The Maryville times. (Maryville, Tenn.) 1884-1944, 1889-10-09
TRICKS M PRICE, MARKS.
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Recently q western merchant came
to largo cloth house in New York to
buy goods. He was known Is . very
shrewd and rather tricky merchant
who had a fondness for learning the
prices ct the various houses and then
trying to beat them down. Knowing
this, the salesman who waited on him
put an extra price on every article
that he showed him. In no case was
the price made 20 large a. to rouse his
suspicion. The buyer seemed very
disappointed, and his brow was knit
in q way 70 show that he was very
much puzzled over something. When
he had gone away the clerk turned to
tho writer and observed:
II think l have blocked that fellows
game very nicely. You saw what he
was trying to do, didn't your"
The writer admitted his ignorance.
"Well, said the clerk, ''he was try
ing to discover our secret mark"
As he spoke the clerk pointed to
little tag attached to a piece Of cloth
! in his hand OH which were inscribed
three different letters.
THAT mark" he said, means q. 80.
If l had told him what it was he
would have very easily learned by
comparing the various marks on diff
ferent pieces Of goods just what our
mark was. For instance, If K. L. NJ.
meant $3.50, he would know that K.
was 2, L. s, and M. 0. BY then in
quiring the prices Of various other
pieces of cloth, he could easily select
those which would have different sets
of letters on them, and he would soon
have gotten at the whole secret.
told him the price was SECS, and &C
cording to that the K. was 2 and l.
was 6 and the M. was 5. l also
changed the Interpretation of each
mark, and the result was that if he ar
|, rived at any conclusion it was very
wrong one.
There is nothing particular dis
honorable about this, for merchant
try it very frequently, and as q rul'
they succeed in learning the mark
Every business house has a privat'
mark of this kind. The ordinary buy
! err in the retail house would never, o
course, learn this, but in wholesal
, houses, where the buyers frequentl
see the same characters, and can com
:. pare them, it is a matter Of great diff
I Guilty to prevent their learning tn
!. firms secret. Where firms are espt
cially anxious to avoid discov"~v the
q change the marks freQle, LAR
!. may be name, a combination of al
bitrary figures or characters. Som
e firms use the Greek alphabet. Som
use the 6rm name changed slightly.
q THE most intricate marks are mad
! with what is known as repeater
a That is, there will be one or NOR
: characters, each of which is used sin
4 ply to repeat the character immed
!. ately preceding it.
II remember case very similar I
this you have witnessed, where fe
! low from the west came in. Gu
!. mark at that time had two repeater.
4 He recognized the first one very soor
$ but became completely mixed u
h when he came to the second. He a
q terward acknowledged this, and
!. made him set up bottle Of wine
Sometimes these marks come in yer
:. handy, as in the present instance
Whenever we get hold of custome
.. who is known to have the habit {
v beating down prices we simply put
~ fictitious value on the goods.
4 THE mark always contains te
:. characters at least, and as many MOI
! as there IRE repeaters. An arbitrar
= phrase such as John Stands coul
). be used as well as anything else, an
4 is as likely to be discovered. J. H.
~ would in that case mean 1875. {
;, course, it might mean $135, or
: might mean $1.35. Where it woul
: be desirable to represent the figure II
:, it would be more the rule to use the
~ II. and repeater than to write it
:. H. H.
y Among the merchants in any or
~ city the marks. unless frequent
II changed, are soon known by the di
80 ferent statesmen. Retail houses fir
~ quently have their retail prices mar
=. ed in plain figures, while the cost
represented in characters. Whe
= this is the case the statesmen of one r
tail house soon learn the cost mark
another. While this is frequently n
desirable, the main object with rets
N houses is to keep the customer fro
Is learning the cost. In the largest !
ve tail houses where there is only o.
ii price, the cost mark is seldom put {
,e the goods, and it is only where it Ii
ct within the discretion of the salesm,
r. to reduce the price that cost mark
ID used. New York Sun.
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