder coffee flavoring extracts soda and spices good for? Good for anybody who N ^ o v d ery likes good things and doesn't want to pay for adulteration. Schilling s Best are, on the whole, the best tea baking powder coffee flavoring extracts soda and spices A little there are. That is as near as we can say. No your money back if you don't like them. MONEY-MAKING Don't expect Schilling s Best tea baking powder coffee flavoring extracts Can't make soda and spices one as s ufis d to turn the world upside every time. They won't ; but they do take some of the wrinkles out of living. Spices and flavoring ex- tracts are favorite nests of adulteration ; perhaps you don't care. But Schilling s Best are pure and money-back. MONEY-MAKING We pay the grocer, the rocer pays you, what you ave paid him for Schil- grocer pays you, what you ^^ have paid him for Schil- makeyou understand lings Best thatwe mean tea baking powder coffee flavoring extracts money- soda and spices back. if they are not satisfactory to you. These advertisements are already set up. They will cost you nothing except to put them in the papers. You can have your name put at the foot of them in any style of type that the newspapers in which you choose to advertise uses; but we recommend that plain small type be used, in order that the signa- ture may not take the attention from the reading- matter. We use this method ourselves. We have a plain story to tell and it calls for plain talk and plain type. We cannot catalogue these advertisements they are too many, but they are all along the same line 22 MONEY-MAKING "Your money's-worth or your money back," only it is said in a hundred different ways. Talk with Q ur salesman will show you a book containing the salesman. the res t> ^ y ou as ^ nmi '> but here let us tell you a few of the subjects: Safety in buying Schilling's Best. Quality. What Schilling's Best is to the consumer, grocer, and us. Money-saving. Strong. Money-back. Honest. No adulteration. No room for doubt. You can try it without cost. For fear of the interests of several grocers in a town clashing, we shall keep close record of the advertisements sent to each grocer; so that no two will be found saying the same thing at the same time. We cannot keep this close track of signs; it is too difficult and it is not important. CATALOGUE OF SIGNS. Order these signs by number. Each sign is 7x11 with rounded corners and a hole in the top to hang them up by like the fac simile on pages 13 and 14. get the Our variety at present is not large; but, if the signs you signs take well, we shall make more. We may not happen to have on hand the exact signs you order, in which case we shall send you the nearest that we have. These signs are printed on both sides. In the following catalogue each sign is represented by a couplet numbered : ( Many customers are worth more than a few big profits. 1 < ( Fair profits and plenty of them is the way to do business. ( Twelve ounces of Schilling's Best is equal to sixteen ounces 9 J of any other baking powder. ) V Schilling's Best baking powder is fresh. ( Our best baking powder costs the same as the next best. 3 "\ Your money back if you don't like Schilling's Best baking ( powder. 24 MONEY-MAKING / Use three-fourths as much of Schilling's Best as of so-called A ) " standard " baking powders. V Schilling's Best baking powder is strong. / All baking powders claim to be pure. Schilling's Best is I pure. j Strongest and quickest-acting Schilling's Best baking V powder. ' You can live without Schilling's Best tea, but why should you? More tea-flavor to the cent in Schilling's Best than in any other tea. ( Have you heard of money-back tea ? We sell it. M ( Schilling's Best tea makes meat and potatoes luxurious. f Every package of Schilling's Best tea is a sample. Your j J money back if you don't like it. ( Schilling's Best tea is charming, not extravagant. Do you know the comfort and power and cheer of pure and fine tea? It is in Schilling's Best. Fresh-roasted tea has a charm not to be found in other tea. Schilling's Best. MONEY-MAKING 25 Get Schilling's Best coffee and make it right. 10