Likewise also as it was in the days of Lot \u2026 they bought, they sold \u2026 <\/i><\/p>\n
\u2014Luke 17:28<\/i><\/p>\n
571<\/b> Kroger Profits From Volume<\/b><\/p>\n
Seventy-five years ago a young grocery clerk had $372 and an idea. He founded a little store on the Cincinnati riverfront. Today that one store has grown into a system operating some 2,000 stores in 19 midwestern and southern states. His name was Bernard H. Kroger. <\/p>\n
He helped foster a merchandising revolution based on the premise that if a large enough volume of goods could be sold at a very small unit profit, a satisfactory total profit would be earned. <\/p>\n
572<\/b> Woolworth\u2019s Big Idea<\/b><\/p>\n
F. W. Woolworth had a big idea. And it was an impatient employer who gave him the chance. Mr. Woolworth was instructed by his employer to gather some remnants from several shelves, make a job lot of them, and get what he could. He did, and then stuck a sign up offering any article for five cents. The rapidity with which the remnants disappeared at the bargain price gave Mr. Woolworth his idea for a five-and-ten-cent store. <\/p>\n
The average man would not have seen any idea in the quick sale, and would have forgotten the matter as soon as the remnants had been sold. Mr. Woolworth borrowed money to try out his idea, and although it failed to get across in several cities, he stuck to it until he had turned defeat into victory. As a result he accumulated a fortune of some forty million dollars. <\/p>\n
\u2014E. M. Wicks<\/p>\n
573<\/b> Penney\u2014Golden Rule Merchant<\/b><\/p>\n
James Cash Penney\u2019s first venture as a retail proprietor\u2014a butchershop in Longmont, Colo.\u2014opened in 1899 and failed almost immediately, after he refused to bribe an important local hotel chef with a weekly bottle of bourbon. \u201cI lost everything I had,\u201d said Penney, \u201cbut I learned never to compromise.\u201d<\/p>\n
Penney\u2019s unwavering faith in the copybook maxims of his youth roused skepticism in a mercenary age, but his credo underlay his success. At his death in 1971 Penney, 95, left a 1,660-store empire that he built without compromising the stiff principles he had absorbed from three generations of Baptist-preacher ancestors. He neither smoked nor drank, and for years demanded the same abstemious conduct from his employees. \u201cI believe in adherence to the Golden Rule, faith in God and the country,\u201d he often said. \u201cI would rather be known as a Christian than a merchant.\u201d<\/p>\n
With annual sales of $4.1 billion, J. C. Penney today ranks as the nation\u2019s fifth merchandising company. Penney\u2019s personal holding of its stock was worth $24 million. <\/p>\n
Until his final illness, he worked regularly at Penney\u2019s mid-Manhattan headquarters, where he kept five secretaries busy with volumes of correspondence. <\/p>\n
\u2014Time<\/i><\/p>\n
574<\/b> Wanamaker Trusted In God<\/b><\/p>\n
John Wanamaker earned his first money (7\u00a2) at his father\u2019s brickyard turning bricks. When his father died, he worked in a bookstore at $1.25 a week. He walked four miles twice a day to work and lunched on an apple or a roll. For twenty-five cents more, he was lured to a clothing salesroom. There he decided to be a great merchant. <\/p>\n
He became involved in Christian and temperance work and was appointed the first salaried secretary of the Philadelphia YMCA. After seven years of service, he plunged into business again. <\/p>\n
He rented a store with his brother-in-law, and delivered goods in a two-wheeled pushcart. Every cent of the day\u2019s profit was invested in an advertisement in the next day\u2019s issue of the Philadelphia Inquirer. He created the department store and organized the one-price system. <\/p>\n
In ten years, he became the leading merchant of Philadelphia. He paid high salaries to his best men. And dozens of men under him were receiving higher salaries than US cabinet secretaries. <\/p>\n
Wanamaker testified that his business success was due to his religious training and actual practice of Christianity. \u201cI attribute my success,\u201d he said, \u201cto thinking, trying, and trusting in God.\u201d<\/p>\n
575<\/b> Birth Of The Cone<\/b><\/p>\n
The ice cream cone is a case of necessity being the mother of invention. <\/p>\n
Charles E. Menches was one of 50 vendors serving saucers of ice cream at the 1904 Louisiana Purchase Exposition in St. Loius, Mo. Business was booming on a hot August day when he ran out of clean saucers! <\/p>\n
Menches turned to the stand next door, operated by a Syrian named Hamwi who had come to the fair from Damascus to sell zalabia\u2014a waferlike pastry baked on a waffle iron. Hamwi is supposed to have rolled his still-soft zalabia into a cornucopia, which Menches filled with ice cream and handed to a customer. Success was instantaneous. <\/p>\n
