but by reason of the three-sided shape a little more precious space is gained. Notice that the case at the rear is also built in the same three-sided shape, saving just the amount of room that would be taken up by a square-cornered case.

The two 20-inch display cases on the left

Showing a part of the right side of the store-the camera being placed back of the soda fountain.

side of the room have oval corners, which facilitates service, because it is much easier to walk around a curve than a right angle.

There are, of course, no soda tables-in fact there are no stools before the soda fountain. The fountain is not used as a drawing-card to

the general public, and most of the drinks served are carried by the bell-boys to the guests of the hotel in their rooms.

The wall-cases are built from the floor to the ceiling. The lower sections below the ledge are fitted with tincture shelving. The upper sections on the right-hand side of the store contain toilet goods, patent medicines, etc., except the wall-case just behind the cigar counter, which displays cigarettes.

ORDERLY ARRANGEMENT.

The wall-cases on the right-hand side of the store contain perfumes, toilet waters, and goods of that character. The store has literally not a square foot of wall space wasted; something is displayed everywhere, but with mathematical precision. The owner realizes that any untidiness would be fatal in so small a store; would make it look "cluttered;" so he insists on "a place for everything and everything in its place" at all times.

The prescription department contains a workboard of a special shape, as shown on plan. This workboard is fitted with 6-inch shelving over the ledge, and two pedestals of drawers with divisions. Besides the workboard, which is very complete, there is a worktable, desk and chair, and wardrobe.

The window-back consists of paneled railing

to a height of 42 inches, with an 8-inch marble base on the store side, to match the marble on the floor cases.

In line with rigid principles of space econ

Looking straight in!

omy, there was worked out in connection with this store the original idea of a built-in wallcase just above the soda fountain back-bar. This wall-case is fitted with frameless plateglass doors, and contains a very attractive display of high-priced package candies. The case runs the full length of the back bar.

Another feature a little out of the ordinary consists of two very small built-in cases on either side of the landing leading into the hotel lobby. These display choice perfumes.

By reason of its location this store makes it a policy to carry more or less complete lines of articles likely to appeal to the better class of travelers: the most expensive toilet goods, high-grade make-up materials, etc. Because it features the luxuries, the equipment has been planned to appeal to the esthetic senses. fixtures, including everything pertaining to the show window (except the parquetry floor) is solid inlaid mahogany in a beautiful, warm, rich shade.

The

Everything about this store is inviting to the eye, not the least attractive feature being a very pretty young lady in immaculate nurse's attire, who presides over the soda fountain.

The man who runs a drug store in a small town must train himself to wise, conservative buying. He cannot be expected to carry everything, but he ought to have a small assortment of as nearly everything as circumstances will permit. He should buy a little at a time and buy often.

Early in the game I adopted for an advertising slogan, "If we haven't it, we'll get it for you;" and no demand is too trifling to receive prompt and grateful attention. It is the confidence of my patrons that I want. And whenever dissatisfaction arises I make it right, no matter who is to blame.

In one respect my store is now on a very satisfactory basis. A certain line of family A certain line of family

By CLAUD A. SMITH

remedies is well established, the people invariably calling for these remedies; hence I can devote my attention to pushing side-lines.

I am living in a wide-awake community, and I soon discovered that if I wanted trade I must go after it early in the morning. My predecessor had kept the store open late of nights, consequently he was sleepy in the mornings. I found that after 8.30 in the evening there was little real trade, but a great deal of loafing. I promptly discouraged the latter, and it is significant in its results. I am sure that ladies especially are more prone to enter my store since there is no longer any necessity of inhaling smoke-laden atmosphere or of pushing through a crowd of loafers.

EARLY IN THE MORNING.

I open the store early in the morning, thus being on hand and ready for the farmers' and schoolchildren's trade. I devote my whole energy and concentrated attention to my business through the day, but then I am done.

It is often the absence of a real manager that makes a store go down hill. You need not expect the best clerk in the world to push your business as hard as you would yourself. It isn't human nature. There are many customers who will buy more if the "boss" waits on them.

Let the "boss" stick to his business! My advertising stunts have been steady rather than spectacular. The local newspaper, mailing lists, and distribution of samples have been the mediums employed. My wall-paper business shows a very substantial increase, due to the fact that I adopted the mail-order house and paperhangers' own tactics-early in the season I send out small sample books showing specimens of my line. I talk personally with people who are thinking, even vaguely, of papering. I carry in stock a fine line of the less expensive papers, have a good large sample-book of the finer papers, and I ask only five days' time to get any pattern desired.

