Wichita eagle., 1889-10-04

TRICKS OF THE TRADE.
HOW THE SHARP CLERK BEGUlIESi
TIE INNOCENT PURCHASER,

6er.tasems Which Arc Usually Successful
Buyer. Are Only Human-Clerks Know
1.-THE Shrewd Business Man Treats HI
Customers rs Intelligent Beings.
"There are tricks in all trades but ours, y i
one Of the aphorisms of the business world
1t remind %ie speculative observer of the oil
woman who seriously remarked: "The worl,
Is full Of queer folks. I'm glad I'm not on
of EN-"
The candid clerk would never be able Il
starve to death respectfully He would b,
discharged before he had told the truth twice
Imagine hin, saying to customer; Here i
a piece of goods that is so coarse you car
shoot peas through it. and all cotton at that
although it is marked half wool 1t win fade
al the first wearing How many yards shall
l cut you offf''
He would himself be cut of from his bust
ness prospects auc without the customary
shilling.
a youth Of this sort was engaged as assist
ant in a grocery store. he prided himself or
his honesty and candor. When he saw his
employer sell pound CT prunes lie said in the
presence of the customer: ''you must be glad
to sell another pound Of those wornly old
prunes. They'll soon be all gone"
The next moment be was out OF a situation.
The shrewG business man leaves something
to the intelligence of his customers As long
as thing Is not misrepresented lar them find
out defects for themselves. Bat the day of
sanding the sugar and wetting down the to-
bacco is over. There is an invciglement of
another kind now. Chrome cards and gifts
have had their cay, but there is tie quarter
of and the half Off sale.
gEaEaEgRTNG CUSTOMERS tastes.
Can any ole oatside of the business tell
row the accomplished clerk holds ND piece
of dress goods 10 the little pyramid on the
counter where the light strikes it so as to
bring ont in bold relief all its best coIors and
make it leok as Il il were the loVelicst fabric
in the store: Ono clerk viii say. with his
head over on the side like little bird:
1T looks ike you, Miss -. It's fact:
thought Of ,,,su as soon rs / saw it. Isaid to
myself Mis- will want dress off that
piece"
Anothe; will remark incidentally under
tae same circumstances: "Your friend, Mrs.
Col. -, bought dress from that piece"
The customer hesitates-and is lost In
other words, she buys the goods, being help
lessly e2sabnmered in the science Of delusion
by those clerks who know their business
4 lady went into a dry goods store and
asked TO see some goods displayed in ..le win
dow.
You don't want that style of goods said
the clerk, who knew his customer; '.you
wouldn't wesr it,"
Then he took down dress after dress from
his reserve stock, AID as he did so remarked
casually:
" GU wouldn't wear a window dress. This,
now, las rot been shown before"
OF course the customer was flattered into
buyinX drer and the clerk was right, He
knew East the goods removed from the illu-
sion of plate glass would not please her A
clerk soon earns that a lady is never offended
when her tastes are remembered and alluded
TO with graceful tact.
The best statesmen of today do not persist
as much as their predecessors did. They make
their goods speak for themselves. Detroit
merchant relates story of clerk of long
ago who tried SO hard to sell dress to q Gus
toner that he followed the lady to the door
with the goods Then he began to unron it
and the customer took hold of an end of the
cloth TO prevent it falling on the floor, so 1t
went. He unrolled the goods until she held a
dress pattern in her arms and she felt COM
PEELED to take it,
KNEW SHE WOULD NEED IT.
Another clerk was approached by a lady
who wanted white silk mitts He did not
have any, but he jumped over the counter
and followed her to the door to tell her he
had 4 new bolt of brown linen sheeting in
and recipe for bleaching it white. This WIS
in the good old days when Detroit was a vii
lage ard everybody knew everybody else's
business. The eatsrprising clerk knew that
his customer for white silk mitts was about
TO be married and go to housekeeping and
would need house linen. This gauging of
peoples needs and reoonciling them with
their purses is quite enterprising feature
Of business at all times.
1t is fact that the dry goods store is the
principal attraction of the business street and
6 fertile spot in the desert OF commerce. 1t
has color, variety and an attraction that no
other place can possibly have. The common
est piece of red and yaiiow stuff will look
rich and elegant in those long, graceful folds
that have such precision of detail, yet look SO
careless and artistic IN the total effect. The
man who did that gauges his usefulness by
those folds 1t is related of the late A. I.
Stewart, the millionaire merchant, that in
passing through the side of his great store in
which the goods were exposed for sale-that
opposite TO the Broadway side-he saw piece
Of velvet stacked to catch the eye He in
quired who had arranged ii in that way sent
for the man, who was new hand, md told
him II WIS wrong. The man answered Mr..
Stewart that It was the proper way TO dis
play that class of goods. MIR. Stewart said no
more, but be watched and saw the velvetS
managed in this way for some months. Then
he sent for the man and promoted him TO the
velvet department Of the wholesale store.
81 saw that you knew more about velvets
than did myself" was the only explanation
he gave The best clerk is the reader of hu-
man nature. He coerceS one into buying and
intimidates another. The merchants have
proverb that any salesman can sell a cuSto-
mer the goods that she came to purchase, but
he is good salesman who sells her what she
does not want. Every clerk has MS particu-
lar friends who ike to trade with him be-
cause he is oblging or courteous or enter
tain,ng 1t is his trick Of trade to be all these
to his customers Free Press.
AN OLD FASHIONED APolE BEE.
Thu Jolly Good Times the Young Folks