Sewing up Sales in 1874 Chicago

Tuckers, Rufflers, Corders, Hemmers, Spool Monitors, and Needles. By the dozen or by the gross → “Never in the History of Sewing Machine Attachments…”

Salesmanship is the theme here and low prices are the bait. F.M. Van Etten & Bro. of Chicago is having a sale:

Prices Reduced Again! And this time so low that Agents and Dealers will put money in their pockets by “Stocking up” and laying in a full supply of Sewing Machine Attachments, Needles, Oil, Findings, &c.

This Chicago company’s 1874 broadsheet serves as an advertising circular and price list. It acknowledges that times are tough and that it’s a buyer’s market in Chicagoland.

It was a smart move in the aftermath of the financial Panic of 1873. Consider, too, The Great Fire of Chicago of 1871 was not a distant memory of times of suffering.

What we are talking about — [F.M. Van Etten & Bro.]. Our Motto: “The Best and Most Goods for the Least Money”…Our Latest Price List on Standard Goods [broadsheet caption title]. Chicago: [F.M. Van Etten & Bro.], September 1, 1874. [2]pp. Broadsheet circular and price list. 16 x 5¼ inches.

Frank M. and Charles C. Van Etten were wholesalers of sewing machines and sewing machine attachments. They traded as F.M. Van Etten & Bro. and kept offices at 208 La Salle Street in Chicago, Illinois.

The company’s September 1, 1874 circular lists prices for about 70 sewing machine attachments, needles, and shuttles. The company also sold sperm oil for lubricating sewing machines as well as their own “sewing machine engine.”

Times were tough, however, and business was soft. The text of F.M. Van Etten & Bro.’s circular lays out the situation:

Never in the History of Sewing Machine Attachments and Needles, were they offered at such Low Prices as we are now offering them. The fierce competition amongst Attachment Dealers which has been raging since last spring, has caused these goods to reach the bottom on prices…

And then an unusual hard sell — seller’s humility:

Jobbers admit that they are not Selling Goods to make money now, Only to Pay Expenses and Live, And wait patiently until the excitement is over, and then establish their prices on the Standard Goods, And Not sell for the glory as they are now doing, but for a reasonable profit.

To spur more business, the company touts the availability of an “Illustrated Circular” and a 12-page price list it has prepared. F.M. Van Etten & Bro.’s efforts to market their products includes the creation of a register of sewing machine agents and dealers and an effort to take advantage of the upcoming Fall season of county fairs:

We would like to have every Sewing Machine Agent and Dealers in goods in our line send us their address in full, giving post office, county, state and the machine they are agent for, then we can place their names on our Register, and then as often as anything new is put on the market, or prices reduced or changed…we will promise to notify them by mail at once. A timely notice of every thing in this direction…will save every Agent many a dollar, for we shall ever keep him posted on the place where he can buy the best and most goods for the lowest money.

And another go, here under the heading of “Our Sewing Machine Engine,” the circular continues:

As a great many Agents have written us that they wanted one of our Engines in the fall, to operate with at the county fairs, we have decided to put the price down to $35.00, from this date until October 15th, and those that purchase before that time will save Five Dollars.

The financial Panic of 1873 and its subsequent depression greatly affected the U.S. Economy. At that time, Chicago was trying to recover the disastrous Great Fire of 1871 that destroyed its central business district.

Like Chicago, it appears that F.M. Van Etten & Bro. also struggled though the 1870s. Sometime after 1878 they went bankrupt. Their circular and price list remains, however, yielding insights into sales and marketing efforts during hard times.

Ref. The Lakeside Annual Directory of the City of Chicago…1875–1876 (Chicago, 1875).

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