every other man, has a hobby of some sort, but few druggists have capitalized their hobbies and made them pay. We know of one man who, compelled for reasons of health to seek outdoor relaxation, began keeping bees. In time he had 60 hives, and he made a handsome profit from the sale of the honey and even of the beeswax. More than that, he created a large demand for a cough syrup containing honey as one of its essential ingredients. Another man, being an enthusiastic hunter, and always having several fine dogs, developed a great sale on dog bread, dog collars, and numerous other things of a similar nature. $30.00 in prizes for the three best papers! ANNOUNCEMENT No. 5: Prizes Offered for Papers on "Amusing Experiences in Collecting Bills." We offer one prize of $15.00 for the best paper, and $10.00 and $5.00 each for the second and third best papers, on “Amusing Experiences in Collecting Bills." Here we get to something really interesting! Where is the druggist who cannot tell of divers and numerous incidents of an exceedingly humorous nature? We don't want serious papers. We don't want serious papers. We don't want articles telling how to make collections. No, no-not at all! What we want are funny and interesting experiences that druggists have encountered in trying to get people to pay up. This contest ought to provoke some of the most entertaining "stuff" that we have ever printed in the BULLETIN. $30.00 for the three best, most interesting, most laughable papers! ANNOUNCEMENT No. 6: Prizes Offered for Papers on "Prominent Men as Customers of My Store." We offer one prize of $15.00 for the best paper, and $10.00 and $5.00 each for the second and third best papers, on "Prominent Men as Customers of My Store." This subject is also full of great interest. If you are located in the city of Washington, or at any of the State capitals, you have doubtless had many public men as patrons of your store. If you do business in Indianapolis, Boston, or any number of other places, you have probably had an almost daily acquaintance with literary celebrities. If you are in Newport, Saratoga, Florida or California, you have seen the great business men of the nation come and go. Please tell us about the prominent men that you have served at one time or another, and give us little human touches about them that will make them seem like men instead of statues. We ought to get some papers on this subject that will be as interesting as any that have ever appeared in the journal. $30.00 for the three best articles! ANNOUNCEMENT No. 7: Photographs Wanted of Several Different Kinds. Finally, we should like very much to secure a considerable number of interesting photographs for use throughout 1915. We don't especially care for any more pictures of drug stores. We are loaded up with them now, and have enough to last for several months. Furthermore, we fear that they have lost their novelty for our readers. What we especially want are photographs of subjects like druggists' homes, summer cottages, vacation scenes, hunting, pictures, druggists' automobiles, druggists' children, and anything else of a novel and interesting nature. We hope we shall get a very general and a very cordial response to these prize offers. Every one of the subjects mentioned is either full of human interest or of great practical usefulness. Please consider yourself personally invited to enter one or more of the contests—the more the merrier! Come along now and help us make the BULLETIN for 1915 the best ever! Monthly Prize Questions and Answers. In the four papers we are presenting this month there is discussed the feasibility of securing profitable business from factories, municipalities, big business concerns, etc. Each article describes actual methods that are being used to obtain revenue-producing returns from such widely diversified sources as those of country school boards, factory managers, Southern plantation owners, and directors of municipal affairs. That a store located in even a small town, and possessing a comparatively small amount of capital, can successfully compete with wholesale and out-of-town supply houses is well brought out in these papers. They point a way for the druggist to go after business outside of his store. Can the Ordinary Druggist Secure Business from Factories, Municipalities, Big Business Concerns, etc.? Answers to a question announced in August. SCHOOL BOARDS. BY GEORGE R. WORLEY, PHARM.D. The idea of an ordinary drug store selling supplies to large industries may not seem feasible, but that is exactly what we do. In country districts, before schools open in the Geo. R. Worley. fall, there are many institutions to be supplied with paper, ink, pens, chalk, blackboard erasers, etc. Of course one might think that these supplies are always purchased direct from the manufacturer, or through some school-supply house, but such, at least, is not the case in this territory. Each town has its board of school directors that buys all needed items. We find out through the members of these boards when the meetings occur at which the next year's school supplies are purchased. We then make it our business to appear in person at these meetings to present our bids on the required supplies. In doing so we quote prices high enough to cover all handling expenses and to show us a fair margin of profit. We always require from the different. boards, samples of the school supplies upon which we have bid. We keep these on file for future reference and comparison after the stock of supplies has been received. In this way we avoid any misunderstandings that might arise from not furnishing what was ordered. QUANTITY BUYING. We mention at the board meetings that all supplies will be delivered free of charge to the main point of distribution. This cuts down freight and delivery charges for the different townships. We buy these supplies, direct from the manufacturer, after the orders for all of the schools have been obtained. By purchasing in such large quantities we can get the very best prices available. Copies of all these orders are