Head table at the store party , with the entire Turner family present .
Courtesy of the Turner Family that seems most logical — he was , after all , a stranger at many of them .
When theirs was the winning bid , Luther would liquidate the stock quickly , holding a “ going out of business ” sale , sometimes hiring someone to handle it , sometimes staying on to do it himself , with Cal at his side . Anything that didn ’ t sell he could pack up and take to his own store in Scottsville or sell to another retailer . Now and then he would scout around for another merchant or middleman and sell the whole lot at a small markup . And on a couple of rare occasions , where he thought with the right manager he could turn a store around , he simply bought it outright .
Sometimes he needed short-term bank loans to make the purchases , and the banks were more than happy to work with him . His track record spoke for itself . He used the stock as collateral , and they knew they ’ d have their money back in 60 or 90 days . He was “ bankable ” in a way that farmers , whose crops might not come in , were not . At other times , he would take on a short-term partner . They would buy a store together , with a handshake as the only contract . They would divide the goods as evenly as possible and flip a coin to see who got what .
Those sales helped make a businessman of young Cal . As he and his dad went from store to store , month after month and year after year , he became more like a partner than simply a helpful son , even though he was still in high school .
In fact , my dad did very well at Scottsville High , even finding time to become a terrific basketball player , all while keeping up a sometimes daunting work schedule in the bargain store and in another that Luther owned 35 miles away in Hartsville , Tennessee . My dad would often get up early on Saturday mornings to make the drive and spend the day , and sometimes the evening , at the store . There were also times when he would leave the house with Luther as early as 1:00 am to drive to a bankruptcy sale .
Meanwhile , Turner ’ s Bargain Store continued to do well . The importance of tobacco as a local crop gave my grandfather one of his best early promotional opportunities . Farmers sold their tobacco late in the fall , receiving checks they turned into the only cash many of them saw all year . Luther knew those sale barns were cold , and he came up with the idea of giving each farmer at those sales a good right-hand work glove with a note attached . It said , “ Get the mate to me free at Turner ’ s Bargain Store . We will gladly cash your check .” The farmers would go to the store and get the mate to a good pair of gloves , then cash their checks . There they ’ d be , inside a store loaded with useful merchandise , with a year ’ s worth of crop money in their hands .
30 FINANCIAL HISTORY | Summer 2018 | www . MoAF . org