"A pageant of children down the ages" The BOOKSHELF for BOYS and GIRLS 1927-28 (Ready in October) The booklist that contains About a thousand books The catalog is enclosed in a A catalog for all the year for all the children "DAWGS", a Collection of Stories edited by Charles Wright Gray An anthology of the best dog stories, by O. Henry, Booth July 1. THE OUT TRAIL by Mary Roberts Rinehart Mrs. Rinehart's humor and dramatic sense enliven this THE LIFE AND LETTERS OF WALTER H. PAGE By BURTON J. HENDRICK Page's immortal letters are now added to this popular A BOOK OF PREFACES by H. L. Mencken October 1. STEPHEN CRANE by Thomas Beer A masterly biography by the author of The Mauve Decade, Other Fall books: TRAMPING ON LIFE by Harry Kemp, Nov. 1; GARDEN CITY THE STAR SERIES PUBLISHING CO. They were just four clerks *** young fellows who weren't getting anywhere . . . until one of them bought was a diamond ring! . . But why give away the plot of a novel that is just packed with ADVENTURE HUMOR EXCITEMENT ROMANCE NEW YORK DAY AND NIGHT LIFE and everything else a reader could ask for in a summer novel. Not a story of business but an exciting novel of the pursuit of fortune and love by a series of daring chances. For contented customers give them The HORSESHOE NAILS By George Weston Author of "The Beauty Prize" etc. Publication Day July 26th Price $2.00 DODD, MEAD & COMPANY, 449 Fourth Ave., New York; 215 Victoria St., Toronto The PUBLISHERS' WEEKLY THE AMERICAN BOOKTRADE JOURNAL NEW YORK, JULY 2, 1927. OF Hand-to-Mouth Buying Why We Have It, What Is Ahead Floyd S. Chalmers Managing Editor, the Financial Post, Toronto of distribution, of mer Tchandising, to-day, is the most com plex division of modern business. There is no science to merchandising. The big department store, the mail order house, the chain store, all tending toward the elimination of the middlemen, represent no attainment of the millennium in merchandising. Not one of these institutions no final right and no final wrong in handto-mouth buying; no last word. To-day, the attention of business is being focussed upon the serious problems of distribution just as it has been focussed for the last quarter of a century upon the problems of production. I think we may all feel that if the business world goes as far in eliminating waste in distribution as it has gone in reducing the costs of production we will, in twenty-five more years, have made this a better world in which to do business and This paper was delivered at the Canadian Booksellers' and Stationers' Association Sixth Annual Convention in June. As the subject is of so much" interest to the booktrade in America, and as this is the best treatment of it which has come to our attention, we are reprinting it for our readers. has found its final, welldefined place in the scheme of business. We are in a state of flux. But the best brains of the business world are tackling the perplexing problems of distribution. Hand-to-mouth buying is a business development that is still in the problem stage. And despite all that has been written and spoken on the subject we have not yet discovered what will ultimately be the place of hand-to-mouth buying in business; whether it will disappear along with the cash drawer that tinkled every time a clerk opened it to make change or whether it is as firmly engrafted upon the superstructure of business as the modern warehouse or motor truck delivery. There is more nearly a heaven for that ultimate beneficiary-the consumer. If you set out to define hand-to-mouth buying, your definition is going to depend very much upon what side of the fence you are on. If you think that hand-to-mouth buying is a good thing-as many very sensible business and financial men do-you will call it orderly buying; current needs buying; repeat order buying; controlled buying, or rapid turnover buying. I have seen all phrases used. If you disapprove of the tendency your definition will consist |