The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1899-06-22
BUYING BY LETTER.
How Shopping Ls Done by Mail in
the New York Department
Stores.

of the big department stores. At one
These letters come from all over the
country, although very few are from
the extreme west. That region is sup
piled principally from the western cit
les, the express rates from New York
being too heavy. Some people have
an idea that the mail order clerks cut
up and send off in samples more goods
than are ever ordered in return for
those samples. This is mistake which
causes the head of the department in
question to smile silent, gleeful smile
and turn to the records showing no.
900 out-of-town customers on his
books.
Each customer is entered in the card
index, a system something like that
| in vogue in libraries. A white card rep
resents a woman; a yellow card de-
notes man. The cards are subdivided
on geographical plan, into different
sections suburban, New England,
southern, western, and so on. Various
marks show whether the customer is
charge or "cash," whether the goods
were ordered from a sample or from
an advertisement, and whether it is a
first offense-that is to say, first favor
or not.
The young women who select the
samples to be sent must be judges of
handwriting as well as familiar with
the latest fashions in New York and
fhn a~-fa 20 oh, -,
other places. The wisdom of the ser
pent is nothing compared with the
shrewdness they must display. No
matter how clear a request for sam
| pies may be, there are always plenty
of chances for the sender to pick out
the wrong thing. Even when a let
ter is more than usually explicit, she
''sizes up" the handwriting, the paper,
the language and the locality from
which it comes. If two identical letters
should arrive, one from Ohio and the
other from South Carolina, they would
receive different responses in the way
of samples.
''Most of the letters coming from the
extreme SOUTH" said one of the clerks,
want the very cheapest kind of ma
terials. In fact, they often ask for a
cheaper quality than we carry at all.
They want 20-cent silks and that sort
of thing. New England customers in
the cities want good things, but when
it comes to the country-well, they
count their pennies about twice as
often as anybody else does, and we
get more cross letters from that sec
ton than we do from any other. The
western people, out in Ohio and west
of there, are the best customers"
do many women send for samples
just to find out what is being worn or
for use in fancy work?"
''Yes, some of them do. Why, they
admitted it out in Pennsylvania. They
were making silk quilts or something
like that, and the whole sewing society
tried to stock up with samples"
The sample department buys the
goods, which it cuts up, getting them
from the counters downstairs, just as
any customer would, except that it
gets a discount of 20 per cent. Hun
dreds of yards of material are sliced
into bits with big shears or by cut
ting machine which is used for plain
goods. Five hundred dollars worth
of material is disposed of in this way
! every month. In addition TO these sam
pies, three girls in the mail order de-
partment are kept busy getting sam
pies from the counters downstairs.
These are sent in response to special
requests for something to match
color or design Enclosed.
When an order is received it is regis
tered, and the letter is given to one of
several young women who are called
shoppers. They buy the goods down
stairs and the material is sent to a
special shipping department to be for
warded. In many of the stores these
shoppers eventually get to know the
wishes and tastes of certain custom
ers who have ordered a number of
times. When the customer comes to
| New York for visit she often drops
in for a call on the girl who has served
her so many good turns.
Among the queer requests which
| have been perpetrated upon these long
suffering mail departments was one
| for ''black stockings with white at
tackled feet" The clerk inferred that
ATTACHED was intended. Another en-
pressed a desire for ribbon that can
be shored up" which seemed to be d
rendering of "shirred up" One wom-
an wrote for samples ''for wedding
dress for me and my daughter" There
were so many possibilities in this that
the entire department puzzled over it.
1t might have meant that each one
of the women was to be married and
wanted a wedding dress apiece; or
that they were both to be married, but
would take turns at the dress; or that
the daughter was to be married and
the mother was merely going to assist,
or vice versa. One order said: please
send by express two dollar shirt waists
and $50 poker chips. Send red, white
and blue" One of the vague requests,
which come by the hundreds, was:
"Please send samples of summer goods
| in green or blue" A wide margin is
left in this case in regard to material,
whether silk, cotton or WOOL to design,
| 10 cost and to the age of the person