, 1888-02-26
ENGLISH s~HoPWALKERs.

The Duties of These Persons and How
They Carry Themselves.
1t would appear that the draper has al
ways been a convenient individual to
make n joke, and the s~hopwalker especi-
ally has come in for a huge share of the
attention of many writers. Whether it
is because the duties of this individual
make it necessary for him to be a model
of cleanliness and politeness, or whether
it is because he occupies such a conspicu-
GUS position that he receives SO much at
t%ention, it is hard to say; but certainly in
all concerns of any magnitude the shop
walker plays a very important part, and
to him 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 nave sufi-
cient buying and marking to do to en-
ploy their whole time, and then the shop
walkers duties are strictly confined to
n routine.
As n rule he is the one to open the shop
and see nat the ''squadders'' are all in
their various departments at the proper
time and that the busting of the various
departments is properly attended to.
After an interval for breakfast the shop
walker is found ''on the boards" where
he will remain all day, with the excep-
ton of h interval for meals. In a large
concern it 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" INT in very many
instances he is successful in making a
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 mou 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 muddle.
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
cleverest of his assistants, some of whom
are capable of e~ncountering the vilest
''tabs'' that come into a shop. AS a 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." Blu to their credit be it
,o.l L. -
in hed rapery trade who are capable of
making a 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 fractions 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 lodges of shopwalkers with
''tabs" are numerous. One very com
mon practice in selling dress fabrics is to
put a piece each on four or five chairs in
a casual manner, as if to show them to
the best advantage, and to barricade the
customer SO that she can't very well bolt
without making a purchase. Another
very common practice, and which is fire.
quently successful, is to put aside the
articles there is a difficulty in selling,
and show something else, returning to
the first article at a convenient time
Warehousemen and Diapers Journal.