, 1889-09-11
TRICKS IN PRICE MARKS.


81 chANNN may an
the Cost of the Goods offered.
Recently a western merchant came
TO a large cloth house in New York to
buy goods. He was known as a very
shrewd and rather tricky merchant,
who had a fondness for learning the
prices at 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 SO large as TO rouse his
suspicion. The buyer seemed very
disappointed, and his brow was knit
in a way TO show that he was very
much puzzled over something. When
he had gone away the clerk turned TO
the writer and observed:
II think l have blocked that fellows
was trying to do, didn't your"
The writer admitted his ignorance.
well, " said the clerk, The was try
ing TO discover our secret mark"
AS he spoke the clerk pointed TO a
little tag attached t. a piece of cloth
in his hand on which were inscribed
three different letters.
THAT mark, he said means 50. so.
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 hat K
was 2, l.. 8, and NJ. o. BY then in
curing 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. l
told him the price was So 5, and ac-
cording 10 that the X. was 2 and /.
was 6 and the NJ. was 3. l also
changed the Interpretation of each
mark, and the result was that if he ar
rived Mt any conclusion it was a very
wrong one.
There is nothing particular dis
honorable about this, for merchants
try IL very frequently, and as a rule
they succeed in learning the mark.
Every business house has a private
mark of this kind. The ordinary buy
err in the retail house would never, of
course, learn this, but in wholesale
houses, where the buyers frequently
see the same characters, and can com
pare them, it is a matter of great diff
Guilty to prevent their learning the
firms secret. Where firms are p
cially anxious to avoid discovery they
change the marks frequently. A mark
may be n name, a combination Of ar
bitrary figures or characters. Some
firms use the Greek alphabet. Some
use the firm name changed slightly.
THE most intricate marks are made
with what is known as reporters,
That is, there will be one or more
aIn a,aI - .uIsal - i
ply to repeat the character immedi-
ately preceding it.
Il remember n case very similar to
this you have witnessed, where a fell
low from the west came in. Our
mark ut that time had two reporters.
He recognized the first one very soon,
but became completely mixed up
when he came to the second. He at
forward acknowledged this, and l
made him set up a bottle of wine.
Sometimes these marks come in very
handy, as in the present instance.
Whenever we get hold of a customer
who is known to have the habit of
beating down prices we simply put q
fictitious value on the goods. <
The mark always contains ten
characters at least, and as many more
as there are repeaters. An arbitrary
phrase such as John Stands could
be used as well as anything else, and
is as likely to be discovered. j.. II. s.
would in that case mean 1876. OF
course, it might mean $135, or it
might mean 81. 35. Where it would
be desirable to represent the figure 1873
it would be more the rule to use the ].
II. and a repeater than to write it ].
Ii. Ii.
Among the merchants in any one
city the marks, unless frequently
changed, are soon known by the diff
ferent statesmen. Retail houses fire.
quently have their retail prices mark
ed in plain figures, while the cost is
represented in characters. Where
this is the case the statesmen of one re-
tail house 500 learn the cost mark of
another. While this is frequently not
desirable, the main object with retail
houses is to keep the customer from
learning the cost. In the largest re-
tail houses where there is only one
price, the cost mark is seldom put on
the goods, and it is only where it lies
within the discretion of the salesman
to reduce the price that a cost mark is
ed."-New York Sun.