"We can be friends, even if we are competitors, you know," Mr. Barlow continued, "and if you get into any kind of trouble, come around and see me and I'll do what I can to help you."
I was sure he meant it, too. And all the time I had thought that Barlow was a "has been." What a different slant you seem to get on people as soon as you get up to their position! I suppose it's just like climbing a mountain; if you want to see the view the other fellow sees, you have to get up to the same height which he has surmounted.
I had an interesting chat with Jim that day. I went to the store and he had marked about twenty items on his stock book, which he said was a perpetual inventory. He passed the book over to me, and said, "I've marked a couple of dozen items which you can look over. I've picked out some of the things that run into a lot of money, because those are the things you are most careful about, aren't they?—and I didn't think you'd want to waste your time over a lot of trivial things."
I checked those up with him and in one case I found there was even more stock than Jim said. I laughed and said, "I got you there, Jim! This wonderful perpetual inventory isn't perfect, after all!"
"Well, of course," he replied, "there might be a fraction of a difference here and there, but in the main it's bound to be correct." He continued, with a bit of a grin, "If you're a little short in one thing, you'll find a little bit over on another; and anyhow, you've got your fixtures for half of what they're worth, to allow for any little discrepancy that may crop up."
He showed me how the cash register worked and how to total up the week's sales. I saw the previous week's figures were $311.28. I wondered at that, and said:
"Why, Jim, if you sell $28,000.00 worth a year, you should have about $560.00 worth of sales a week!"
"Oh," he replied, "don't you know this is the quiet time for kitchen goods? You've got to expect some quiet time, you know. In one respect it's a good time for you to take the store over, for you'll have time enough to get yourself fully familiar with the store."
"You know, Dawson," he went on, "if you were to take over this store about September or October, when you're simply rushed to death with business, it might easily put you on your back. You might lose a tremendous lot of business just because it came too quick for you to handle, whereas, buying the store when the business is quiet will give you a chance to learn how to handle it."
I decided that, as soon as possible, I would go over my stock carefully and rearrange it and if I should happen to find any dead stock I'd have a sale and clean it out and buy a lot of new stock; and, believe me, I'd give old Barlow the biggest run for his money he ever had!