CHAPTER XL. 



BUYING AT WHOLESALE. 



[HIS chapter, like the one on Insurance, is the sub- 

 stance of an old institute lecture, and much of it 

 has been published in our report of Ohio insti- 

 tutes. But it will be found to be revised and 

 \ ''y^SS corrected somewhat. By the way, my views on 

 this subject were never called for much. The 

 officers were often afraid to have it discussed, for fear it would dis- 

 please some town people that were in to our meetings, but if you 

 are to hear of ' ' Our Farming, ' ' buying at wholesale has had quite 

 a little to do with our success. No sensible business man in town 

 can object to my doing my own business as far as I reasonably 

 can. There is no good reason why I should employ someone to 

 do for me what I can as well as not do for myself, and pay them 

 a round price for their labor. But let us consider the subject in 

 detail before commenting further. 



Probably nine farmers out of ten buy their groceries and 

 other articles they need at retail. They go to the store and get a 

 little at a time of this, that and the other thing. There are 

 several reasons for this. First, custom. Their fathers did so and 

 they have followed in their tracks. It is rather hard for a born 

 farmer to get out of any beaten track. Perhaps I should not if I 

 had been born on the farm, and had not had a little business educa- 

 tion in town. Second, lack of ready money. It takes more 

 money at a time to buy by the quantity, and it takes cash, usually. 

 Many farmers are in the habit of getting trusted, more or less. 

 You cannot do much in this line without the cash to pay down. 

 I would manage to have it in some way. Of course, there are 

 times when this is almost impossible. I have seen such times. 

 And still we paid cash down for years, when we were in debt and 

 paying interest, when much was to be saved by it. It was 

 cheaper to borrow money at 6 or 8 per cent, and pay cash 

 at wholesale, than to pay 25 or 50 per cent, more for 

 articles needed in a smaller way, or on time. Third, natural close- 

 ness is a reason why farmers do not buy more at wholesale. Their 

 money comes hard, and it would be hard work for them often to 

 buy, say, a box of soap at a time, instead of two or three bars. A 

 reliable merchant told me that farmers, who were abundantly able 

 to and ought to buy their nails by the keg, would stand in his 

 store and hesitate for some minutes pver whether they had better 

 buy two pounds of nails or three, and he had even known them, 

 (348) 



