Too often the “why” of early chain store success has been glibly explained in terms of present-day conditions. The following abbreviated list is, I believe, typical of the factors advanced to explain the impressive position of the chain store in our distributive system:

1. Greater skill in management due to the greater opportunity for specialization.

2. Greater financial strength and power in buying.

3. The possibility of using certain advertising media which are not adapted to the needs of independent retailers.

4. The possibility, through large scale operation, of developing a prestige such as the average small merchant can rarely cultivate.

5. The ability through integration to eliminate selling and buying costs which are inevitable when manufacturers, jobbers, and retailers are separate entities.

Business historians have been used in actual business and may have a future in large concerns where costly mistakes are repeated partly because the turnover of officials is great and constant. Experience in business is accumulated in large volume—and forgotten.

Who was Croesus? How rich was he? And how did he acquire the treasure that has made his name live to this day as a measure of great wealth?