The Virginia enterprise. [volume] (Virginia, St. Louis County, Minn.) 1893-19??, 1902-10-17
THE WOMAN BUYER l)1Yll:EEiR
Fsmiipine Purchasing Agents for Big
Stoves Have Increased in
" @f#T s5i'{eSs Number. s. g

Stores Have Increased lin
">5a Number. M
LAST winter, according to trade author.
tiles, there vas observed a markedin
crease in the number Of women buyers
who go to the different cities to buy.
stocks for the firms they represent. The.
female drummer has been seen by mer-.
chants long enough to pass without no.
tice, but the woman buyer is still enough
of a novelty in many branches of trade
to attract a great amount of attention.
Many of the old commercial hotels, as Il
have been informed, have been obliged to
change both their rules and their ways
since the astonishing influx of business
women: Many of the leading hotels in
the different cities at first were inclined
to refuse accommodation to women who
were travelling alone, mainly on account
of the extra trouble they cause, but with
in recent years this sentiment has
changed and now a woman can get ac-
c~ommodations at any of. the leading
houses.
Hotel men were compelled to make
this change, since women began to travel
as business representatives, as drum
mers, as book agents, as theatrical man
ayers, as lawyers n as professional
buyers. A travelling woman, whether
she represents herself or a dozen bust
ness houses, is not so usual a patron of
the hotels that she is accepted as a mat
ter Of course. "
No special arrangements are made for
these business women at the hotels, be-
cause they a plainly shown that they
neither expect nor accept any more atten-
ton than is accorded to a man. In the
places in which sample rooms are pro-
vided the women commercial travellers
- H. -
the men and have come to be regarded as
legitimate members Of the fraternity.
One of the more remarkable things
about the increase in the number OF
women buyers is that so many different
trades are being represented by them.
The beginning was made some years ago,
according to the statement of a we'll
known merchant, when many of the
larger firms began to employ women to
buy dress goods, millinery and other fem
mime raiment.
This is considered a natural and le-
Ultimate method of obtaining reliable in
Formation concerning the existing fash
ions, prices, materials and trade tenden-
ployed, but they have little in common
with their more businesslike sisters, who
enter the open market and compete in
it with the masculine representatives Of
the merchants Of all the earth. The old
time feminine "buyer'' seldom actually
purchased anything. Her business was to
make recommendations. keep her eye.
open for new fashions and to obtain sam
pies Of the --latest things in hats, trim
mings, materials and buttons. She acted
simply as her employers eyes, and not
as his responsible and trusted employe,
by whose judgment he must abide.
The woman buyer of today is Of differ
enc. stock altogether. She has almost in
variably served a hard and generally long
apprenticeship to her chosen trade. n
she understands it's intricacies as we'll as
does her employer. Several of the large
cities today contain hundreds of women
who are, for the time being, as much con-
trollers of the credit and bank account
Of the firm they represent as n one Of
it's partners. Upon their judgment large
" depends the commercial stability of the
house they represent. II they are nj
j., ployed in. a dry goods house it is their
business to buy for the firm an entire
most liberal supply Of the things which
are expected to be fashionab BILE. They
must live and think in the future, for If
a sufficient supply of subsequently fash
ionable material or article is not arranged
for at first it is often utterly impossible
to supply the demand later.
These women make very few errors.
Let some rival house secure a better
supply Of a free selling, fashionable COM
modify than the firm she represents-let
it happen that the rival house has bought
in such a way that it can undersell her
irm-and there will be another buyer in
her place next season. .
Many of the small houses, as I have
been told, in the West, which once sent a
member Of the firm to the East to buy
the seasons goods, now employ a woman
for this purpose. Upon this woman de-
Ponds the prosperity Of the wholesale
judgment Of what will sell in her own
town must be infallible, or the firm will
be ''stuck" with a quantity Of goods
that it neither can sell nor return. Every
firm, whether wholesale or retail. is con-
stantly in search of hits and it de-
ponds upon it's buyer to find them. Ev-
cry firm, too, has its favorite house with
which it has long dealt, but whatever the
buyers personal preferences may be she
cannot afford to allow herself to get tied
down to one market, if she can obtain
either a better variety or greater value in
some other place.
1t speaks we'll for the success of these
women buyers that the increase in their
ranks has been steady. There are few
occupations more exacting or more re-
sponsible, and yet there have not been
many failures. At first women buyers
represented only such trades as millinery,
dress goods and other lines that apper-
ever, women are acting as successful buy
ers for nearly every important trade that
has ever been heard of.-Cleveland Plain
Dealer.
AN ENOCH ARDEN I'm REAL LIFE.