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enables us to make a big showing with comparatively few full packages, and to offer goods that are always fresh-looking and clean.

These cartons, and also those obtainable from the distributers of special-agency goods, are just the things with which to fill up vacant ledges and show-case tops. They are fastened together by means of pins or double-headed tacks, or built into displays of artistic design by putting them on "forms" made from thin sticks. A sign having letters large enough to be read at quite a distance accompanies each showing.

On the wrapping counter, in front of the scales, we run a soap display during the late spring, summer, and early fall. The rest of the year cough drops and lozenges are shown. Next to the scales is a glass case filled with an assortment of twenty-five-cent tooth-brushes. This little case sells more brushes in a week than we got rid of in a month when the brushes were in a larger case.

All displays are dusted at least twice a day, for we have found that a nice clean package sells easily, while a dusty, dirty one is passed by entirely.

It is a real job to make and keep our inside displays up to the minute, but we are repaid in real money for all our efforts and we are going to keep at it.

EASILY MADE DISPLAY BOXES.

BY ALEX. F. PETERSON.

My method of display has the advantages of economy of space, small cost, and convenience in handling. It is more effective than any other I have ever seen or tried.

I use the display boxes in which Parke, Davis & Company pack four-ounce bottles of granular effervescent salts. This particular box is well made, strong, and covered with black, pebbled paper which is easily matched with passe-partout binding to cover the front where the name of the salt is imprinted. After removing the false bottom a new one is made out of the cover of the box to fit the articles to be displayed.

For use with a three-ounce toilet cream I place three bottles side by side in the front part of the box, and then make a false bottom 14 inches high to fit between the bottles and back

of box. Three more bottles are placed on this, and then another false bottom is made to fit between the second row of bottles and the back. Three bottles are placed on this. I then cover the advertising on front with passe-partout binding, slip a sign lettered on bristol board behind the bottles so that the lettering appears well above the highest row of bottles, and the display stand is ready for business after the expenditure of only a few minutes' work.

For larger or smaller bottles and for cold cream jars the style and size of false bottoms may be altered to suit. I have yet to find a package for which I cannot make a satisfactory display box.

A BOX FOR COLD CREAM JARS.

In the case of some of our cold cream jars where the depth of the box from front to back will not admit of two rows, I make one false bottom the full size of the inside of the box, and 11⁄2 inches high, place a row of the jars on the front part of this, and then make another bottom, just a trifle higher than the jars, to fit behind the first row. In cutting and folding this I let the top of it project slightly so as to make a solid stand for second row. This in no way interferes with the removal of jars from the lower or front row; they may be tilted and lifted out easily.

We have several of these display boxes in use all the time and find them most effective silent salesmen. We use them for toilet creams, cold creams, freckle creams, massage creams, hair tonics, shampoos, tooth preparations, and a number of other articles. A great many of our sales are made by customers helping themselves to preparations which catch their eyes.

The whole box may be moved about as easily as one small package, without the slightest danger of any bottle or jar falling out; hence any place on the show-case occupied by one or more of these boxes may be cleared instantly when wanted for showing other goods. A great deal of time is also saved when dusting, and the counters present a more orderly appearance. Then, too, the show-card never gets separated from the goods, as is often the case when single packages are set on the

counter.

For some other goods, such as headache tablets, powders, wafers, corn remedies, cold

tablets, etc., I letter a heavy bristol board of a suitable size, fasten one package of the article on the card with fine wire or glue, and affix an easel on the back. The result is a most effective device for displaying small articles.

ONE ARTICLE AT A TIME.

BY A. N. HAWK.

We have a spring tonic which we make ourselves, and at the time of year when many people feel the need of such a remedy we display and push it vigorously.

Window and inside displays are made simultaneously. For the store exhibit we cover a table with the bottles and over them place a sign-not prolix, but snappy, concise, and to the point.

Prominently featuring one article at a time in this way impresses the individual preparation upon the minds of the public. Those who are feeling out of sorts at the time the display is made usually purchase. The tonic has merit and when we sell a bottle of it to a customer the odds are in his favor. It usually helps him and he then becomes a satisfied customer-the object of our displays.

