The Redwood gazette. [volume] (Redwood Falls, Minn.) 1873-1940, 1875-10-07
City /" Shoppers"

Livery one connected WIFI -gOOuS
establishment knows them. They come
sailing into store with an air we'll calcu-
lated to convey the impression that their
chases they make will require a special
conveyance for delivery. 1t is only the
Impractical eye, however, which is de-
ceived by them. The advent of one of
them is a source of misery to the clerk un-
fortunate enough to he singled out as Il
victim. He knows that the department
over which he presides will in few mo-
ments be scene of confusion that article
after article will have to be displayed, ex-
amined and commented upon; that he will
have to submit to an ordeal of cross-ex-
animation equal to any inflicted upon a
prisoner at the bar of justice, and that he
is debarred the privilege of which prison
ers often avail themselves of making
sharp or pertinent retorts He must be
all smiles and attention to woman whom
he intuitively knows-if he has not
learned the fact from dear experience
had not the remotest idea when she hon.
orcd the store with visit of making
purchase more extensive than paper of
pins, or who, perchance, may have made
the matching of an almost unattainable
shade of antique goods the pretext for an
examination Of an innumerable variety of
articles. These "shoppers, as they are
called, apparently delight in producing
disorder. For them. the regular
"opening day" has no particular
attractions. Employers and clerks are
then fully prepared to receive them, and
would only be too happy to spread out
the novelties of the season for their in
spection. But they prefer to wait until
the customary rush is over-until every
thing is again in its place, and the adj
mirable system which prevails in well
ordered dry goods store has again been
established. Then they come out, and
have, as it were, an opening day all to
themselves, while the poor clerk behind
the counter suffers martyrdom. "Will it
"will this hold its color?" of another;
tons, paying no heed whatever to the an
swers, though they would be greatly in
censed were they not treated with all defer
ence and prompt replies made to their in
quiries. When they have fully satisfied
their curiosity-if their propensity for
overhauling can be so dcnominated-they
sail out of the establishment as if they
had done some noOle action, and as if
they had placed everyone, from proprietor
to call-boy, under everlasting obligations.
AS likely as not they leave one store to
enter rival house, where they go
through the same operation, using
the knowledge they acquired at tie
first establishment cited for the pur-
pose at the second of "cheapen-
ing'' fabrics which they really have
no desire of possessing. 1t is related of a
woman who had acquired some slight no.
tOriety for her achievements as a "shop-
per" that, having made some purchases in
one establishment, she Immediately bent
her steps to a neighboring one. Here she
journeyed from one counter to another,
each one she left being Uttered in promis-
cuous heaps after her, until finally she
had made complete tour. Then turning
to the clerk who had last waited upon her
she condescended to explain: II bought
some things at Blank & Blanks, you
know, and thought would just run in
here and see if, / had been cheated" And
there that woman had spent the good part
of an afternoon paving over and pulling
at dry goods of every conceivable kind,
consuming as much time as twenty Gus
toners would have done, putting every
body to as much trouble as she possibly
could, and all for the purpose of seeing if
Snc nau Deen cnedteu III SOAAe tIlVlal puT-
chase at another place.
1t is no wonder that the "shopper" is
recognized by the clerk as veritable
nuisance; but she has her uses for all that.
If she il not source of profit to the
merchant, she at least takes especial pains
to give his employees opportunities for the
exercise Of patience and courtesy; and for
the cultivation. of these qualities on the
part of dry.goods statesmen she is largely
sponsible.-Dctruit Free Press.