The Wellington enterprise. [volume] (Wellington, Ohio) 1867-188?, 1879-04-17
Perplexitles OF s5hoppinx.

| The public have recently been assured
that they have the power of reforming Tho
bad manners of clerks in shops, by speak
ing to the heads of the establishment
There are, however. objections to this mode
Of procedure. In the first place, lady in
this way makes herself unplessantly con
spicnous, and again it takes time. 1t is
certainly field for action, and. moved by
that conviction, we have chosen to jOt
down few feminine experiences in BOs
ton shops within the last six months fol-
the benefit of any "heads of establish.
ments" who care to know how their bust
ness is conducted. 1t is believed that
many of them would be surprised to know
how much their interests suffer in some
cases at the hands of those employed by
them.
Formerly the kind Of manners most
dreaded in the shops was kind of bully
ing familiarity on the part of the men
clerks, who had way of forcing their
goods. and of insulting those who declin
ed to buy. Something quite different has
| taken its place,-a certain spirit of enmity
toward all customers, as class, which
SCENE to animate both men and women
attendants in certain places. Customers
are treated as prying marauders, from
whom the clerks must defend the precious
goods confided to their keeping To keep
the goods, and to get rid of the intruder,
seems to be the object of life.
They have many ingenious devices for
the furtherance ofthis object. The prompt
mechanical formula, "Farther down." is
one of these. A lady on recent occasion,
looking for buttons, was sent from one end
of the long shop to the other, passed on
and on with Farther down." till she got
to the very end, when it was found that the
4,in rnl,f oil II, "a door Gf0h ~
said the first clerk, 81 thought you wanted
dress buttons" No sign of an effort had
been made to ascertain what was wanted.
Another device is 10 insist upon having
everything called by its technical trade
name. Here are some veritable instances
Il want to get some very heavy black
BRAID" said an out-of-town lady, hurrying
for her train. An ordinary black alpaca
dress braid was indicated, at a short dis
tance,-the clerk never moving, and con.
tinuing an earnest conversation with her
nearest fellow-clerk.
mo, that is not the kind; want some
thing heavier and wider"
I'VE have nothing different"
Many people would now have LETT the
store and tried another; but this lady, hav.
ing had a long and valuable experience
cast her eyes about, and presently saw
something like what she wanted.
20, yes you have!" she said; there il
is"
30, that is Hercules braid"
On another occasion it was very narrow
white braid for which lady asked at five
or six shops in vain, and finding it herself
at last in the windows of one Of the very
places, was told contemptuously that that
was "Tom Thumb braid"
Another-"Have you any sort ofnarrow
black and white flat trimming ?"
mo, 'm,-no black and white trimming
at ALL"
"Why," persists the hardened intruder
"yOu must have something. What is that
on the second shelly"
"Oh! that's silk"
"Well," said the lady (wkose sense of
humor had survived several years of shop
not want silk g' and to her credit be it
told, although she did not want silk, she
bought a couple of yards by way of en-
| phasizing the lesson.
/ gave L. for Christmas lovely lace
thing for the head, and wanted bow to
surmount it. / went tO-'s, vaguely
thinking about color.
Myself want some double-faced stain
ribbon"
She-"What color do you wishy'
Myself "Well, was thinking of blue
and black"
She lsnap up)-"we haven't any blue
Myself fairly laughingS"Well, that's
odd, for don't in the least care; let me
look at all you have and decide"
Gazing on columns of ribbon seem to
see nothing but blue and black, and men
tion it.
She-"Oh. l thought that wasn't the
width you wanted"