576<\/b> \u201cBeatle-Scented Souvenirs\u201d<\/b><\/p>\n
Two enterprising Chicago merchants followed the Beatles on a tour. They bought the Beatle\u2019s used bed sheets and pillowslips for $1,150 from hotels in Detroit and Kansas City. The yield: 160,000 bits of Beatle sheet, each of which was mounted on a certificate that showed the Beatle who was supposed to have left his scented sweat on the cloth. Price per inch of Beatle sheet: $1. <\/p>\n
577<\/b> These People Were Different\u2014And Succeeded<\/b><\/p>\n
Woolworth conceived the idea of the Five-and-Ten-Cent store. That was different. His fortune was measured by millions when he passed away. Wanamaker conceived the idea of the one-price system to everybody in his retail stores. That was different, for at the time he put this policy into effect it was directly contrary to accepted practice throughout the country. <\/p>\n
Ford determined to build a light, cheap car for the millions. That was different. His reward came in the greatest automobile output in the world. Human progress has often depended on the courage of a man who dared to be different. <\/p>\n
\u2014Herbert V. Prochnow<\/p>\n
578<\/b> The Model-T Success<\/b><\/p>\n
The Model T., brought out in 1908, had sales of 10,607 the first year. In four years, sales jumped to 168,304, and in four more, to 730,041. In 1919, Ford bought out the minority stockholders for nearly $106 million. They had invested $33,100. <\/p>\n
During Model T\u2019s lifetime, 1908\u20131927, production added up to 15,458, 781 cars\u2014more than the total for all other cars for those years. It has been called the \u201cmost widely-used vehicle in human history.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u2014Selected<\/p>\n
MEANWHILE, HIGH-PRICED BUYING AND SELLING GOES ON IN UNUSUAL OR RARE ITEMS<\/p>\n
579<\/b> Snobbery In Collections<\/b><\/p>\n
\u201cSnobbery,\u201d claims art collector Joe Brody, \u201cis one reason why people buy the fantastic art productions of today.\u201d Says Brody, \u201cI happen to own an original Salvador Dali, for which I have been offered $12,400. I am positive that without the Dali signature I would not have been offered $12.00. I happen to dislike the painting intensely, but I keep it for one reason only. Snobbery. People who come over to my house are invariable impressed when they learn that the rather grotesque painting hanging over my couch is indeed an original Dali.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u2014Time<\/i><\/p>\n
580<\/b> Napoleon\u2019s Sword<\/b><\/p>\n
Texas millionaire, Charles Cranford, is now owner of Napoleon Bonaparte\u2019s sword. He bought the sword at an auction in Switzerland, sight unseen. Mr. Cranford refused to say how much he paid for it, but it is believed to have been over three times as much as Napoleon\u2019s hat, which went to another bidder for $32,000. <\/p>\n
581<\/b> Louis XVI Table<\/b><\/p>\n
Henri Sabet, an Iranian oilman, paid $415,800 for a Louis XVI table, said to be the most expensive piece of furniture in existence. <\/p>\n
Large sums are also paid for extraordinary paintings. Recently $5,544,000 was paid for a Velasquez painting. <\/p>\n
Paul Getty paid over $4,000,000 for the \u201cDeath of Actaeon,\u201d by Titian. <\/p>\n
A Renoir painting brought $1,959, 200! <\/p>\n
582<\/b> Antique Chinese Bottle<\/b><\/p>\n
London (AP)\u2014An antique Chinese bottle was sold in 1974 for 420,000 pounds\u2014just over a million dollars. Sotheby\u2019s the auctioneers, said it was a world-record price for any work of art other than a painting. <\/p>\n
The 16-inch-high bottle, dating from about 1400 in the early Ming period, was sent for sale anonymously and was bought by a London dealer. Only three bottles of the type are recorded as having survived, experts say. <\/p>\n
The bottle is decorated in blue and white with a picture of a dragon set among foliage and trees. <\/p>\n
Sotheby\u2019s said the previous record for other than paintings was $528,000 paid for a Chinese wine jar. <\/p>\n
583<\/b> Rare Ming Vase<\/b><\/p>\n
A United Press International report from New York said that a rare Ming vase, bought for $150 in the 1940s, was auctioned for $260,000 in 1976. This is supposed to be a record price in America at auction for Chinese art. Mr. and Mrs. A. Douglas Oliver bought it for $150 in an antique shop in the late \u201940s in Philadelphia. The Ming polychrome jar was unusual in having 5 colors, whereas normally Ming has two or three colors. <\/p>\n
584<\/b> Rare Manuscript<\/b><\/p>\n
A twelfth-century copy of the Helmarshausen Latin Gospels and Eusebian Canons was purchased in London by a New York dealer. The price, highest sterling amount ever paid at auction for a rare manuscript, was $109,200. <\/p>\n
585<\/b> Boy\u2019s Idea For Appalachia\u2019s Poor<\/b><\/p>\n
