an old joke

[George Thompson]

The other evening my son was grumbling about his job -- remarkable --
saying that the boss had undertaken a contract that will pay a good deal
less that the likely cost of fulfilling it.  "Perhaps he is expecting to
make his profit through volume."  Said I, "I was reading a story in the
newspaper just the other day about a merchant who was doing that very
thing."  When I say "I was reading a story in the newspaper just the
other day", those who are close to me look wary, since it is likely that
the newspaper in question appeared 150 years ago, and so it was in this
case.

I am giving the whole of the article, although it is somewhat long, for
the benefit of those who among us who have spent enough time in New York
City to notice that stores with signs in the window crying "lost our
lease", "going out of business", "positively the last week" and so forth
often nonetheless endure protracted death agonies, occasionally lasting
years.  The "going-out-of-business business" is not new.


1833:   Among the business anomalies which meet the eye of a stranger
visiting New-York, are the placards exhibited in the windows of the
retail shops, informing passers by that the stock in trade within is
selling off at prime cost, or according to the more alluring
announcement which some have adopted, at fifty per cent. less than cost.
 A person attracted by this lure to become a purchaser, must soon come
to the conclusion that either the veracity of the dealer is not of the
most scrupulous description, or else that he laid in his goods at
enormous prices.  One in the habit of passing these shops, must at last
smile to perceive that notwithstanding their owners have been selling
off their goods "at less than cost" for so long a time, their shelves
continue to be as well filled as ever.  We have heard of one individual,
who "wishing to retire in consequence of declining health," was five
years disposing of his merchandise, "at prime cost," and at the end of
this time he found his capital so much augmented that he removed into a
more busy part of the city, and entered into trade on a much larger
scale than before.  How is it that trades-people can sell their goods at
less than they paid for them, and yet realize a handsome profit, is one
of those mysteries of commerce which we never could penetrate.  Perhaps
they are like the Irish mercer, who, having assured a lady customer that
the silk he desired to dispose of to her actually cost him more per yard
than he charged for it, was asked how he then could afford to sell it so
low.  "Ah, madam, he replied, we depend for our profit on selling a
large quantity."
        Evening Post, February 6, 1833, p. 2, col. 2

GAT

George A. Thompson
Author of A Documentary History of "The African
Theatre", Northwestern Univ. Pr., 1998.