filed in the store, and we also send to each board clerk a copy of his order to be used as a record with which to check up, after the supplies are delivered to the distribution point. In our receiving room we block off separate sections for each town or township, and as fast as supplies arrive for these respective boards we place them in their proper places. When all supplies are in (about the first of September) we find out the exact dates on which the different school boards meet to grant bills, etc. We then see that each order is delivered to the point of distribution and that the bill is presented in full to the clerk of the board before the meeting. This gives the clerk time to check up supplies as ordered. Shortly after the meetings we always receive an order on the treasurer of the district board for the full amount of the bill. These orders are accepted as cash at our various local banks. This one feature alone makes the school supply business a feasible one, for cash customers are always welcomed; they are the ones which keep every business going. Furthermore we come in contact with a great number of people, in this way, who are interested along educational lines. We get to know them better and they get to know both us and the store better. THE STOCK CARRIED. We carry a complete line of school books, tablets and other needfuls both for the town and country school pupils, so we are naturally known as the source of supply in this district. Each fall when school opens our store, with its offer of dollar articles for forty-nine cents, them the other necessities which a drug store contains. All in all, I consider that the handling of school supplies is selling to one of the largest industries which the country district affords. LINING UP THE FACTORIES. Every factory has a storekeeper of some kind; also a man whose duty it is to look after the injured, and one who buys the office supplies. I first find out who these particular men are, then make friends with them; sometimes they are already good friends of mine. When this is done I see the man who really runs the factory, the manager, for it is through him that all business must come. I tell him that we would like to furnish the factory with bandages, gauze, adhesive tape, peroxide healing ointment, and everything else that might be needed along these lines. He may talk to me about the various articles, but the chances are that he will refer me to the person whose looks like a city bargain counter. We can give duty it is to buy these things. such bargains because we buy in large quantities at rock-bottom prices. During the last school opening period that we passed through our receipts from school books and supplies alone amounted to over five hundred dollars. We do not consider the profit from school books a living one, but there is a very good profit in school supplies if they are bought right. And we do buy them right. The necessity for renewing their school supplies keeps young people coming into the store during the entire school year, thus keeping our name and personality before the students. This makes it possible for us to sell THE PERSONAL ELEMENT. This is where my personal friendship tells. The one I am referred to will tell me at what prices he buys adhesive tape, bandages, peroxide, etc. I find, from these prices, that I can compete with the mail-order houses that go after this business, and at the same time make money for my store. The factory buyer prefers to deal at home with some one he knows, if he finds out that he can do business as cheaply with the home dealer as he can with an out-of-town merchant. There are certain advantages that we can offer this factory. It will not be required to carry so much stock, it can get quick service QUESTIONS FOR THE NEXT CONTEST. This department is in the hands of the big family of BULLETIN readers, and the heartiest co-operation is earnestly urged. The following questions are announced for the next contest: 1. What is the best way of going after the paint and wall-paper business? Submitted by Henry W. Bullard. 2. Is it worth while to handle garden seeds? Submitted by Franklin M. Korin. Other answers, For the best answer to either of these questions we shall award a prize of $5.00. if printed, will be paid for at regular space rates. Every answer must be at least 500 words long from us whenever needed. The bother of ordering goods from some distant house is done away with. After I once have the ball rolling along this line I make additional efforts to secure more business from the same firm. A good concern usually keeps its plant in a sanitary condition. By using the same methods as before I can oftentimes sell disinfectants and many other health promoters that a drug store carries. Office supplies are sold in the same way. An office is always needing something in the supply line, and when the concern has an account at our store the buyer does not mind paying a little more if he can get the goods right away. BE "A GOOD FELLOW!" When I have one factory dealing at our store, I go after another in the same way. I endeavor to make friends with all employees— to be a "good fellow." This, to my mind, is the thing that helps most in getting the business from these concerns. In going after the business of the city departments I explain to the directors of municipal affairs that we will give them a special price on anything we handle. That gets them to start an account with us. We sometimes hint to them that the cheaper they run the city affairs the more favorably the people will think of them. The hospital business we get by having the doctors plug for us, and by treating the head nurse and matron in the proper manner. PERSONAL SOLICITATION BROUGHT RESULTS IN THIS CASE. BY F. A. STILL. I am manager of what would be classed as a very ordinary drug store; that is, a small store with about $4000 invested in stock and fixtures, located in a town of 2500 population. We have no really big concerns to deal with, yet there are several establishments here that could, if they saw fit, buy their supplies