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such an indictment? Essentially, because it teaches the
customer that whenever she can possibly wait to make a
purchase she should do so, until some store advertises a
“bargain” or “sale” on this article. Then she goes to that
store and buys at a reduced price. In other words, bargain
advertising leads the customer away from buying the store’s
regular stock at regular prices. It tends to teach her to
come to a store only when it offers a special sale of mer-
chandise that she needs. Inasmuch as the bulk of our yearly
sales must come from goods that are not especially advertised,
this is manifestly injurious.
It should not be good business—and it is not—ifor us
merchants to spend enormous sums of money to teach cus-
tomers to buy only when bargains are advertised and not to
teach them that all of our stocks are tested good values. Of
course, we merchants as a group do not believe that that is
the result of our advertising, but much of our traditional
advertising will be found upon examination to give just these
unprofitable results.
We have built, and properly continue to build, among our
customers the habit of looking through the newspapers for
our advertisements. Where we get off the road that leads
to greatest total profits is by teaching them to look for bargain
advertisements, which means that we are advertising “for
today” or “for this week” instead of striving to build the
goodwill which, over a long period, makes our store surely
and steadily profitable. As we know, no store can advertise
all of its merchandise every day. By bargain advertising
we have developed in our customers a buying habit that
teaches them not to come to our store most of the time; and
this in the face of our avowed purpose of getting customers
into the habit of going past other stores to trade with us. Of
course, our bargain advertising teaches them to come to our
store, today, instead of to other stores; but just as surely,
it teaches them to go to another store, tomorrow, if it offers
bargains in articles that we are not then advertising.
Every advertisement in which we tell the customer that
goods which we have been selling for $1 can now be had for
