The Manning times. [volume] (Manning, Clarendon County, S.C.) 1884-current, 1889-10-16
TRICKS OF TIE TRADE.
HOW THE SHARP CLERK BEGUlLES
THE INNOCENT PURCHASER.

TIC iSNOCENI FOHCf7NSEH.
Stratagems Which Are Usually Successful.
Buyers Are Only Human-Clerks Know
1.-THE Shrewd Business Man Treats HIS
Customers as Intelligent Beings.
There are tricks in all trades but ours" is
ono OF the aphorisms Of the business world
1t reminds the speculative observer Of the old
woman who seriously remarked: "The world
is full Of queer folks. I'm glad I'm not one
Of 'em"
The candid clerk would never be able to
starve to death respectfully. he would be
discharged before he had told the truth twice.
Imagine him saying to customer: Here is
piece Of goods that is so coarse you can
shoot peas through it, and all cotton at that,
although it is marked half wool. twill fade
at the first wearing. How many yards shall
| cut you OFF,"
He would himself be cut off from his bust.
neS prospects and without the customary
shilling
youth Of this sort was engaged as assist
ant III grocery store. He prided himself on
his honesty and candor. When he sew his
employer sell d pound of prunes he said in the
presence of the customer: You must be glad
to sell another pound of those wormy old
prunes. They'll soon be all gone"
The next moment he was out of situation
Tue shrowd business man leaves something
to the intelligence Of his customers. AS long
as thing is not misrepresented let them find
out defects for themselves. But the day Of
fha M to
bacco is over. There is an inveiglement OF
another kind now. Chrome cards and gifts
have had their day, but there is the quarter
of and the half OF SALE
REMEMBERING CUSTOMERS TASTES
Can any one outside of the business tell
how the accomplished clerk holds up piece
OF dress goods in the little pyramid on the
counter where the light strikes it so as to
bring out in bold relief all its best colors and
make it look as if it were the loyelieSt fabric
in the store. One clerk will say, with his
head over on the side like u little bird:
1T looks like you, Miss -. It's fact;
thought Of you as soon as saw it. 1said to
myself Miss - will want dress off that
piece"
Another will remark incidentally under
Col. -, bought dress from that piece"
The customer hesitates-and is lost. In
other words, she buys the goods, being help
lessly enshimmered in the science of delusion
by those clerks who know their business.
a lady went into dry goods store and
asked to see some goods displayed in the Win
dow.
'.You don't want that style of goods" said
the clerk, who knew his customer; you
wouldn't wear it.
Then he took down dress after dress from
his reserve stock, and as he did so remarked
casually:
''You wouldn't wear window dress. This,
now, has not been shown before"
Of course the customer was dattered into
buying dress, and the clerk was right He
knew that the goods removed from the illu-
sion of plate glass would not please her. \
clerk soon learns that 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. A Detroit
merchant relates a story Of clerk Of long
ago who tried so hard to sell dress to GUS
toner that he followed the lady to the door
with the goods Then he began to unroll 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
dress pattern in her arms and she felt com
pelled to take it.
KNEW SHE WOULD NEED IT.
Another clerk was approached by lady
Ill Ha ,,nt
have any, but he jumped over the counter
and followed her to the door to tell her he
had q new bolt of brown linen sheeting in
and recipe for bleaching it white. This was
in the good old days when Detroit was vii
lage and everybody knew everybody else's
business The enterprising 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 aud reconciling them with
their purses is quite an enterprising feature
of business at all times
1t is fact that the dry goods store Is the
principal attraction Of the business street and
fertile spot in the d:.sert of commerce. 1t
has color, variety ana all attraction that no
other place can possiblrhave. The common
ASSNH
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
these folds. 1t is related Of the late A. 1.
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
ouired who had arranged it in that way, sent
for the man. who was a new hand, and told
him it was wrong The man answered Mr..
Stewart that it was the proper way to dis
play that class of goods. Mr.. Stewart said no
more, but he watched and saw the velvetS
managed in this way for some months. Then
be 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. TIE best clerk is the reader Of hui
man nature. He coerces one into buying and
ntimidatcs another. The merchants have
proverb that any salesman can sell custo-
mer the goods that she came to purchase, but
he is a good salesman who sells her what she
dpes not want. Every clerk has his particu.
lar friends who like to trade with him be-
cause no is obliging or courteous OF enter
tanning. 1t is his trick of trade to be all these
to his customers. Free Press.
Houses in the Country.
Your true countryman is seldom "tem-
perance man" in the matter of sunlight aud
shade. He is either ''teetotaler" or con-
6r1:ed tippler His house is exposed, in the
one case, to all the fervor Of the summer
r,, t,rd al, rho rnrv of the summer thunder.