Progressive Retail Management

IT IS the purpose of this article to present a picture of the retailing situation and to trace the effects of the application of scientific management methods on retail distribution. The retail world is in a state of unrest. Methods of doing business today differ so greatly from those in use twenty years ago that many independent retailers who have grown old in the service of their customers find themselves bewildered by the rapidity of the changes that have taken place. In the period since the war, independent merchants in general have looked on chain stores as their chief competitors. They have everywhere organized against the chains. In general their opposition has assumed two forms: first, an attempt to secure legislation unfavorable to the growth of the chains; and second, a more or less concerted effort on the part of local chambers of commerce and civic organizations to induce consumers to trade at independent stores. This opposition has resulted in the enactment of graduated chain-store tax bills in some twenty-five states, twenty of which at present have such laws. The active support of independents was at least one of the major factors responsible for the passage of the Robinson-Patman Act. Many wholesalers and independent retailers are supporting the Patman chain-store tax bill now before Congress. To one who is an interested observer, rather than an active participant in the fight between these two agencies of retail distribution, it appears that money far too often has been spent by independent organizations in denouncing the feared competition rather than in improving the businesses of retailer members. Many merchants in 1940 are using practices which progressive competitors abandoned twenty years ago. Before attempting to suggest a remedy for the present unrest, however, one should in fairness examine the services now being performed by different types of retail organizations and attempt to evaluate them in the light of what is best for society as a whole

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