Catalog on Wheels

In Manchuria the Japanese regularly load trains with seeds, cinemas, drygoods, hardware and propagandists, dispatch them to the back districts for the edification of incredulous Chinese. In the U. S. railroad peddling has been largely confined to private cars in which crack executives tour the land, scatter cheer to underlings and big customers. Last autumn Chairman Winthrop Aldrich of Chase National Bank led a long goodwill mission around the borders of the U. S. in a private car with his nephew Nelson Rockefeller as Exhibit A (TIME, Dec. 24). But not until last fortnight when Chicago's Marshall Field & Co. christened an eleven-car Merchandise Express did the U. S. develop a full-fledged catalog on wheels.*

Marshall Field's is not only a smart department store in the second city of the land; it is the biggest wholesale house in the Midwest. And the Merchandise Express was purely wholesaling promotion. Air conditioned cars were leased from Baltimore & Ohio R.R., stripped of seats, fitted up as modernistic display rooms. Forward was a dormitory car for the train crew; in the rear were a dining car, two Pullmans and an office car with desks, typewriters, reception room, service bar.

Hung conspicuously by the vestibule of the office car was a sign: For Merchants Only. The general public was not admitted. No goods were actually for sale; they were simply samples from which local merchants might order. Stressed were exclusive Field items like special fabric prints, Czechoslovakian cut glassware. And the 24 salesmen and one salesgirl (who modeled on demand) were as busy selling Marshall Field's name as Marshall Field's goods.

By last week, having swung through Illinois, Missouri and Kentucky, the Merchandise Express was chuffing into the South. When its 3,000-mile itinerary is completed it will have visited 19 important centres including Memphis, Little Rock, New Orleans and Atlanta. Precise dates of arrival were kept secret so that no sly competitor could stage a counterattraction.

At its first stop in Peoria more than 400 retailers boarded the train, some having motored a hundred miles from little farming communities in the surrounding territory. Some brought their wives & children. Big Peoria stores deployed their sales employes through the train in squads of ten to pick up new ideas. And over highballs and buffet snacks the Merchandise Express staff sold $20,000 worth of goods in two days.

Even in St. Louis, Chicago's traditional rival for leadership of the Mississippi Valley wholesale trade, buyers swarmed aboard before the staff had finished breakfast. As soon as the train was on siding at each stop telephones were hooked up with local exchanges so that customers and prospects could be invited aboard. A teletype in the office car clicked out rush orders direct to Chicago. Marshall Field's divulged no official sales figure but newsmen who accompanied the expedition estimated sales for the first seven days of the trip at $100,000.

Fastest selling lines were seasonal goods such as silks, woolens, and table linen for autumn promotions. Next were household furnishings: curtains, drapes, floor coverings. Third were accessories: gloves, handkerchiefs, hosiery. Half a car was filled with toys but orders were disappointing. An upturn was expected farther south where, for some unknown reason, Christmas toy-buying always starts first.

Marshall Field's merchandising innovation originated last spring with a subordinate of Grant Standard Mears, assistant general manager of the wholesale and manufacturing divisions. Tall, lean, smart, and 35, Merchant Mears put the idea into action. To his wife went the pleasure of christening the train with a champagne bottle filled with water from the Gulf of Mexico. After spending three days aboard the Merchandise Express, Mr. Mears returned to Chicago to find his desk littered with demands that the train next be sent through the Northwest to the Pacific Coast. President John McKinlay is expected to join the Merchandise Express for a few days this week.

Marshall Field's has no desire to move Chicago to the merchants of the Mississippi Valley. It hopes to persuade them that when they do go to Chicago they should buy at Marshall Field's. And it hopes to demonstrate that at Marshall Field's they can buy everything they need to stock a modern store.

As the train bored farther into the South, it became more apparent that Marshall Field's was tapping new business it would not otherwise obtain. At best the average small city store cannot afford to send buyers to big merchandising centres like Chicago and New York more than once or twice a year because railroad fares and hotel bills eat up the meagre profits. Result is a tendency to reorder the same old standard lines, though fresh goods might sell faster. Hence the Merchandise Express offers the small retailer an opportunity to keep abreast of modern merchandising along with the big store with plenty of cash to meet buyers' expense accounts.

*Two years ago a Duluth hardware firm called Kelly, How, Thomson used a five-car Train of Progress as an advertising stunt to tie in with special sales conducted by dealers in the towns visited. But Kelly, How, Thomson did not sell from their train.

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