Elaboration on Price

November 12

Carl Robert Keyes Daily Advert Update , , , , , , ,

What was advertised in a colonial American newspaper 250 years ago today?

Providence Gazette (November 12, 1774).

“He pretends not to say that no one can sell so cheap, but believes no one will.”

According to his advertisement in the November 12, 1774, edition of the Providence Gazette, Amos Throop stocked a variety of popular patent medicines, including Hooper’s Pills, Stoughton’s Elixir, Bateman’s Drops, Godfrey’s Cordial, James’s Fever Powder, Turlington’s Balsam of Life, and Hill’s Balsam of Honey “for coughs and consumptions.”  He also sold a variety of medical supplies for both physicians, apothecaries, and home use, such as “pocket cases of surgeons instruments,” “a pretty assortment of bell-metal and glass mortars,” and “beautiful smelling bottles of various figures.”

Throop’s advertisement did not list every item that he recently imported from London.  Like other retailers often did, he promised that prospective customers would discover much more merchandise upon visiting his shop.  “Many more articles might be enumerated,” he proclaimed, “but suffice to say, that a more general assortment never was imported.”  Not only did he offer an array of choices, but the selection was supposedly unrivaled in Providence or anywhere else in the colonies.

In case that was not enough to get the attention of prospective customers, Throop also promoted his prices.  He initially referred to them as “very cheap indeed,” but then elaborated on that point.  Readers would not find more choices elsewhere, “nor can any reasonable objection be made to the prices.  He pretends not to say that no one can sell so cheap, but believes no one will.”  In making that declaration, he invited readers to consider the choices made by purveyors of goods when they set prices for their wares.  Throop claimed that he was not in any sort of special position to offer such bargains.  Anyone else in his line of business could have done the same, but he did not suspect that anyone would.  Throop deliberately chose to sell his merchandise “very cheap indeed.”  Physicians, apothecaries, and other consumers, he suggested, should reward that choice by choosing to buy their patent medicines and medical supplies from him rather than any of his competitors.

May 31

Carl Robert Keyes Daily Advert Update , , , , , , ,

What was advertised in a colonial American newspaper 250 years ago today?

New-York Gazette and Weekly Mercury (May 31, 1773).

“The above will be sold very low, as the subscriber has a great deal on hand.”

Appropriately enough, Jacob Wilkins advertised “ONE hundred and thirty pair of brass and iron and-irons” at the “Sign of the Gold And-iron and Candlestick” in the May 31, 1773, edition of the New-York Gazette and Weekly Mercury.  Prospective customers could choose from among the “newest patterns and … different sorts and sizes” to outfit their places.  Wilkins also carried several accessories, including “tongs and shovels and fenders to suit the and-irons.”  In addition, he made “sundry sorts of brass-work” and stocked “a quantity of earthen ware … and all sorts of coarse ware.”

Wilkins concluded his advertisement with a note that “[t]he above will be sold very low, as the subscriber has a great deal on hand.”  It was not clear if he meant the andirons and accessories or all of the merchandise listed in his advertisement, but he may have been willing to dicker with customers over the price of any item.  Unlike other advertisers who merely promoted “very reasonable prices” (as George Ball did in a notice on the same page), Wilkins gave consumers a reason to believe that they would indeed acquire his wares at bargain prices.  He had so much inventory that he was determined to offer good deals just to reduce how much he had on hand.  Whatever determinations he already made about the lowest prices he could offer, Wilkins allowed prospective customers to feel as though they had the upper hand.  They may have been more enthusiastic about visiting his shop with the confidence that the seller had confessed in the public prints that he needed to reduce his inventory.

Wilkins enhanced his appeal to price with additional commentary intended to demonstrate the veracity of his pledge to sell andirons and other housewares “very low.”  Other advertisers sometimes did so as well, though their strategies often involved stories about how they acquired goods directly from producers in England rather than going through middlemen.  Wilkins took a rather novel approach, one that gave consumers the impression that they had the stronger position when it came time to discuss prices.

April 19

Carl Robert Keyes Daily Advert Update , , , ,

What was advertised in a colonial American newspaper 250 years ago today?

Boston Evening-Post (April 19, 1773).

“Those who are acquainted with his Prices, will not need to be told that he sells at low Rates.”

Samuel Eliot made consumer choice and low prices the centerpieces of the advertisement he inserted in the April 19, 1773, edition of the Boston Evening-Post.  He first established that he stocked a “very fine Assortment of English and India Piece GOODS.”  He also stated that his inventory included a “Variety of Genteel Looking-Glasses” as well as “Stationary, Cutlery, and Hard Ware.”  He did not provide as extensive a list of individual items as Caleb Blanchard did for his “large and general Assortment of English and India GOODS” or Daniel Waldo did for his “compleat Assortment of London, Bristol, Birmingham, and Sheffield Hard Ware Goods,” but he did conclude with “&c. &c.” (an abbreviation for et cetera) to indicate that he sold goods beyond those that appeared in his advertisement.

