It was a beautiful, sunny, Sunday afternoon as we drove down a country highway in Wyoming and came across a little general store. Aladdin General Store was built in the 1890s as a saloon and mine commissary and became a general store in 1915. The town of Aladdin, population of only 15, can be found between the Black Hills and Devils Tower on Highway 34, 17 miles west of Belle Fourche, South Dakota. Today, this store is the best preserved of Wyoming's five remaining 19th century mercantiles left in the state. It has continued to serve the small community as a post office, bar, barber shop, telephone office, gas station, and also boosts many museum pieces and has a small antique stop. Interesting to note, this store served as a railway depot and freight station for the Wyoming and Missouri Valley Railroad, an 18-mile stretch that hauled coal and mining supplies. This 100+ year old building is listed on the National Register of Historic Places and remains the staple place for the small community.
As I roamed around the timeworn, little store, I wondered how the store owners got along way back when, advertising and selling their goods without having the privileges of the internet? Being a child of the late 20th century, it is difficult to conceive of how business was conducted in the late 1800s, as most people today can easily type a few strokes on their blackberry or laptop with a multitude of purchase choices at their disposal in record time.
After the U.S. Civil War ended in 1865, people started moving around and settling in all parts of the country. Each small town that emerged needed a place where people could go to buy every day supplies. General stores were built everywhere. Everything was sold from essential items such as flour, sugar, coffee, tea, and spices to farm equipment, gun powder, tobacco, gingham fabric, stick candy for children, and seed for planting. Most stores also served as the town post office as well as local hangout where townspeople could relax and discuss the latest town gossip and play a friendly game of cards.
A large stock of goods was always kept on hand, with deliveries coming in by horse-drawn wagon and train. But the general store was plagued with problems with shipments of goods, some arriving a year after being ordered. Store owners used every available space to maximize storage. Ceiling high shelves were stocked and organized with the largest number and array of items, while surplus and specialty items were stacked on the floor, on the counter, on boxes and barrels, and in bins, easily visible and readably accessible by reach to any potential patron. Stock in an old general store may have sat for weeks until a local pioneer would have traveled for miles to buy a months-worth of supplies. Therefore, these stores were infamous for high prices in order to cover their overhead.
During the 1800s, a customer would come into the store and buy something for cash, on credit or barter with the store owner for some service that they could render or for harvested crops. Store accounting was done by hand, with ledger entries recorded for each customer indicating items bought, payments made and any balance remaining. The store owner, knowing everyone in the town and outlying community, needed only a handshake to confirm a deal.
With the power of the internet at its fingertips, a general store today would have the ability to offer the best merchants with a rich variety of products for very competitive prices, without the hassle of extensive shipping and storage costs. Order and invoice tracking would become easier using any number of online software packages. Unknown to frontiersmen and miners of long ago, any one can now sell and shop from the convenience and comfort from inside their own home. As if coming full circle, ironically, the Aladdin General Store is now up for sale on the internet.
You can set up your own little general store utilizing affiliate programs. So, exactly what are affiliate programs and how do you make money from them? Merchants have what is called affiliate programs that they use to track sales. When you sign up to an affiliate program, you are provided with a unique sales link, specifically identifying you as the referring affiliate, which you will then use to refer people to the company website. If the customer makes a purchase, you get a commission from that purchase. It is that simple.
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