Barlow had smiled as he said, "I realized early in the game that if I meant to win the farmers' trade, I must win their confidence by knowing their needs, and talking in their own terms; so I bought that little farm at Mortonville, eight miles from here, just to experiment with and to study farming."
It just showed how easily a boss can be misunderstood. When I worked for old Barlow we fellows had always thought he was having a good time every spring, summer and fall at his farm, and had wished we could get away from business as often as he did just to "play" on the farm—and all the time he had been trying out new methods so as to talk helpfully to the farmers!
I began to understand more and more why Barlow was so successful. He never guessed, but always got the facts first hand.
Just the same I'm convinced he made a mistake in not telling his workers more of his methods—he would not have been so often misunderstood and misjudged by his employees if he had had meetings with them similar to my Monday evening "Directors' Meeting."
Well, to come back to our meeting. Of course, we had decided to have a full line of gardening tools. Jones suggested that we add garden seeds, which we had never kept because Traglio, the druggist, sold them.
I demurred, saying, "We ought not trespass on Traglio's trade for seeds, which he has had for years."
Charlie Martin said, "Of course, it's splendid of you, Mr. Black, to be so considerate; but, after all, business is no 'After-you-Alphonse' affair. I believe you should sell garden seeds. The hardware store that sells garden tools is also the logical place for seeds."
Larsen agreed with Charlie, while Jimmie said, "Gee, boss, that's a great idea—and let's grow some in the window so as to show the seeds are there with the sproutin' act."
We finally decided to sell garden seeds.
Jones then suggested that we should make a big window display of seeds and tools, "Not just a 'dead' display, you know, Mr. Black, but a display of them in use. That's the way to attract attention to the goods—show 'em being used," he concluded.