"Then they find out how many stores in their line are in the town, and if they look alive and up to date."
"Did you think we were a dead lot?" I asked.
"Sorry you asked me that," said Roger with a grin. "They did. Yes, they think that old Barlow has the only real store in the town."
"And me and Stigler?" I said interestedly, even if ungrammatically.
"Well, they think Stigler is a joke, and that you are—" he hesitated for a word—"inexperienced!"
"So they think that Barlow,—old-fashioned, plug-along Barlow—is the only real competitor in the town?"
"Yes. You see, Barlow does twice as much trade as you and Stigler put together, and then some."
I had never realized before that Barlow was so much a bigger man than I was, but the more I thought of it the more I believed that the chain-store people had sized up the situation correctly.
"Then," continued Roger, "they find out where the people live; if they own their own houses, or if they rent them. Obviously, a town where people own their own homes is going to offer a more regular and permanent trade than one where every one lives in rented houses. Then they want to find out how and when the great number of employees in the manufacturing plants are paid. They want to know this so that they can offer special sale goods and such-like on the day that the people get the money."
That was a new one on me. I had never thought of that before.