Upper Lake Rd., R.D. 1 Box 8894, Lodi, NY 14860.
Reprinted from Gas Power Magazine, May 1912.
Why implement dealers should hesitate to take on a line of power
washers is hard to understand, says The Implement Trade Journal.
There seldom has been a new type of machine introduced which is at
once so practical and so easy to sell and which so naturally fits
into the implement and farm machinery business as the power washer.
The gasoline engine has for some years established itself firmly in
favor with the more progressive farmers, and others are constantly
turning their thoughts toward it as a future necessity; and yet not
a few dealers profess to believe there’s nothing in the
business for them and refuse to stock and push them. Those who have
taken hold of the business right, however, could not be induced to
let go of this branch of their business.
While there still exist some farmers of the old-fashioned type,
who think it easier and cheaper to get a new wife when the old one
wears out and is laid away to rest, perhaps for the first time
since her marriage, in the bleak little graveyard on the hill, the
majority of them have come to realize that their wives are entitled
to some consideration and for economical reasons, if not for the
sentimental one, are willing to consider the purchase of something
that will lighten the drudgery and burdens of the house.
Without offering any further arguments of our own why dealers
should handle power washers, we call attention to the suggestions
from manufacturers and retail dealers as to ways and means of
getting into this particular line of the implement business. We
believe that a careful study of these letters will convince some
who have hesitated, fearing that the business might not prove
profitable, or might prove too complicated for them to take on with
their present facilities, and lead them to make a start in this
direction. Our only suggestion would be, with this line as with any
other: Don’t go into it at all unless you go in to make it win.
Too many implement stores and warerooms are lumbered up with sample
machines and implements which have been purchased, laid away and
forgotten. This course is unprofitable, and worse, it is
disastrous. If you have any such lumber on hand, put a price on it,
clean it up, put it in the window and get rid of it quickly, and do
not repeat the mistake.