We pursue the method of displaying only one preparation at a time, for we feel that by so doing the then-well person will remember us when he does have occasion to need the remedy. It is not always possible, or even desirable, to gain only immediate results.

Big drives like our spring tonic campaign, however, are not the only means we employ to make sales. In a conspicuous part of the store is a conservative salesman in the form of a show-case with a mirror-back. There is where we display the preparations we make and recommend. On many occasions I have observed customers looking intently at this ex

hibit. And quite often they did not end up by looking merely they bought.

What, to my mind, is of equal importance with the proper display of the goods, is the appearance of the packages. We aim to make our labels neat but not gaudy. If the preparation is a solution, we cap the bottle but do not enclose it in a carton. As the goods are not shipped the carton is not necessary, and its absence permits a direct view of the preparation.

For containers we use the best quality of bottles obtainable, a point that aids the display value remarkably.

The labels for all our preparations are of uniform color.

SHELF EXHIBITS CATCH THE CUSTOMER'S EYE.

BY WILLIAM J. RICHARDS.

Conspicuously displaying the stock on our shelves is the first and most important means we pursue to bring our line of own-make preparations before the public eye and make it easier to sell.

The goods occupy shelf space back of the wrapping counter-a prominent part of the store. Having them all together like this makes a showing that cannot be overlooked by any customer who is waiting for a purchase to be wrapped. As we display a number of packages of each kind, and have all the labels and cartons of a uniform color, the showing is quite imposing, giving to the customer the impression that the line is a fast moving one.

We also aim to let the store windows help us keep articles in the line before the public. At different times of the year window displays are made of seasonable goods, their sales being helped along by the exhibition on the inside of the store. Enough goods are used in the win

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. How can we boost our stationery sales? 2. How I made good in the drug business.

For the best answer to either of these questions we if printed, will be paid for at regular space rates. and in our hands by April 10.

Submitted by Lester E. Lenrow, Newark, N. J. Submitted by M. L. Maupin, Edgemont, S. D. shall award a prize of $5.00. Other answers, Every answer must be at least 500 words long

dows to create the impression of lively business, and we never fail to use plenty of signs setting forth the merits and stating the price of the preparation.

Displays showing the process of manufacture and ingredients entering into the remedy have been used with good success. For example, during the winter we run a big display of our white pine cough syrup. The window is filled completely by the bottles with the exception of a space in the center. In this space, on a little platform about on a level with the eyes of the people in the street, is represented a laboratory table with the syrup in process of manufacture.

A percolator, packed and working, is shown with a rubber tube leading to a receiving bottle. Around this are arranged various pieces of pharmaceutical apparatus, such as graduates, a mortar and pestle, beakers, etc., each with different powders and liquids in them. Small cards explain the various manufacturing steps and indicate the nature of the several drugs. Above the whole display is a sign which reads: "We Use Only Pure Drugs In Making Our White Pine Cough Syrup."

This method of display has also been used successfully with a number of other preparations.

For additional inside display we have a table on which is shown seasonable exhibits. A neat card tells the merits of the preparation. The kind of goods displayed on this table is changed frequently.

The

We keep at all times on the top of our showcases several of our preparations in groups of about a dozen packages. A small explanatory and price card accompanies each group.

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In making the window displays we do not always confine the showing to the goods themselves. On one occasion we attracted considerable attention by having a wax figure seated in the window applying our corn remedy to the foot.

Our displays are usually made to fit in with the season of the year. In the winter we confine ourselves mostly to cough and cold remedies, as we have several of these under our own label and so are enabled to show them alternately.

When spring comes along our sarsaparilla and blood remedies are given the preference. In summer we again shift, showing at that time toilet preparations and summer complaint remedies for adults and children.

The fall of the year is the period when our window displays pay best. There is plenty of money in the country at that time, and the people of the rural districts are usually on the lookout for some preparation from which they may derive benefit. At this time we make our displays of skin remedies for eczema, our cold

creams and lotions for sunburn and freckles.

We have found that the larger and more attractive we make our displays, the greater is the amount of our own preparations that we can sell. It is less trouble to sell customers our own stuff if they see it on every hand whenever they come to the store. Indeed, unless the preparations are kept continually before the people, talk alone will not go very far in introducing them.