Postmaster General John A. Gronouski reports an idea for ending poverty in Appalachia offered by a 16-year-old boy: \u201cHis idea was both simple and ingenious. He wanted us to print a few thousand stamps with deliberate errors in them, which would make them quite valuable. These stamps we were to send to the towns in Appalachia, where people would buy them for five cents apiece, then resell them to stamp collectors for $1000 or $10,000 or whatever the market could stand. And this would cure poverty.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u2014Writer\u2019s Digest<\/i><\/p>\n
586<\/b> Unique Stamp Error Brings Profit<\/b><\/p>\n
The Bureau of Engraving and Printing is a very meticulous outfit, so when an error does appear in a stamp, collectors\u2019 hearts leap\u2014generally with avarice. <\/p>\n
In 1918,400 copies of a 24\u00a2 airmail were run off showing the Curtiss Jenny biplane flying upside-down. At that point the plane was turned right-side-up on the press, but the faulty stamps are today worth $30,000 apiece. Some copies of an 1847 British stamp now go for more than $78,000, because they were engraved \u201cpost office\u201d instead of \u201cpost paid.\u201d<\/p>\n
Errors occasionally go through an entire run without being detected, although nobody then gets richer since all copies are the same. <\/p>\n
LEFT-HANDED WARES AND OTHER TIDBITS<\/p>\n
587<\/b> Anything Left-Handed, Ltd. <\/b><\/p>\n
There is now a firm called Anything Left-Handed, Ltd<\/i>. The firm caters to a large portion of the population who are left-handed or southpaws. The idea came to Bill and Claudia Gruby during a dinner party when their four left-handed guests lamented their problems in a right-handed society. <\/p>\n
The Grubys started the firm as a mail-order service, but quickly expanded to their present site in London. A chainstore operation is being planned. The store\u2019s first catalog listed twenty products; now it offers 400. <\/p>\n
\u201cOur aim,\u201d says Gruby, \u201cis to sell any tool, object, or devise, no matter how bizarre, that the lefthander wants and will use.\u201d<\/p>\n
588<\/b> Babying The Pig In Hungary<\/b><\/p>\n
The customs guards on the frontier between Austria and Hungary were struck by the number of young Hungarian peasant women who would cross the border every day with children in their arms. The thing that aroused their curiosity was the fact that these fond Hungarian mothers left the babies on the Austrian side when they crossed the frontier again at night to go back home. On the following morning, however, the same young women would cross over into Austria again with apparently the same baby. <\/p>\n
So one inquisitive guard stopped a good-looking peasant damsel and investigated the baby. It wasn\u2019t a baby at all. It was a young pig. The high duties levied by the Austrian tariff on Hungarian pigs had suggested this economy to the thrifty Hungarian peasants. They would take the porkers and dress them up in babies\u2019 clothes with a handsomely embroidered bonnet covering the head. Their ingenuity went still further. In order to prevent the pigs from squealing, they first fed them with grain soaked in alcohol, which put the porkers to sleep\u2014in a drunken stupor. <\/p>\n
\u2014Lowell Thomas<\/p>\n
589<\/b> And Gravy? <\/b><\/p>\n
Sign in a Milwaukee window: \u201cT-bone, 25\u00a2.\u201d Then you get close enough to read the fine print: \u201cWith Meat, $4.00.\u201d<\/p>\n
590<\/b> Pawning Start For Newlyweds<\/b><\/p>\n
That a visit to the pawnbroker may actually be a profitable transaction was proved by the young Irishman who walked into a London pawnshop, pawned a valuable camera and went across to the other counter to buy a wedding ring. <\/p>\n
The next day he returned with his bride, pawned the ring, redeemed the camera, went outside and photographed her in her wedding dress. <\/p>\n
Two hours later the couple came back, pawned the camera and the wedding dress, then departed on their honeymoon. <\/p>\n
\u2014Everybody\u2019s<\/i><\/p>\n
591<\/b> Return Mail Of Irate \u201cCustomers\u201d<\/b><\/p>\n
Many irate citizens complained to the Better Business Bureaus about having merchandise mailed to them that they had not ordered and did not want\u2014and then being billed for it. A Chicago physician received such a package with the following letter: \u201cWe are taking the liberty of sending you three exceptionally fine ties. Because these ties have the approval of thousands of discriminating dressers, we know you will like them. Please send $2.\u201d<\/p>\n
The indignant doctor replied: \u201cI am taking the liberty of sending you $2 worth of extra fine pills. These pills have helped thousands and I am sure you will appreciate my thoughtfulness in sending them. Please accept them in payment of the ties which you sent me recently.\u201d<\/p>\n
592<\/b> Sailboat For Sale Right Away<\/b><\/p>\n
