ABOUT PEOPLE PRESIDENT IN NEBRASKA. In convention assembled, the Nebraska State Pharmaceutical Association selected John E. O'Brien, of Omaha, as president. The new chief officer is 28 years old, the youngest man ever elected to the position. JOHN E. O'BRIEN. Professor O'Brien holds the chair of chemistry in Creighton University, Omaha, and has seen service in the retail drug business from errand boy to proprietor. A NEW DRUG ANALYST. R. A. Todd has been appointed drug analyst for the State of Michigan. Mr. Todd has been connected with the dairy and food department for about four years, and held the position of State drug analyst through both a republican and a democratic administration. The department employs 32 people, and spends annually about $50,000. There is an average of 2000 drug and food samples analyzed each year, and the salary of the commissioner as well as that of the State analyst is fixed by law at $2000. Mr. Todd is a graduate of the Val-; paraiso University, Indiana, and also of the University of Michigan. THE SAUNTERER Conducting a present-day soda fountain is a man's-size job. But, paradoxical or not, a number of the largest and most successful fountains in a prominent eastern city which I visited recently are run by women. Women managers are in charge, and all the dispensing is done by women. Men are employed only in subordinate capacities-to look after the manufacture of ice creams and syrups, and to do the heavy porter work. The reason for this condition, according to the manager of one of these stores which puts out over three thousand sodas and ice creams daily, is not that women dispensers cost less than men, but that they produce better results. Women, especially those to whom the purchase of a soda fountain confection means a part of the day's pleasure rather than a mere satisfying of thirst or hunger—such women like the atmosphere created by members of their own sex. They appreciate the air of refinement and daintiness that is imparted by tastefully dressed waitresses and attractive, restful surroundings. A fountain or serving room where the surroundings are plain, where the male attendants are attired in plain white jackets and caps, and where there is an air of hustle and bustle, does not appeal to them. Furthermore, the majority of such customers testify to their appreciation of women-conducted fountains in a substantial manner. They willingly pay fifteen or twenty cents for combinations that could be obtained at manrun fountains for a dime. Still another reason for employing women at the fountain, pointed out to me by the owner of a high-grade soda shop, is this: women dispensers handle glasses and dishes more carefully than do men. During the two years that women have been employed exclusively at the fountain in question breakage has been reduced over fifty per cent. There may be an idea in this for the druggist whose fountain trade is showing the effects of "tea-room" or "soda-shop" competition. Let him put one or more girls in charge, make the surroundings attractive, feature the combinations that appeal particularly to womenand watch business pick up! AT LAST! The BULLETIN OF PHARMACY feels very thankful. One of its most cherished reforms has been taken up by group after group until now it has been nationalized and applied to practically every class of retail merchandising. We refer to cost and profit accounting. It was nearly fifteen years ago that the BULLETIN began this work. It urged druggists to take inventories, urged them to keep business records, urged them to get at the real facts about their profits and earnings, and showed them how they could so improve conditions as to make their business yield them what it should. At first it met with little encouragement, either from druggists themselves or from the outside world. But gradually druggists became vitally concerned in the movement, and before long clamored for detailed instructions about some system of records by means of which they could keep a close and accurate watch of their business. Such a system was evolved, improved from time to time, and during 1915 was finally perfected and presented in a serviceable volume entitled "The Druggist And His Profits." In the meantime this work began to attract attention in other quarters. Individual writers took it up-Mr. Goodwin, Mr. Fernley, and others. The magazine called System became interested. The Burroughs Adding Machine Co. concerned itself with the movement. Most gratifying of all, the Harvard Bureau of Business Research was established, and for the first time the work was developed along broad and scientific lines. Now, however, we reach the culminating chapter of the story. The Associated Advertising Clubs of the World is a great organization that includes within its membership three classes of people-national advertisers, advertising writers, and trade journals. Within the last year it has established a "Committee on Retail Cost and Economic Systems. The purpose of this committee is, briefly, to do for all classes of retail merchants what the BULLETIN OF PHARMACY has been doing for retail druggists. The committee will devise the best business accounting systems that can be designed, and will assist merchants in the installation of them. In the meantime it is proposed to carry on a campaign of education for the purpose of showing retailers of all classes why it is absolutely necessary for them to be provided with some service of this sort. The work has been planned on big lines, and it will be carried out with vigor and thoroughness. It might be asked: "Why does an association of large manufacturers on the one hand, and advertising experts on the other, spend the time, the trouble and the money to educate retail merchants on profit making?" The answer is given by Wm. H. Ingersoll, the Chairman of the Committee: Unless the retailer is businesslike, prosperous, and progressive, the factories which depend upon him to deliver their products to the public cannot prosper. There you have it. The retailer is the base of the entire merchandising structure, and if you don't have a strong foundation what sort of a building can you hope to erect on it? This is a great work. It is a beneficent work. The BULLETIN OF PHARMACY is thankful that its cry in the wilderness has been heard that its pioneer work has been taken up and extended into other fields—that the cause of business reform now promises to enrich and fertilize the entire field of retail merchandising. It took nearly 15 years to bring all this about-but it was worth it! |