The record-union. [volume] (Sacramento, Calif.) 1891-1903, 1898-03-12
HER TRADE A SECRET.
"A Shopper in Swell Stores Not all
She Seemed to Be.

There is a position in every frst-class
retail dry goods store which is very re-
sponsible. well salaried and held in
every case by woman. l do not know
exactly what this woman should be
called She is neither a buyer, drum
mer, clerk nor saleswoman. In many
cases she seldom goes to the establish
ment employing her except as a shop
per, and she is almost unknown to the
employees of the store. She is not
bound down by any ironclad rules as to
working hours, but for all that she
earns her money and her time is, in
the main, very Well occupied with the
affairs of the firm she works for.
The woman is usually employed to
keep tab on the sales, prices and quail
ity of goods sold in rival houses. In
order to be valuable to her employers
she must look 50 entirely different from
what one would suppose woman hold
ing such position would as to be
above suspicion. Her duties are TO
watch the prices in all rival houses
and report if any firm is undertaking
her house even l cent. Stores which
keep similar goods, which cater to the
same class of customers and which
are run pretty nearly. upon the same
lines are the ones she must watch.
A woman whose face was familiar to
the average shop girl, floor walker VI
head of department would be utterly
useless for such a position. What good
could she accomplish if when she APP
peared in store somebody might rec
ognize her and say: "Oh, she comes
from Soand So's?"
1t is a sad fact that the well dressed,
Well groomed, swell looking woman will
receive more attention from the clerk
standing behind the counter than her
more unassuming sister. Acting on
this principle, the heads of our large re-
tail firms will pay good salaries to
woman who can shop, who can price,
who can question, and who can
squeeze out every grain of information
from the polite clerk, because she looks
more like a woman with a well filled
pocketbook and a possibly profitable
customer than one who may be able to
outbid her, but whose whole appearance
bespeaks one who must count her pen
MES before spending them.
The expenses attending such posi-
ton are heavy. The woman must
dress well. richly in fact, and must live
IN first-class neighborhood, for much
of her business must be done at her
own home.
For instance, the firm which employs
her wants to get the model of a walk
ing, visiting, reception or ball costume,
or some pretty matinee or even dainty
tea gown. She is told to go to some
swell dressmaker and is given carte
blanche.
She hires a hansom rustles up the
steps in her silk-lined, tailor-made cos
tune, and entering the showrooms.
states her business in a calm, entirely
at home kind of manner and is shown
the latest styles at once. Her order is
given, her measure taken, and when she
returns to pass through the hands Of
the filter, who is in the habit of try
ing on Mrs. Astors, Mrs. Vanderbilts
or Mrs. Gould's gowns, she must be so
underclothed that she bears the stamp
of refinement, and social breeding at
the first glance. Then she must live
in part of the city which, when she
gives her address, arouses no suspicion
as to her ability to pay the bill or her
social position to wear the gown or
dered
After this swell gown has been deliv-
cred and paid for it finds it's way to
the workroom of her firm and soon
models of this imported or specially
ordered costume are on exhibition in
the showrooms and for sale.
A manager of one of the fashionable
stores, when asked how much salary
such a woman was paid, replied:
1.-The salary depends upon the tact
and judgment of the employe. TWEEN
ty-five dollars a week would be the sal
airy of a woman who understands her
businessmen $50, if she had social
prestige and was distinguished enough
in appearance to insure unusual atten-
ton from the shop people. cleveland
Plain Dealer