The sea coast echo. [volume] (Bay Saint Louis, Miss.) 1892-current, 1900-08-04
SOMETHING ABOUT THE STORES
AND BUSINESS CUSTOMS.
Our Correspondent, EVIDENT
ly Tired of the Exposition
Sights, Writes of Paris. a
Great City 50 Unlike Any
Other.
corrospondonee sea Coast Eoho.

i ~" '."i 'VHoiStS unUnuDtcdly III
those delicate productions of the
feminine industry, including dres.
ses, millinery, iewelry, art good.
and'bric-a-brack, for which Paris
is famous.
There are certainly an enor-
nous number of stores and shons
in the city. They line tho streets
in all quarters in countless thous-
ands. There are many more esta-
blishments in proportion to the
population than in American e.
tics, but with tho exception of n
few notable ones they are very
small affairs. As customary
thing the room of u shop is not
larger than an average sized room
of mn American house. The stock
OF goods carried is very small,
While the men Of the family are
engaged in bureau positions the
women, the wife and daughters,
tend the shop. At the noon hour
or at six O'Clock the visitor 10 the
shop will find the whole family Mt
meal either in II little room ad-
joining the shop or in the sales
room itself.
The excessively retail character
of the mercantile system of Paris
may be partly accounted Cor as
follows: s:-There is in vogue a sys-
tenn of buying in small quantities
which keeps alive the small dealer.
In the United States II couple of
barrels of potatoes, one barrel of
apples and other vegetable in pro-
portion. Sugar also and other
groceries are purchased in same
quantity. In Paris a family buys
for each days wants II couple of
dozen potatoes, a small bag of
sugar not larger than salt bag,
etc. This method of buying is
made necessary for all perishabIe
articles by the fact that there is
no cold storage among merchants
or in private houses. Scarcely
any ice is taken by families and a
refrigerator is an article of furni-
ture five times more rare than a
piano. Again there is no city in
the world perhaps where the
servant class is taken so much as
a matter Of course as as in Paris.
The labor which continue buying
in small quantities occasions falls
chiefly upon the servant class and
thence excites no comment and
awakens no idea of change. In
addition to this, as we have seen.
the shops are chiefly tended by
women who make this a tributary
earning for the family.
In the ordinary districts of Pa
ris the streets contain at the cor
ners wine shops and restaurants.
In succession between these there
are always the bakeries, cake
shops, crcameries, butcher shops
cleaners and, more rarely, furni-
turc dealers, stationers, picture
trainers etc, etc. One misses the
banks on the prncipal corners as
in America. The barber shop
has not Il striped pole but bright
brass dish swinging in the wind.
Tobacco is manufactured only by
the State and is sold only under
public control. The street sign
is a red lamp. Wherever tobacco
is sold stamps may be bought.
A French merchant usually does
not deal with his customer on basis
OF fixed scale Of prices as does
an English or an American mer-
chant. 1t is an exceptional store
that has any prices marked in
plain figures. Selling TO a Pari-
sian shop-keeper seems to be re-
garded as an exercise in practical
psychology. Every customer is
"sized up" and treated according
| ly. Concessions in price may be
gotten by skill in management
and by insistance and force in bar
gaining. They show traits Of
characterw which hinder them from
becoming great traders in the
worlds commerce.
Out of the mass of petty shops
in Paris few establishments rise
into prominence by reason either
of their size or elegance. The
most elegant stores are to be
found on the bouleyards in the
neighborhood of the Opera
House: In this vicinity one can
find speciality houses dealing in
| Ijewelry, or art or fans, laces etc.
The district corresponds to lower
Fifth Ave, and Broadway in New
York and to Regent Street in
London. In these shopping dis
tricts more frequently than else
where may be seen the announces
ment English spoken" Beware
of this sign and enter not for il
may be likened to the unfortunate
advertisement once posted by an
American merchant, Don't 90
elsewhere to be cheated, come IL
here"
At the top of the store-keepers
world are a dozen or more large
department stores most Of which
have grown up in recent years in
imitation Of the HBon Marche. =
lOne can enumerate the Louvre
I lPrintemps, Samaritaine, BeIls
\ Jardiniere and Pygmalion. Tert
are several more. In method,
4 these establishments resemble il