from wholesale houses on the same terms that we do. I have worked out a plan to get a good share of their business. Arkansas City, where I am located, is on the Mississippi River and has a number of levee contractors who use quite a good deal of the merchandise in our line. In and around our town we have six levee contractors, three saw mills, one shingle mill, several logging camps, and a number of plantations. We have accounts with them all, besides having one with the county, of which our town is the county seat. TWENTY GOOD ACCOUNTS. Five years ago we were getting business. from only three of the concerns, but now we have about twenty accounts of this nature. I went after all the different accounts in the same manner, that is, through personal solicitation. The first chance we got at any "big" business was one to furnish the county jail with all its medical supplies. This opportunity was secured through the medium of our physician and by having personal friends among the county officials. I have become acquainted with, and can The order slip that a business concern fills out for an employee. claim as friends, the managers of the concerns I have mentioned, and these men turn over much business to me in the course of a year. I have given to each of them order blanks like the one illustrated in connection with this article. An employee presenting one of these blanks filled out by his manager can secure goods to the value of the order. I allow ten per-cent discount on all orders the managers send to me, and this special inducement brings a great deal of business to the store. A very large part of our trade is obtained from colored people who work for the various concerns. We make special efforts to win their confidence and custom, letting them know that we are reliable and responsible druggists who wish to make right anything that is wrong and that we handle only the very best goods obtainable. CATERING TO PLANTATION EMPLOYEES. The colored people use a great number of toilet articles. I cater especially to this part of their trade and have taught them that I am to have something new at regular intervals, and that it is always of the first quality. Nine out of ten of the negroes who get orders from by these outside concerns, and when we do so, their employers on a drug store will specify we generally find that the local corporations prefer to do business through the home merchants. ours. On a near-by plantation there is an old negro who had been suffering with rheumatism for three years. I accidentally cured him by selling the right medicine at the right time. On another occasion I filled for a negro a very difficult prescription which a good many other druggists had failed to successfully compound. Both these persons spread my name all around so that when any member of the laboring force on the plantation talks of buying or of needing drugs, these and other satisfied customers among the race quickly advise that an order from the "Boss" to Dedman's Drug Store is the thing for him. THE REQUIREMENTS. To sum it all up I find that personal attention to every customer, coupled with honesty and the right goods, secures business from the big concerns as well as from the little ones. It is just as necessary to cultivate the friendship of the most humble member of the concern as it is to get the influence of the manager. Each individual has his own ideas and can have influence for or against a certain store. By the means mentioned I now sell hundreds of dollars' worth of my line every year, getting the money which used to go direct to the wholesaler. CREATING SALES OPPORTUNITIES. BY WILLIAM J. RICHARDS. The ordinary drug store, no matter how small it is, can get big business. All that is needed is a field of big concerns to draw from. There is only one way of getting this business and that is to "go after it." We have found that it is not necessary to cut down prices so low that we cannot make a legitimate profit. The large concerns and municipalities in their dealing with outside firms know that they have to pay for merchandise a certain price which yields to the seller a certain profit. It has been our object to meet the prices made THE QUESTION OF PROFIT. Of course, in some cases, we have to figure margins closer than in ordinary sales, but generally the amount involved is so much larger than it is in a counter sale, that we are well paid, even with a smaller margin of profit. Also, as a rule, the items are likely to be things which we do not carry in stock, so there is no What we need to figure overhead expense. make on the deal is clear "velvet.” It is well to cultivate the friendship of purchasing agents of the mills and factories in town, of the city officials, and of the officers of different lodges and organizations. In a general way we know what these concerns and organizations are in the market for at various times-things they use throughout the year that we can supply, if given the opportunity. We write personal letters to the men who have buying authority, asking them for an opportunity to bid on goods which they may be in the market for. At these times we quote them a few quantity prices on certain commodities that they use at all times. From various sources, as newspaper reports or local gossip, we learn of anything special that is going to be needed by the organizations and send in a quotation at once, before any are received from outside sources. With relation to our city departments, for instance, we either attend the council meetings or watch for the proceedings published in the newspapers. If we notice that appropriations were made for some new venture or for the restock of staple supplies, we see if there is anything in the wants that we can supply. If there is we put in our bids. In conclusion I would say that a druggist, regardless of the size of his stock, can go after "big business" profitably and get it. However, he has to go after it hard and use the best of judgment in his movements. The question to be discussed next month in this department is of particular importance to |