Page 62 - Past Chair Book-Pre 2020

The X afhm al Supply and Machinery Dealers’ Association

M r. C l a r k e : I think I mentioned some time ago that when
I first commenced to sell machinery I simply had the cost price,
and that was twenty years ago. I figured the profit, and the house
by whom I was employed, figured the profit on the cost, but in the
last ten or fifteen years we have endeavored to educate our sales­
men to the one price system, to sell goods at one price, and that
the discount shall be from the selling price. In fact, they have no
cost price. They have in their selling books no profit mark or
anything to indicate what is the cost. They know in a general
way that there is a discount from that selling price, but the dis­
count is from the selling price. The profit is from the selling price,
and I think that is the only right basis on which to figure it. I do
not think we should go back to the old way of figuring the profit
on the cost. That was the way we used to do years ago, but I
think a great many manufacturers and merchants are figuring the
selling price and their profit from that basis.
Mr. S t r e l ix g e r : I might say that a good many years ago
we never thought of making ten or seven and a half per cent profit.
There was no profit in seven and a half per cent. Where we now
sell a quarter of a million it was then forty or fifty thousand
dollars. Conditions have changed, and I wish that they might be
changed again. On small sales I wish we might have net prices,
so a person who buys one hundred gross of screws might get the
same as if he bought forty or fifty. I do not think that discount
should be used to cause us to lose money.
P resident S trong : Is there anything else under the head
of miscellaneous business? If not, we will proceed to the reports.
You have heard the report of the Secretary-Treasurer: what will
you do with it?
Moved and seconded that it be accepted and placed on file.
Unanimously carried.
P resident S t r o n g: Also the report of the Machinery Com­
mittee.
M r. S o m e r s: I move that it be accepted and placed on file.
Motion is seconded and carried.

P resident S trong : The Machinery Committee, re-inforced
by some other gentlemen, will continue to carry on that question