A certain chap discovered, after attending a charity auction, that he had bought a sailboat, about which he knew nothing. He was startled, but his wife was downright stunned. So he took her out to the auction site to christen their new boat and to give her the great privilege of naming it. She splashed a glass of champagne across the bow and announced: \u201cI name this boat FOR SALE.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u2014San Diego Tribune<\/i><\/p>\n
593<\/b> Special Discount<\/b><\/p>\n
A Paris shopkeeper wrote to one of his customers as follows:<\/p>\n
\u201cI am able to offer you cloth like the enclosed sample at nine francs the meter. In case I do not hear from you I shall conclude that you wish to pay only eight francs. In order to lose no time, I accept the last mentioned price.\u201d<\/p>\n
594<\/b> Sale For Police Officers Only<\/b><\/p>\n
A would-be holdup man pointed a gun at a cashier in a Detroit store, but he dropped the weapon and fled when he realized the cashier had been able to reach the burglar alarm. In a few minutes the place was swarming with police officers. Seeing all the men in blue, the store\u2019s manager immediately sent this message over the loudspeaker system: \u201cSpecial sale now in progress for police officers only!\u201d<\/p>\n
\u2014Detroit Free Press<\/i><\/p>\n
595<\/b> Why Women Buy Things<\/b><\/p>\n
There are eight reasons why a woman buys something: because her husband says she can\u2019t have it; it will make her look thin: it comes from Paris; the neighbors can\u2019t afford it; nobody has one; everybody has one; it\u2019s different; because. <\/p>\n
\u2014True Story Magazine<\/i><\/p>\n
596<\/b> Lucky Saucer And The Cat<\/b><\/p>\n
In front of an East Side delicatessen, a well-known art connoisseur noticed a mangy, little kitten, lapping up milk from a saucer. The saucer, he realized with a start, was a rare and precious piece of pottery. <\/p>\n
He sauntered into the store and offered two dollars for the cat. \u201cIt\u2019s not for sale,\u201d said the proprietor. \u201cLook,\u201d said the collector, \u201cthat cat is dirty and undesirable, but I\u2019m eccentric. I like cats that way. I\u2019ll raise my offer to five dollars.\u201d \u201cIt\u2019s a deal,\u201d said the proprietor, and pocketed the fivespot. \u201cFor that sum I\u2019m sure you won\u2019t mind throwing in the saucer,\u201d said the connoisseur. \u201cThe kitten seems so happy drinking from it.\u201d \u201cNothing doing,\u201d said the proprietor firmly. \u201cThat\u2019s my lucky saucer. From that saucer, so far this week, I\u2019ve sold thirty-four cats.\u201d<\/p>\n
597<\/b> Around The British Red-Tape<\/b><\/p>\n
A British firm of furniture manufacturers advised a customer: \u201cThe Board of Trade has halved your order for 20 oak chairs and has sanctioned only 10. Will you please submit a further order for 20 chairs so that the Board of Trade can halve this and we can give you the requisite number of chairs?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u2014Natural Science of Stupidity<\/i><\/p>\n
598<\/b> The American Industrialist<\/b><\/p>\n
Commerce Department officials observe that the man to be pitied is the American industrialist\u2014every time he puts a new product on the market the Russians invent it a week later, and within two weeks the Japanese are making it cheaper. <\/p>\n
\u2014Walter Trohan<\/p>\n
599<\/b> Hoarding Problem<\/b><\/p>\n
Hoarding is a constant problem in modern society. Skyrocketing prices and items in short supply cause the consumer to purchase items he really doesn\u2019t need at the moment. In 1974 the Federal Reserve Bank in Chicago rationed pennies because of a shortage. The cause of hoarding was rising copper prices. Speculators thought that the government would stop making the coins and their value would zoom. <\/p>\n
See also:<\/b> Merchandising ; Rev. 13:17; 18:3.<\/p>\n
C <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Likewise also as it was in the days of Lot \u2026 they bought, they sold \u2026 \u2014Luke 17:28 571 Kroger Profits From Volume Seventy-five years ago a young grocery clerk had $372 and an idea. He founded a little store on the Cincinnati riverfront. Today that one store has grown into a system operating some … Continue reading “BUYING AND SELLING”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4938","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-sermons"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4938","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4938"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4938\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4938"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4938"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4938"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}