Evening bulletin. [volume] (Honolulu [Oahu, Hawaii]) 1895-1912, 1903-01-03

Town town chicago send out every
ear 10000 yards of woullen dress
goods. representing retail price of
IS cents yard. and only that an indi-
,idual customer may satisfy herself
~ to what is being won DIN one
rasc out of five-that sh, may order
dress pattern from one of these sam
pies Eighty thousand yards Of silk
are cut into minute triangles squares
and parallelograms meaning a retail
loss of $4,000 a year to these ten
stores. And. on top of this. nearly ev.
cry line OF goods in a house suffers
from the shears of the sample cutting
department, aggregating in these ten
stores more than sl5OOOO year.
These totals amount to $4,000,
And in the face of these figures II
may be said that the sample craze"
as II existed in the time Of the crazy
quilt, is virtually dead fad.
Few people realize the extent OF the
sampling department of the modern re.
tail dry goods house. Fewer still real.
lie that when bolt OF dress goods
comes into the house and is unpacked,
the first thing done with II Is to snip
of a full yard from the bolt ranging
from twenty-five to fifty yards. and per
haps two yards from the bolt that runs
longer than this. As much Of this
goods is fifty.four to sixty inches wide
the average Of one yard to the bolt Is
low, as Is the price, fixed at 10 cents
From one.third to one-half yard OF
this clipping goes directly to tie sam
pie cutting room. In sending mp these
clippings they are punched according
to values and without reference to col
ors or shades.
There may be ten strips from al
many pieces of goods, the whole bunCt
held together by tag on which tbs
cost price is marked. The. manager o.
the cutting department receives this
and with some general directions thu
goods are turned over TO the boy wht
Is to do the cutting. The average
width OF the strips into which thi
cloth is cut Is ! IA inches, and the ay
lerage length OF the samples cut from
these strips is three inches. Befor
cutting into sections the strips Of clotl
perhaps six deep are stuck througl
with the pins OF the price tag and a
the interval of three inches. Then tn
strips are cut across just above tn
tag.
| Thus the manager OF the department
mas on the table before him the littl
punches of cloth of various shades an,
coiors, but of uniform price. They ar
classed as to material, also, so that
person familiar with goods may es
plain just what kind OF goods sh
wants, and out of the selection O
shades and colors sent to her she ma
choose something to suit her. Cuttin
these goods on another scale for dress
makers, the samples sent out are 3 b.
inches, and frequently in some good
OF peculiar pattern In the weaving tn
shape Of the sample must be altered Il
order to show the novelty. Sticking
pair Of pin points through six or eigh
thicknesses of wooden dress goods |
easy, but the stick them through a
many pieces of cotton goods is anotl
er task, and in order TO make this cas-
the cutter Jabs the pins into a cake O
soap before him, the soap acting as
lubricant without greasing the san
pies. The tag which is pierced b.
these pin points and so held to plac
bear the name of the dry goods firm Il
miniature, and on It are marked tn
price and width of the goods.
There are Chicago houses whicl
have a steady call for these sample
from Maine to California and iron
Canada to the Gulf of Mexico. In MI
ing these requests, too, envelope
weighing one to eight ounces are sen
out, the average being about fou
ounces at one cent an ounce. As a pre-
bable reaction from the times OF tn,
crazy" quilt, about one.fifth of thes
samples sent out come back to tn
house sending them. There is seldom
any request made that this be done
and there are few OF these sample
that are of any use to the house whel
they have come back. There are tw,
lreasons for It; First, the samples hav,
been tossed and fingered so much tina
they are not presentable, and, on tn,
other hand, many pieces represented
by samples that may have gone on
four weeks before, already have beer
sold out.
A few houses which send out silks
from sample cutting department
however, ask for their return, on pair
Of not sending out to the Delinquent
the houses next catalogue, In mos
cases, however silk samples are cut a
the retail silk counters and sent ND t.
the mailing room, and when so cut thC
salesman below cuts his mark into the
samples in such way as not only L
identity IL, but TO spoil 1t for any crazy