Rather than listing dozens of items like some of his competitors, Eliot devoted more attention to promoting his prices.  In a paragraph that appeared in italics, he declared, “Those who are acquainted with his Prices, will not need to be told that he sells at low Rates.”  Even though they did not need to be told, Eliot offered a reminder that simultaneously presented an opening for elaborating on his prices for “those who are not” already aware of the bargains he offered.  He invited them “to call on him,” confidently asserting that once they visited his shop near Dock Square or his store on Wilson’s Lane they “shall be satisfied he makes no idle Profession, when he engages to sell his Goods on the most reasonable Terms.”  Eliot suggested that he set such low prices that many consumers already associated good deals with his merchandise.  For those not already aware, he issued a challenge to confirm his “low Rates” for themselves.  Getting prospective customers into one of his locations, Eliot likely surmised, increased the chances of making sales, especially if his prices were indeed as low as he suggested.  Other merchants and shopkeepers, like Ebenezer Storer, made passing references to “the lowest Rates” for their goods.  Eliot, in contrast, encouraged engagement with readers of the Boston Evening-Post by creating a narrative around his prices.

December 5

Carl Robert Keyes Daily Advert Update , , , , ,

What was advertised in a colonial American newspaper 250 years ago today?

New-York Journal (December 5, 1771).

“JOHN SIMNET, of London, WATCH-FINISHER.”

Nearly six months had passed since John Simnet last placed an advertisement in the New-York Journal, but he concluded the year by placing his notice in every issue published in December 1771.  Simnet, a veteran watchmaker with decades of experience working in shops in London, did not advertise in any of the newspapers published in New York nearly as often as he had advertised in the New-Hampshire Gazette when he ran a shop in Portsmouth for about eighteen months in 1769 and 1770.  A rivalry with another watchmaker, Nathaniel Sheaff Griffith, played an important part in Simnet aggressively taking to the public prints, frequently denigrating his competitor.  Readers may have been amused by the feud between Griffith and Simnet that played out before their eyes in the New-Hampshire Gazette, though Simnet may have alienated as many prospective customers as he gained since his advertisements were often significantly more mean-spirited than those placed by Griffith.

Simnet did not even mention his time in Portsmouth after he relocated from the smaller town to the bustling port of New York.  He presented himself as “JOHN SIMNET, of London, WATCH-FINISHER,” choosing not to acknowledge that he passed through New Hampshire.  He adopted a more evenhanded tone in his advertisements in the New-York Journal, though he could not resist the temptation to make a blanket statement about “Watch-Butchers” who further damaged rather than repaired watches customers entrusted to their care when he advertised in the summer of 1771.  He eschewed such attacks when he once again ran notices in December.  He trumpeted, however, that he was the “only general Manufacturer in this Country,” dismissing the training, skill, and experience of his competitors.  Despite that interlude near the end of his advertisement, Simnet focused most of his effort on positive appeals.  He emphasized price, addressing his notice “to “those who desire to preserve their Money and their WATCHES, And avoid unnecessary Expence.”  He listed prices for some of his services, reporting that he performed “All other Repairs in Proportion, at half what is usually charged.”  The watchmaker also declared that he completed difficult jobs quickly.  Simnet may have learned that such strategies served him better than the antagonistic approach he took to marketing during the time he resided in New Hampshire.

May 2

Carl Robert Keyes Daily Advert Update , , , , , ,

What was advertised in a colonial American newspaper 250 years ago today?

May 2 - 5:2:1767 Providence Gazette
Providence Gazette (May 2, 1767).

“They hope to accommodate their Customers with whatever they may want.”

Thompson and Arnold frequently advertised in the Providence Gazette. At a glance, their notices resembled those placed by shopkeepers in newspapers throughout the colonies, but Thompson and Arnold often added at least one additional element to distinguish their marketing from the efforts of their competitors.

Consider today’s advertisement. It made several of the standard appeals in eighteenth-century advertisements for consumer goods and services: price (“at the cheapest Rate”), choice (an “Assortment of English and India Goods”), current fashions (the “Assortment” was “new and fresh”), and connections to the cosmopolitan center of the empire (“imported in the last Ships from LONDON”). To underscore the extent of consumer choice, Thompson and Arnold listed dozens of items in a dense paragraph. Like other retailers, they packed a variety of appeals into a relatively short advertisement.

Most of their counterparts incorporated one or more of these strategies but did little to elaborate on them. Thompson and Arnold, on the other hand, supplemented the formulaic format and language of these appeals with an animated nota bene, an entire paragraph that expanded on their low prices and the extensive choices they presented to customers. The shopkeepers boasted that they could “accommodate their Customers with whatever they may want” not only because they stocked so much merchandise but also because their inventory was superior to what could be found anywhere else in Providence. Their customers benefited from the convenience of what has become known as one-stop shopping; Thompson and Arnold had “a greater variety, and a larger quantity of goods than can be found in any one store in this town.” Potential customers did not need to worry about popular or inexpensive items selling out!

Unlike other shopkeepers that mentioned prices once at the beginning of an advertisement or perhaps again at the end, Thompson and Arnold doubled down on their low prices in their nota bene. They beat the prices they charged in the past (“they will now sell their goods much cheaper than they have yet sold”), but they also undersold their competitors (“cheaper than can be bought elsewhere in this town”).

Given that some advertisements lingered in colonial newspapers for weeks or months, Thompson and Arnold also affixed a date (“May 2, 1767,” the date of that issue of the Providence Gazette) so readers and potential customers would be aware of the timeliness of the appeals they made.

On their own, the introduction and list of goods in Thompson and Arnold’s advertisement replicated many other advertisement for consumer goods published in the 1760s, advancing multiple appeals to potential customers but each of them briefly. To garner additional attention and generate more business, Thompson and Arnold inserted an additional paragraph elaborating on two of those appeals, price and choice.