A Business Exit from the Frontier
S.D. Patterson, the first merchant to open a shop in the new town of White Bluffs, is liquidating his inventory and heading for the coast.
The story, cleaned up
A cleaned-up reading of the newspaper page: spelling and layout repaired, one story lifted off a crowded page. It follows the original closely but it is not a transcription. The original page is below; read it if a detail matters.
S.D. Patterson, proprietor of the local dry goods store, has sold his entire stock to buyers from the coast. Patterson, who moved his business to the new town of White Bluffs after purchasing the old Mercantile Company stock in 1915, found the venture financially unsatisfactory. He admitted that his inexperience in dry goods and a lack of 'feeling at home' behind the counter drove his decision to sell. He plans to move to the Puget Sound region to enter the grocery business. While his specific shop is closing, the local paper suggests the vacancy represents an inviting opening for a more experienced merchant.
“His inexperience in the dry goods line also helped along his desire to sell, as he said he never felt at home behind a dry goods counter.”
Patterson's story captures the high turnover and instability of retail in a nascent boomtown. His pivot from a struggling dry goods venture in the semi-arid interior to the grocery trade on the 'Sound' mirrors the migration patterns of many early settlers who eventually retreated from the harsh realities of the central Washington desert.
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