Cycles, Motor-vehicles and Tubes 483 



businesses bigger still to their own advantage, but with a 

 corresponding disadvantage to the local shopkeepers. 



In another direction the commercial motor is assisting the 

 operations of trading companies, caterers, grocers, tea-dealers, 

 tobacconists, etc., who, instead of having a single huge block 

 of departmental shops or stores, have numerous branches in all 

 parts of London, furnishing them with viands, provisions or 

 stock from a head depot. In all such instances as these, more 

 especially when cooked food is distributed from a central 

 kitchen, the superiority of the motor-vehicle over the horsed 

 van is self-evident ; while the further advantage is gained 

 that the branch establishments can be devoted wholly, or 

 almost exclusively, to the serving of customers, without any 

 need for extensive kitchen arrangements or store-rooms of their 

 own. Alternatively, the premises used for these branches 

 need be no larger than is necessary to meet day-by-day 

 requirements, whereas an independent trader, having only a 

 single establishment, would want much more accommodation, 

 involving higher rent, rates, taxes and expenses generally. 



Once more the gain is on the part of the big trader as against 

 the small one ; and once more we have evidence of the 

 increasing tendency for the former to supersede the latter. In 

 fact, the real competition to-day is no longer between large 

 traders and small traders. It is a competition between the 

 commercial giants themselves. It is a contest in which the 

 small shopkeeper is little better than an interested spectator, 

 with nothing more to hope for than that the particular giant 

 who wipes out his business will, at least, be so far considerate 

 as to offer him a situation. 



In the recesses of Wild Wales there has been seen a com- 

 mercial motor- vehicle which was virtually a shop or a general 

 stores on wheels something after the style of the familiar 

 gypsies' van, though of a far superior type. There are evi- 

 dently endless possibilities in this direction. The time may 

 come when it will not be necessary for the rural resident to go 

 to the shops in even the nearest town. The shops themselves 

 or equivalents thereto will be brought to the very door. 

 To a certain extent there will thus be a reversal to the habits 

 of former days ; but between the packhorse, or the pedlar, 

 and the motor-shop-on-wheels there will be a distinct and a 

 very wide difference, representing generations of both scientific 



