Page 184 - One Thousand Ways to Make $1000

grocery, cigar, drug, hat and shoe, is being omitted. Of course, independent
storekeepers enter these fields every week and some of them succeed. But to
operate a drug store successfully you must be a pharmacist; a shoe store
requires a heavy investment; there are so many incompetents in the grocery
field and so much bitter competition from the chains, there isn’t much
incentive to enter it.

Despite all the adverse factors that must be taken into consideration when
contemplating storekeeping as a business, it is well to remember that some of
America’s greatest fortunes have been earned from storekeeping. There is
always room for real ability. Thousands of new things to sell are being put on
the market each year, each new item opening a new field for the storekeeper.
Think of all the electrical appliances which were unheard of ten or twenty
years ago; think of how much more is spent today than ten years ago for
sporting goods, sports clothing and toys. Think of all the things now bought
ready-made or ready prepared which only a few short years back were made
in the home. Millions of women never bake a cake today, but buy their cakes,
cookies and bread from stores. Think of all the things women used to make
for themselves that they now buy from stores. There was a time when a
woman bought a purse and used it until it was worn out. Now she buys a
purse, a hat, gloves, stockings, and shoes to match every dress. The matched
accessories or ensemble idea has added millions of dollars to retail sales in
recent years.

It is easy to see there is no limit to the variety of services a retailer can render.
A far larger share of our national income is spent today in retail stores than in
the days when our own hands made most of what we eat, use and wear. This
is one of the reasons storekeeping is growing and will continue to grow and
expand.

Deciding What Kind of Store to Open

Having eliminated fields which are overcrowded and fields where special
experience or training is a necessity, it is evident that you may not want to
tackle any of the usual types of stores. But even with all these eliminations
there still remains a vast field for the owner of a specialty store. What is