DEVELOPING SIDE-LINES.

In paints I follow much the same method. I deal with a good house, which advertises for This advertising through the country, plus a personal canvass among the farmers, has added very materially to my sales of paint.

me.

It may be the Golden Rule in more ways than one at least it's a business-getter-to do a favor whenever possible. Our small town boasts a Literary Club, and through its efforts a traveling library was secured. A place to keep the books was needed, and I offered space at the store. Such little matters may seem mere trifles, but they are nevertheless important in the business life of any dealer, more especially the small town druggist.

If I have a real hobby in the drug business, it is the development of side-lines. There is no surer way of increasing sales and profits than in adding and pushing to the limit a good live side-line. We need conscientious prescriptionists, of course, but if our business is to grow we must not restrict it to the compounding-room.

CANDY AND THE FOUNTAIN.

One of the first things I went in debt for was a soda fountain, and it has paid for itself, yielding a fine profit besides. We use paper sundae dishes and soda glasses, scald all spoons before re-using them, so that our guarantee of a "spotless fountain and sanitary service" is well carried out.

Another line that I have pushed is box candy and a fine grade of bulk chocolate, almond bars, mints, etc. An up-to-date soda fountain and good candy in attractive boxes will appeal to folks in a small town very strongly. They all take a personal interest, and will pay a dollar for a "good-looking" box of candy just as quickly as a city customer will.

Rubber goods I have featured somewhat, also. One advertisement I have used in pushing this line is to offer a small price-say twenty-five cents-for an old hot-water bottle, the same to be applied on the purchase price of a new one. Another scheme I have found to work well is the gift of a baby's hot-water bottle (face bag) to every new baby born in the community. This comparatively trifling gift is very much appreciated by the mother.

SCHOOL SUPPLIES AND STATIONERY.

The schoolchildren are my friends. I handle the school-books, get nothing out of them except gray hairs and a desire to swear, but nevertheless consider the move good business. The tablets, pencils, etc., I sell more than compensate for the book worry.

On athletic goods I make a good profit, and consider this business worth going after, as I don't carry much of anything of the kind in stock, but merely order the goods when called for.

By giving a box of stationery with every $1.50 purchase, and by special sales on box paper, I have worked up a good trade on stationery, especially in the better grades. Local views, a good stock of comics, and birthday post-cards and holiday cards in season—these almost sell themselves.

Now all this isn't much in the way of a startling revelation, after it is all told. But nevertheless I have increased my sales 35 per cent during the past year.

Some of my ideas and methods must be right.

MINOR COMPLAINTS

Right at the beginning I want to absolve the editors of all responsibility. Hicks, and Hicks alone, is guilty.

What you read on this page and the next one may or may not suit you; in so far as I am concerned the point is immaterial. But I am going to continue, either regularly or intermittently, to send the BULLETIN a number of thoughts which come so easy that it would be a shame to hold them back.

Do you know anything about Freud? Well, he's the man responsible for the claim that dreams are caused by dammed-up emotions.

I want my slumber to be dreamless.

I

I am one of the mildest men that ever sold four ounces of sulphur for five cents. wouldn't drown a litter of kittens for $500. Yet I sometimes say some of the meanest things that it is possible to put into words. Frequently I laugh at myself, later, and wonder if, after all, one of my remote ancestors wasn't a rattlesnake.

But we are all less than half rounded out. At the rate we are now going it is still a matter of many weary million years before we—any of us-will have reached that state of perfection which will entitle us to a continuous seat in the bald-headed row.

Let it go at that.

In a war-counsel a pessimist is regarded as an enemy. And a single whiner in the drug business, no matter how obscure, hurts us all. Were it possible to do so, we ought to rise up and heave him overboard, even as Jonah was cast into the sea.

But the whiner is dead wrong. He has no cause, outside of himself, for complaint. The drug business is a good business, and we don't need statistics to prove it, either. All we need do is to get hold of a wage schedule. Can an equally qualified man get the same pay in the hardware business?-in the dry-goods business?-in the grocery business?—yes, or even in a bank?

The rule is that he can't.

So let it be repeated: the drug business is a

By OLD MAN HICKS

good business. Let it be furthermore said that the country is wide and broad and flat, and that there are just as many opportunities today as there ever were, and ten times more on top of that!

