Arizona weekly enterprise., 1888-06-16
.--- ENGLISH StIOPWALKERS.
Tho Duties of These Persons and How
 They Carry Themselves.

Tho Duties of These Persons and How
 They Carry Themselves.
 It would appear that the draper has al- ways been convenient individual to make a joke, and the shopwalker especi- ally has come in for huge share of the attention of many writers. Whether it is because the duties of this individual make it necessary for him to be model of cleanliness and politeness, or whether 1t is because he occupies such conspicu ous position that he receives so much at tention, 1t is hard to say: but certainly in all concerns of any magnitude the shop walker plays very important part, and to hin is intrusted the carrying out of the rules of the establishment. In some houses, where the business is not large enough to keep shopwalkers and buyers, it IS usual for the latter to undertake the duties of shopwalker and buyer; but in the largest houses the buyers have suffi- cient buying and marking to do to en- ploy their whole time, and then the shop walkers duties are strictly confined to one routine.
 As rule he is the one to open the shop and sec that the ''squadders" are all in their various departments at the proper time and that the dusting of the various departments IS properly attended to. After an interval for breakfast the shop walker is found lon the boards" where he will remain all day, with the excep- tion of the interval for meals. In a large concern 1t requires all the tact and sa- gacity of the shopwalker to see that each customer is properly served, and there is very little time for him to stand at the door and bow to all the carriages as his compeer did in Queen Anne's time. A clever shopwalker is always on the alert to take up scraps" and in very many instances he is successful in making sale where an assistant has failed to do so. And this is often not because of the ability of the assistant, but for the reason of an additional argument in favor of the purchase. During the busy part of the day it requires no little amount of energy on the part of the shopwalker to see that the counters are kept clear, as he knows that it is utterly impossible for customers to be satisfactorily served when the counters are in a nluddle.
 An important part of his duties, too, is to see that the right assistants serve the most important customers. By long ex- perience the shopwalker soon finds out which are the ''tabs'' among his GUS | toners, and these are handed over to the eleverest of his assistants, some of whom are capable of encountering the vilest ''tabs" that come into shop. As rule customers know pretty well what they want, but in exceptional cases there are people who enter drapery shops whose minds have to be made up for them, and it requires no little amount of tact to deal with such individuals without getting the ''swap." But to their credit be it said, there are saleswomen and salesmen in the drapery trade who aTo capable of making sale to the most cantankerous individual, and that not by any set method, but by treating his customers according to their several weaknesses. in something the same manner as Sam Slick treated his horses-by soothing the fractious ones encouraging the timid ones and lathering the sulky ones like blazes.
 The last method will hardly commend itself to most people, but it often happens that it is necessary to speak very sharply to some customers before they can be got to make up their minds. And when the assistant has used every effort without avail, the word is passed sign and this brings the shopwalker to the fore, and then both try their best, and it is almost certain that the sale will be effected Tales of dodges of shopwalkers with ''tabs" are numerous. One very com mon practice in selling dress fabrics is tc put piece each on four or five chairs 1T a casual manner, as if to show them t> the best advantage, and to barricade the customer so that she can't very well boil without making purchase. Another very common practice, and which is ire quently successful, is to put aside the articles there is difficulty in selling and show something else, returning tc the first article at convenient time.- Warehoueemen and Drapers' Journal.