To get new and better ideas of how to make effective displays of our goods we occasionally visit other towns and see how druggists in those places are featuring their goods. Then when we return, by mixing their ideas with our own, we are able to arrange displays that almost invariably result in increased sales.

It's giving a new twist to familiar articles that catches trade.

"How to Compete with Five and Ten Cent Stores" will be discussed next month.

INTERVIEWS WITH SUCCESSFUL

DRUGGISTS-E. C. Kinsel

7th Paper

Shortly after the following article had been set in type, the contents of Mr. Kinsel's store were completely destroyed by fire. The loss was estimated to be between $75,000 and $100,000. Even while the fire was at its height, however, Mr. Kinsel was telephoning and dispatching orders to city and out-of-town sources of supply.

Show-cases and fixtures were ordered and installed in a new store, a few doors away from the ruined establishment, before the fire had ceased to burn. The feat of assembling $25,000 worth of goods of the most varied character, and assorting and arranging them for sale, was accomplished over night, and customers were waited on as usual within sixteen hours from the time the blaze started. Work on remodelling the old store was begun immediately, and Mr. Kinsel hopes to return to it within ninety days from the time he was driven

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A newspaper ad which appeared the morning after the fire.

city's main shopping district, the larger banks, and several theaters. From the people thus brought into the vicinity comes most of the store's transient business, while newspaper space, and lots of it, is the means of bringing regular customers from all parts of the city.

To give an idea of the business done by Mr. Kinsel it may be said that from 150 to 250 prescriptions are compounded daily. Twentyeight gallons of chocolate syrup are used at the soda fountain every 48 hours, and crushed fruits are purchased in barrel lots. The cigar counter is claimed to do more business than that of any other drug store in the middle West. A bale of waste paper accumulates every day and a half.

In order to handle effectively a business of this size there is required naturally a division of the store into departments, each one in charge of a competent manager. E. C. Kinsel, the owner of the business, exercises a general oversight of the establishment, but is not act

ively engaged in the conduct of the store. His nephew, E. C. Kinsel, Jr., is the man responsible for the actual management. Under him is a manager for the store proper and also managers of the various departments. Drugs and sundries, soda, candy, cutlery, and cigars constitute the departments into which the store is divided.

COMPOUNDING CONVENIENCES.

The prescription department is situated on the balcony at the right-hand side of the store. Liquid prescriptions are filled at one side of the room, and solids-powders, ointments, sup

A particularly convenient arrangement is the system of drawers used for holding empty bottles. Each drawer is provided with a semicircular opening in the upper half through which the dispenser reaches and takes out the desired bottle without being obliged to pull out the drawer and run the risk of dumping the contents on the floor.

The compounding room is connected with the wrapping-counter, where prescriptions are taken in, by a dumb-waiter. An electric buzzer notifies the clerk whenever a prescription is ready to go out. The wrapping counter is

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This general photograph of the store was decorated for newspaper purposes, and is reproduced here as it appeared in an ad.

positories, etc.-on the other. The workbenches are glass-covered, so that they may easily be kept clean.

Two men are kept busy all day in dispensing, and they have at their command up-to-date apparatus and labor-saving devices of various kinds. Tablets, pills, and other small items are kept in a sectional case of 58 compartments. Liquid preparations and larger containers are arranged on easily-accessible shelves. Electric lights are placed in the ceiling, casting an even radiance over all parts of the room. An exhaust fan supplies fresh air to the prescription room, and to all parts of the store as well, every five minutes.

13 feet long and is provided, on the outside, with stools for the convenience of waiting customers. Back of the counter are shelves on which are stored the more commonly called-for drugs and "patents." A McCourt label cabinet facilitates the quick labeling of bottles.

The soda fountain is a made-to-order, 48foot "Liquid," with 26 stools and bar service for a dozen more people. The outside edge of the fountain counter is slightly raised to prevent glasses from sliding to the floor.

LUNCHES SERVED AT FOUNTAIN.

Seven attendants are required to handle the crowds which flock around the fountain at

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