How can a kicker succeed, anyway? He has only one foot on the ground.

Personally I hate to see the passing of the old-time show globe. It seems to stand for something, with me; something that is pretty much a memory, possibly, but something close and sacred, nevertheless.

I felt much the same when I read in the papers that the American army (God help us!) had substituted a band for the drum corps. There is nothing in the world that stirs me like a Civil War drum corps. It covers me all over with goose pimples and causes me to reach for my handkerchief.

Quite frequently in the past when I have been in a strange city I have gone down the street looking for a drug store. And by what mark did I expect to identify it?

By its colored show globes in the windows. And by what sign or token must I now distinguish it?

By the mark of bonbons on its brow-or by some similar modern device.

A drug-store window is always distinctive, quite regardless of what there may be in it. There is little danger of missing the place But-well, I miss the show globes.

You have had this experience, probably: the postman has brought you an important letter; the most important letter in the world. It's from her, and possibly it contains information on which you think (note the mildness of the word "think") that the destiny of the sun, the moon, and all the little sunlets and moonlets hang. You grab at it eagerly and rip the envelope almost desecratingly, so eager you are -and then a customer comes in. You can't stand and read while a customer waits, so you jam the scented epistle into your coat pocket

and stride forth manfully, with a pretty good imitation of a smile on your face; so good an imitation, in fact, that the customer never questions its genuineness. Those who wait on trade are schooled in such deceptions.

Well, you make the sale and ring up the nickel. And then another customer comes in -and another, and another, and another. They keep coming, straggling in in just the proper order to keep you away from the letter. And they keep on coming in this manner for two hours or more.

Pleasant, isn't it?

What's the matter with our State associations? Let me tell you. Briefly, the same old mugs.

He was Adam's

Heck is a pretty old dog. coon dog. But Heck was a pup once; and ever since that day the same old gang has been much in evidence at the annual meetings. The same old facial expressions; the same old intonations; the same old jockeying.

The average druggist sometimes feels that such organizations, quite regardless of the claims grandiloquently made in the preamble, are not exactly run in the interests of pharmacy, but rather for the benefit of a certain few. Year after year the same faces in the printed reports and announcements, in the public prints, in the drug journals-it gets tiresome. And he-the average druggist-doesn't join.

You remember the crown-of-thorns and the cross-of-gold speech? Some of our annual gatherings need to be ripped up in just that

manner.

Did it ever occur to you that a druggist nowadays deals largely in luxuries? Here are a bunch of figures taken from a daily newspaper. I won't vouch for them, for newspapers sometimes prefer to be striking rather than accurate; but they seem all right. Let it be known, too, that these figures are for 1909 -"presumably the latest available," the paper says. Six or seven years ago. But that doesn't matter, either. I am merely using the strungout numerals to illustrate a point.

In the year indicated the American people paid $107,000,000 for soft drinks, $85,000,000 for candy, and $2,300,000 for perfumery.

Quite apart from any other consideration,

this tabulation would seem to indicate that the American people had rather drink than eat$107,000,000 for soft drinks, $85,000,000 for candy. This, possibly, is due to the imposing outlay that goes into soda-fountain apparatus each year-$7,000,000 in 1909. A costly fountain appeals to the eye.

It may be possible that Johnnie's dictum that it "pays to advertise" is true, after all.

*

There are those among us who do not quite take the position that "the customer is always right."

Not for all the dollars in the world will I let a customer use me for a door-mat. I wouldn't be a man if I did.

That sort of stuff may be all right to print in little "code" booklets, and if you can get a clerk to live up to it you can doubtless add a dollar or two to the day's receipts. But what clerk with red blood in his veins will live up to it?

Let me illustrate. Last week an old shrew of a woman came in and handed me a little bottle.

"Gimme ten cents' worth of arnica," she said. "And I want some that's full strength." "Madam," I replied, "we keep only one kind of tincture of arnica, and that is made in accordance with the United States Pharmacopoeia.”

"Well, I don't know about that," she responded; "but I do know that half the stuff I get here is no good. Doctors and druggists -they're all alike. I wouldn't trust one of them out of my sight."

There was venom in her tones. She meant just exactly what she said.

What should I have done? Pointed to a little sign above the prescription case-"The Customer Is Always Right"?

Well, I didn't do anything of that kind. I handed back the bottle and said as quietly as I could: "Madam, if that is the opinion you have of us here, you'd better get your arnica somewhere else."