“Cheap Bob”

“Cheap Bob is in Fenelon Falls and has rented Campbell’s old stand where he is slaughtering goods at a fearful rate” [FFG 11 Aug 1883; 2]. Cheap Bob was an itinerant auctioneer who would set up a shop for several days, selling a variety of goods, and then move on to the next town. In August 1883 he held an auction every afternoon and evening, and in the following week planned to sell 200 suits of clothes “for whatever they could fetch.” Established merchants were fearful of such cut-rate competition and would eventually persuade Council to forbid itinerant merchants setting up shop without a vendor’s license.