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F HE GUARDIAN.

Phenomenal Success Story

Of A P.E.I. Business Firm Re1atedAtRotaryMeeting

The phenomenal success story of the ninety-five years' progress of the Island firm of R. '1'. Holman's Ltd. was the theme of an inter- esting address at the Charlotte- town Rotary Club luncheon yes- terday by Rotarian Russell seller Mr. Seller spoke as follows:

"Shortly after I joined this Club one of its members said to me, 'Somcday, you will be expected to address the Club on your classific- ation', to which I replied 'That will be the day'.

"It is surprising to me how many times that short conversa- tion has returned to my mind and to some extent has bothered my conscience. It is like a little grem- lin who sneaks up behind you and whispers in your ear 'You haven't addressed the Club'-You are not being a good Rotarian'-'You are not putting Service before Self"- and so, gentlemen, I have decided that I am going to rid myself of this pesky little gremlin and to- day I am going to address the Club on my classification, namely, Department Store Manager.

"As you have already noticed in your Rotary letter, the title of my remarks is, 'A Great Oak From A Little Acorn Grew', and I would like to tell you the story of ti Little Acorn which was planted here on this Island almost 95 years ago. I imagine that most of us, as children, have at one time or another, planted a little acorn and as we did, we had great hopes that that little acorn would grow, and grow, and grow and branch out until some day, it would be a great big Oak Tree.

"Well, the Little Acorn which I have in mind today is not exactly that kind of a Little Acorn but theLittle Acorn which I am think- ing of is in the form or shape of a little country store which was planted in the village of St. El- etinor's, Just west of Sutnmerside by a young man, 23 years of age. whose name was Robert Tinson Holman; and I can well imagine

that when Robert Holman planted this little acorn (or his little

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store) that he too had great hopes that it would grow, and grow, and grow and branch out and someday become” a great big Departmental Store.

Modest Beginning

"Now. I imagine you can all vis- ualize this little Country Store,ami I say 'little' because it was just that, it was only 30 feet long and 20 feet wide-just I little frame building.

"Starting a business in 1557 was I. Very different proposition titan it would be today. In 1857 no mod- em ships plied the oceans of the world, no fast freight trains, pro- tecting the perishable goods with refrigeration, were available to bring produce from all parts of the continent,-but people, eve.) then, wanted merchandise from every corner of the globe and the business of bringing iti to them was a mighty one. In 1857 very little actual money was to be found among those who traded at this store-it was not the custom to pay cash, nobody expected it.

"These customers oi,Robert Hol- man's were practically all country people. They used to come to this little store, make their purchases and these purchases were practic- ally all charged on the books. until the following fall when the farm- er was ready to market his crop. The merchant of that year must also be a clearing house for all manner of products of the land and sea. In order to sell his goods. he must take other goods in re- turn.

It was pretty much of a barter- ing trade that was carried on However, Robert Holman must have been pretty well satisfied with those first few years because his business prospered. Difficulties. of course, there were many, but with the courage that characterized his whole life, he met and vanquished them. so it was, here, in this lit- tle 30 by 20 store that the founda- tion for .a great organization was laid.

Man of Vision

”Robert Holman was a man of great vision and it was about this time that, looking to the future. he decided to move into Summer- side.

”Here he obtained another store. not very much bigger than the one he had at St. Eleanor's but there was greater opportunity in Sum- merside.

"It was not many years before R.T. Holm:in's business had grown in such an extent that a larger premises was necessary, so anoth- er wooden store, measuring 50 feet by 100 feet, was erected on prac- tically the same site. At this time. this store was considered to be enormous. While the retail busi- ness was being carricd on in this building the land between it and the water ,was being used for warehouses, produce sheds, etc.

"By this time, Robert Holman had made for himself the enviable reputation of being a shrewd, up- right, honourable merchant, whose obligations were always fulfilled, whose word was his bond.

"The, secret of his phenomenal success was undoubtedly his un- usual ability to look after the most minute details. In all that concerned his business. nothing was so small as to be unimportant to him. For instance, he made it it purpose of life to stock in- his establishment everything that a customer could reasonably ask for and to buy every kind of product that 9. customer had to offer him.

"The great Department Store which he built up gives ample token of his success in this on- deavour.

Community Interests

"During the life time of the fcunder, both he and his estab- lishment were always available for any work in the furtherance of the community and the people and the policy that The common good was his own good' was no doubt a considerable factor in the successful growth of his business. Robert Holman made a deep im-, pression on the business circles of his day. Despite the tremendous pressure of his work, he always found time for a friendly act and many of Summerside's poor have reason to bless him. To man and beast he bore a deep love and an abiding sympathy.

tell you a little story which scrvts to illustrate very well the type of man Robert Holman was. It is a fact, that for many years, at 7 o'clock each morning, Robert Hol- man used to go down on his wharf and spread half of a bushel of grain to over 500 pigeons that used to gather there each.-cl-ay for their breakfast. I am afraid that there are not many of us today who would find the time to do such a kind ' act.)

"Business was carried on at this stand until the year 1894. when it was realized that a still larger establishment was necessary and it was in that year that the pre- sent. site on the opposite side of water street was acquired and ti portion of our present brim store was erected. some years later. an adjoining building which had been used as a storage and produce de- mm

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partment was remodeled and re- l.-ricked for the new requiramcnzr.

Sons Carry On

"Robert T. Holman died on De- cember I1, 1906. and newspaper accounts at the time of his death credited his success mainly to the fact that he always had the de- tails of his business under, his per- sonal control, but his own person- ality and the general policy of his operation were probably more im- portant contributions to his suc- cess than any one item in the day-by-day running of his busin- ess. Upon the death of Mr. Hol- man. the assumption of control of the business passed on to his own sons, Mr. Harry T. and Mr. J. Le- Roy, who had been taken into the business many years before.

