Like most merchants, the managers of the Southern States Cooperative, one of the three top U.S. farm supply coops, are well aware of the decline in old-fashioned retail salesmanship. Last week, at their annual meeting in Richmond, the co-op's 60 district field managers, who run 125 retail stores, conducted their own shopping experiment. Each one started on an hour's shopping tour to see if clerks could persuade him to buy $5 worth of goods. They bought little. Out of their $300 total, they spent only $103.79. Twenty-nine shoppers spent less than $1...
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