The General Merchandise Store

The general merchandise store was the most important business establishment in every pioneer community. For in it, a person could find practically everything that he wanted, whether it be medicine, clothing, food, hardware, dry goods, horseshoes, or chicken feed. In about 1914, our store adopted a slogan on the tags, letterheads, etc., "We Sell Everything From A Needle To An Automobile", and it was about true; at that time we were selling Model T Ford cars, along with quicksilver, dynamite, whiskey, codfish, and about everything one could think of.

As stated herein before, our first store was started by my great-grandfather John R. Meek at Indian Valley in 1855, and the family came to Camptonville in 1864 and bought out the business which was a two-story brick store. I do not remember this too well, although I spent much of my real young childhood in it and had a playhouse in the attic. This was destroyed by fire in 1908 and was rebuilt in the form of a concrete two-story building. Thus I was practically born and raised in a general merchandise store, and the fascination for such is still in my blood. There is certainly a great contrast between the store of my childhood and the present day mode of merchandising.

In the "good old days", very few items came packaged; practically everything (referring to food) was in bulk. All spices were in bulk, black pepper, cinnamon, nutmeg, several grades of coffee, beans, rice, cereal, birdseed, etc. It was kept in bins and drawers, and scooped up and dispensed in paper bags.

There were practically no restrictions as to what could be sold in those days, and no licenses were needed. We carried in stock and on the shelves several grades of bottled whiskey and had it in bulk from with it was dispensed in quarts, half-gallons, and gallons. In the drug department, our shelves contained pain-killing remedies containing opium, paregoric, etc., which can now only be bought by prescription. Strange as it may seem, the purchase of these items were never abused, and they were bought only when direly needed.

Merchandise carried in those days had quality, whether it was food, rubber boots, or woolen underwear, and it was sold for quality and not for price. Nowadays the only thought in merchandising is mass production, volume sales and the almighty dollar. Quality has become a thing of the past.

Grocery salesmen used to come to town and tried to sell the merchant their merchandise because of its quality. Many is the time that I have watched them buy a can each of peas, corn, oysters, peaches, asparagus, etc., from our shelves, borrow some dishes from the crockery department, then open a can of like vegetable from the samples they brought and compare the quality. And the sale was made on the basis of the quality.

Credit was a tremendous factor in the early-day general store. Accounts were large, and many became uncollectable. I have often remarked that if I had the money which my great-grandfather, grandfather, and father lost in credit during their years of business, I would be wealthy and never have to do a tap of work. Pennies were unheard of as legal tender in my youth, nickels being the smallest coin used in our establishment. And usually if an account would come out to say $123.35, it was the usual custom to drop off the $3.35. If or when the bills were paid by the lady of the house she was always given a little bag of choice candy in appreciation thereof! Even though we lost considerable amounts through credit, most customers were honest, appreciated the accommodation extended them, and paid their obligations.

In the younger days of my youth, paper money (currency) was an unknown thing in these parts. All business was transacted in gold and silver coin. There being no bank here (during my time), many people buried their money for safe keeping, and much of the coins, both gold and silver, which passed over our counter were tarnished from having been buried. When paper money finally showed up, most of the older people were highly incensed, as they could not bury it -- the dampness would rot it.

I was always amazed at what I would term carelessness in the handling of certain types of merchandise in the early-day store. Various kinds of poison were on the same shelf as cough syrup, vanilla or vinegar. Strong acids used in retorting gold were likewise on the shelf, and in my opinion, worst of all, a box of opened dynamite was at hand on the shelf, along with everything else.

One day a customer was at the counter displaying a new rifle he had recently acquired, and in the display of it, the thing accidentally went off, and the bullet went right into a box of dynamite on the shelf. Why the jar did not set off the dynamite, no one ever knew!! People had no fear in such things. Along with their knowledge of how to handle them, I guess the good Lord also protected them!

One of the most interesting activities which took place throughout the year in the general store was the semi-annual visitations of the traveling salesmen of those days. And they were traveling salesmen in every sense of the word!

Most of them traveled with horse and buggy, or for those with a large variety of trunks (full of samples), a spring wagon. A few used the stage. They would come and not stay a few moments, but usually their visits lasted from two to three days to a week. Time and space does not permit me to describe them all, so I will picture only a few of what I thought the most colorful.

A man by the name of Pagnello, selling stationery, sundries and notions, was on the road for many years. He knew and could sell his merchandise. He came one visit in the spring and another in the fall. In the fall, the merchant had to buy enough stock to last him all winter until goods could be freighted in again in the spring.

This meant that all the cellars, warehouses and every space had to be filled with tons of flour, wheat, salt, sugar, barley, bran, etc. This man Pagnello would concentrate for a couple of days on his business and then spend the rest of the week drinking and playing cards at the saloon.

The most outstanding salesmen as far as being characters, in my opinion, were two brothers by the name of Clark. One was a short, heavy-set man who wore a diamond ring large enough to dazzle your eyes, and his nickname was 'Dirty Shirt' Clark; his brother was a tall, skinny, shy fellow whose right name was Frank (his brother's first name was Charley), but he was nicknamed 'Hungry'.

Dirty Shirt Clark represented the Pacific Coast Syrup Company for many years, selling syrups, preserves, pickles, and a fine line of crockery, and as a sideline, he sold coffins and caskets, always calling on the town undertaker before he left. Hungry sold a fine line of boots and shoes, gloves and some items of clothing. Together they had a company selling brooms, lamp chimneys and glasses, and most every trip they would have acquired some new line in their own company, usually something they had imported from a foreign land.

Whenever they would arrive in town, Dirty Shirt would poke his head in the door and yell in a loud voice, "Hello, have you got a rope in there?" I usually answered him, asking him what he wanted it for, and his reply was, "To tie the bull outside before I come in". Then when he finally got inside the door, he would start to sing: "Hurrah for the monkey, Hurrah for the bear, Hurrah for Bill Meek who grabbed them by the hair!"

The semi-annual visitations of these two men were well worth the time it took dealing with them and buying their merchandise, as their performance and presentation was something that never has been nor do I believe ever could be duplicated!

Dirty Shirt usually brought along an extra supply of fancy dishes in his crockery samples, and before he left he would always give my mother a nice hand-painted item in Chinaware. I believe that represented Nathan Dorhman Company of San Francisco for around 40 years, and they finally made him a salesman emeritus and gave him a pension.