"Only a few years after their father's death, the managers of the R. T. Holman Firm found that competition was not confined to Prince Edward Island merchants but that Maritime and Canadian mail order houses as a whole were becoming a serious factor in the problem of retaining their volume of business. As Mr. Harry Holman explained it himself in an article written for the magazine Business System'. we were simply forced into the mail order business when outside mail order houses began cutting into Prince Edward island trade. We saw other merchants losing business by agitating against mail order business on the argu- mcnt I buy of you, therefore, you should buy of me'. Because we could see the futility of that sort of reasoning, we entered the mail order business in self-defence'.

The first mail order catalogue l-iolman's issued was in 1909 and depicted the merchandise which the firm had to offer from the stock in the store. This catalogue was not a very well illustrated one and today it would be perhaps clased as a Price List rather than it Catalogue, but a few of the li- lustrations which did appear in- cluded such items as the old large gramophone, ranging in pricefrom s15.oo to 868.00.-you could buy 11 Singer sewing machine with a 10- year guarantee for si8.00-natural mink muffs sold for as low as 330.00-and listen to this, gentle- men.-and I would ask the special attention of Rotarian Roy Charge More,-yott could buy a man's single breasted tweed suit for b9.40 or a made-to-measure suit up to (mind you) 318.00.

First Catalogue

"The first catalogue included A variety of items, however. and practically every requirement of the household of that day could as they can today, be purchased from the Holman organization.

"In 1922, approximately 15 years later. the Holman organization was selling somewhere near 32,000,000 of merchandise each year and the methods by which this volume of sales was built. were unique and in a great many instances peculiar to the Island firm itself. The Hol- man methods included in addition to the semi-annual Catalogue which was mailed to over 35,000 customers, the development of special shopping excursions to S1-mmerside. The following up of selling opportunities resulting from couples becoming married, and

The Best

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building of new homes, all for the purpose of obtaining" new orders for merchandise.

"In later years the mail order business became less necessary. particularly after the advent of the automobile and its presence or. nearly every farm. Therefore, the mail order catalogue was dis- continued.

Amusing Story

"There is one rather amusing little story I would like to tell you in connectioyi with one of Hol- man's specia shopping events, and I am referring to our annual an- niversary sale. This is an abso- lutely true story and was told to its by the commercial traveller. himself. It appears that this com- mercial traveller came over to the Island from the mainland the evening before the opening day of Holman's anniversary sale. He had stayed in summerside over night and left by car the next morning for the western part of the Island. After he proceeded along the Western road for some distance he noticed he was meeting car after car, almost a steady procession of cars, so he came to the conclusion that he was meeting a funeral.

”He therefore pulled off to the side of the road, stopped his car and very reverently removed his hat.

”He sat there in his car for quite some time while the other cars were passing by and he thought it rather strange that there was no sign of the hearse coming. so after sitting there for some additional length of time, he decided that this couldn't possibly be a funeral and he put his car in gear and drove along the road. When he finally came to 8. general store. where he was going to make a call he went into the store and said to the proprietor: 'Where in the worm are all those cars going to'l' To which the proprietor replied. 'Oh, this is the day that I-Iolman's are having their anniversay sale and everybody is going to Summerside'

Actually, that is pretty mucn what happens, especially in Prince County, when Holman's stage their anniversary sale. You would have to see the crowds which emble at that store to realize what I am talking about.

"Of course. there are many in- ducements to bring customers to the store during sale days. Lucky ballots are given out with every purchase and many beautiful priz- es are given away. The Blind prize during our last anniversary sale was a. new Prefect automobile which was won by a young 13 Yell!" old boy in Summerside.

L

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SOIIEONE huh hoid that if: monfltrttiily has is ironic without debt upon it somehow they will monuoe to live in it-even if he isn't here to provide for them.

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An Excelsior Lilo "Mortgage Redemption" Policy is ci "step- down" insurance plan which reduces systematically .05 the mortgage is amortized-and makes sure that your family Will hova

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::1l,'I'IIO Cont? '. . . About 196 of tho . mortgage per your-depending upon your present age . . .

23, For specific particulars on your own- situation-consult:

. STEWART G. IVES District Manager, 144 Richmond St... Charlottetown.

N -p L "R .l,coMoiitg A SRONG cnnnnmvdcompnnv; .;

Present 'i”'''' '

"The Summerside store as ii: stands today occupies a frontage of nearly 300 feet on Water Street. and extends to the water line even a greater distance. Including the wharf property the depth from the street is well over 1000 feet.

"In 1924. I-lolman's business had grown to such an extent in the eastern section of Prince Edward Island that it was thought advis- able to open a. branch store in Charlottetown.

"The opening of this store was the first branch of the parent es- tablishment at Summersidc. In 1940. business had expanded to

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greatest expansion and growth,-

. through the years of the worst do: pxession the country has e known,-through the war ye when scarcity of merchandise w 2; major problem.

such an extent in Charlottetown that it was necessary to open a new modern addition to the pre- sent premises. This addition was a. four storey building located im- mediately al; the rear of the pre- sent store and it added about 65.- 000 cubic feet of space to the pre- sent building. A year later an- other addition, approximately the same size, was added to meet ex- pandlng business conditions.

"Mr. Harry T. Holman, and his brother Mr. J. LeRoy, with the help of their able board of direct- ors, capably ran and managed the Company through its years of

Subsequent Progress

"Mr. H. T., as he was gene: referred to by all who knew it was President and General M ager for 40 years, from 1907 u his retirement from active bus ess in 1947 when the ”Reln.s Government" were taken over his brother Mr. J. LeRoy, held them until his untimelyde

continued on page 16

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