B.B. Fowler — ‘Enemy of High Prices’

“B.B. Fowler, one of the oldest and most extensive dry goods dealers in Glens Falls, has been styled the ‘enemy of high prices,’” The Morning Star reported on July 23, 1884.

Fowler, a little over a week later, playfully alluded to customers getting a steal on fabric at his 102 Glen St. retail store.

“During the past week over then thousand yards of domestics were taken from the store of B.B. Fowler,” he began an Aug. 2, 1884 advertisement. “They were all paid for, however, and hundreds of people went away, well pleased with their purchases and satisfied that Mr. Fowler does just as he advertises.”

Price wasn’t the only attribute Fowler exemplified.

He maintained a large inventory and a wide selection.

Fowler advertised on June 7 the receipt of more than 200 pairs of socks and stockings.

“B.B. Fowler has just received the largest assortment of hosiery ever purchased in northern New York. Hose for ladies and misses, hose for men, and hose for boys at the lowest prices.”

On July 8, Fowler advertised that he stocked every size — from 17 to 36 — of nine different brands of corsets.

“We do not advertise fifteen or twenty styles and show only odd sizes in each, but confine ourselves to nine varieties, which, we have learned by experience, are worthy of high recommendation.”

Prices ranged from 50 cents for the “Good Enough” brand to $1.50 for the “Abdominal Hip” brand, “never before sold for less than $2.”

Click here to read my most recent previous B.B. Fowler history post.