Retail Lumber Selling Through I ocal Activities

This rrieans simply put your town on your pay roll.

It means calling to vour aid every agency in your town in addition to your own salesmen; it means covering every possible field for the placing or merchandising of your stock.

Every person in your tou'n who is iqterested in shelter -to the full extent covered by that word-should be working with and for you.

Especially should you secrtre the co-operation of all those merchants and pro{essional men whoie business or pro- fession is connected with the idea of shelter.

For example, furniture cannot be merchandised unless there exists shelter in the shape of a building to house that furniture-it would be of no use to people Ii.tring in tents.

Accordingly, furniture dealers ard almost as-much interested as yourself in increasing the number of btrildings -which will provide more placel to put furniture.

A furniture dealer would be highly pleased to have you display some fine pictures-or sampies-of furniture in your office, because it would boost his business: and in return he would not seriously object to displaying some fine pictures of beautiful homes in -his store, to -shJw his customers the sort of a building that should house his beauti- ful furniture.

Remember that he sees and talks with a lot of people lrhom you_ might not see for years; people with ,,homes that will do"; people rvho have ne.rir ihought about a new home, or even very much about repairing:or remodeling the old one.

A word from the furniture dealer to those DeoDle about you, and a sight of a beautiful home on his walls, will at least get those people to thinking building-and that is something gained.

_ Then y,ou have the painter and the paper dealer and hanger; the decorator; the hardware dealei: and the carpenter, the mason, the laborer, the architect, the contraetor. the fuel_dealer, the gas and phone and light companies. All of these are vitally interested in more buildings in town.

These of course relate directly to the structure itself, but there are others who are also interested, and r,vho would do what they could to get more buildings in torvn.

More homes means greater opportunity for more families; and more famil.ies m.eans bigger trade and more business for every merchant in town, not to speak of the lawyer, the doctor, the parson, the undertakei, the florist, the monument maker, the candy and peanut stand, the banks -but why continue ?

-. Every one of these people gets his irade from people rvho live in_ your_town ; even the ticket seller of the depot spends his salary there and lives there.

- Suqpo_sg you secured a set of really attractive pictures of beautiful homes-colored, glazed frained. Is theie a doctor in your tolvn who would refuse to hang such a reallv attractive picture on his reception room w;all ? And whln it is there, how many of his patients would fail to see it? Not one ! Nor would a single one of them fail to examine it carefully, nor fail to do some thinking about home building.

Then, with your own name in the corner, not glaring, but neat in.form, how could anyone fail to think of y-ou in connection with home building?

Same with the lawyer. Try it. Both lawyer and doctor ald dentist expect to get you as a customer some day, and they will not turn you dou'n, especially when yoir give them something that has intrinsic merit as an ornament to their offices, and an interest to their own visitors.

Suppose, for instance, you made it a point to see only one of these people every day. You could see more; but if only g1e, it wouldn't take you very long to cover your town sufficiently to give you a very respectable sales force.

So far we have mentioned onlv the commercial interests. but the list is far from being eihausted.

Organizations of all kinds exist, each of which would take a more. or less active interest in your business.

There are the Boy Scouts, for example, the best bunch of liye wires in the country; boys whosi training and whose ideals influence them to take an interest in improving things.

You can't beat a boy's eyes for'discovering sagging gates, broken roofs, unpainted buildings-the list is untimitea.An attractive prize to the boy and to the organization for satisf-actory information leading to business would put at your disposal a force beyond computation.

Your women's clubs naturally take an interest in home topics. Lectures could be inspired and assisted on such topics as better kitchen arrang'ements, built-in features, home designs, etc. And your pictures and samples of materials and sample plans, etc., would make every womanevery prospective home owner-think favorably of you and of your business.

The Chamber of Commerce-of course-and if there is

(Continued on Page 38)