Page 233 - One Thousand Ways to Make $1000

remarkable, when you consider that the method requires a person to buy
“sight unseen.” The buying impression is created by the printed word, and the
buyer must send his money on faith, depending only upon the assurance of
the seller that his money will be refunded if he is not entirely satisfied.

The first mail-order house to do a national, big-scale business was established
in 1872 by A. Montgomery Ward and George R. Thorne in a small room at
825 North Clark Street, Chicago. The initial capital was slightly over $2,400.
Ward conceived the idea of selling for cash, direct by mail, while employed
as a clerk in St. Joseph, Michigan. Lack of capital prevented him from
putting his idea into execution at the time. To make the needed money, he
secured a position as a traveling salesman for a St. Louis house. That was in
1871. He finally accumulated $1,600, which was a sizable sum in those days,
and persuaded his friend George Thorne, of Kalamazoo, Michigan, to go into
partnership with him in Chicago. The firm’s first catalog, a little pamphlet 3 x
5 inches in size, listing a few widelyused dry goods items, was issued in
1874. This was the forerunner of the giant mail-order catalog which is issued
today.

While credit for the idea of selling by mail belongs to Montgomery Ward, the
great strides which the industry made and public acceptance of the principle
of buying by mail are due to the pioneering work of Richard W. Sears, who
was a better promotion man than Ward. Sears had a flair for dressing up the
“sales package”—one of the essential qualifications of a good mail-order
man. For that reason the story of his rise to fame and fortune should be of
particular interest to anyone contemplating going into the mail-order
business. Much can be gained by studying his approach to the varied
problems that the new business presented, and the development of some of
his policies. The story of how Sears laid the foundation for the great Sears,
Roebuck business is told elsewhere in this chapter.

Essentials of a Mail-Order Business

Contrary to general belief, it is not practical to sell everything and anything
by mail. It must be remembered that conditions have changed a great deal
since A. Montgomery Ward started his business. Good roads, the automobile