The daily morning journal and courier. [volume] (New Haven, Conn.) 1894-1907, 1905-02-13
THIS is THE BARGAIN SEASON.

How Woman's Constitutional Craze
Fills sthe Stores. 81
There is something abnormal about
a woman who is Indifferent to bar
gain,' remarked the proprietor of a
well known department store. He said
this with great satisfaction, and there
was good reason for it.
Downstairs was throng of custom
ers, out apparently to buy. At a time
Of year when many persons-women
particular-fnd their pocketboeks as
fiat as buekwheat cakes, this parti-
cular store, like almost every other in
Manhattan, was doing almost as brisk
a business and taking in very nearly
as much cash as just before the holi-
days.
To the unenlightened this very APP
parent prosperity was puzzling.
THE same sight would have been, !
suppose, quite remarkable a dozen
years ago." assented the satisfied pro-
prietor. January crowds in the stores
are comparatively a recent manifesto
ton in the retail dry goods business
and almost peculiar to this country
and more noticeable in New York, per-
haps, than in any other city of Amer
lea. e-@sz
THE retail dry goods mans motto
in these days is something doning all
the time and as a means to an end
our first aim is to keep the feminine
shopping public busy. Once upon a,
time we used to sit down and take a
rest after Christmas. A lot of the reg
lilar help was discharged until perhaps
March l, when the spring trade began,
and in consequence about January !
employees used to go around with a
melancholy air, not knowing just where
the Ratchet would drop. There were
often a. good many surprises in that
line which couldn't very well be helped.
I'm those days only an occasional
customer struggled in through the
month of January. Walk into almost
any store a week or two after the holt
days and the few salespeople in sight
were busy taking stock and acted as
IL they didn't care about being dis
turbed. The store itself had a sort OF
cleaned up and put away air that gave
one a lonesome feeling.
We'll, all that has been changed,
and the change is due to the fact that
New York merchants sell their goods
at such a close margin Of profit that
they can't afford a dull season any
more. It doesn't pay. We manage
now so that our stores are pretty near
ly as crowded after Christmas as they
were before, and our income Is almost
as big in January as in any other
month Of the year, 81, as -..
THE secret of 1t? ,..
We'll, it is in one word-barga
There are other drawing cards, but the
biggest is bargains. .r,. ss
II found out long ago that the ganbl-
ing instinct is stronger, If anything, in
woman than in man. have known wo-
men who would walk IL blocks to get
something for nothing trifiing catch
price, say, worth perhaps S or10 cents
and other women who are wealthy and
yet come hustling In here just as keen
about taking advantage Of a marked
down sale as the poorest There is
something abnormal about a woman
who is Indifferent to a bargain. w.. ~.
Il don't care where they live
whether in the city or the suburbs, or
in what circle OF society they move,
or what the state of their finances may
be. Details of that sort are of no con-
sequence. When 1t comes to a qies-
ton Of capturing bargain, that Is
when that gambling instinct I men
toned is at work, women are as much
alike as peas In a pod. In the main,
that &c xphv orr biYsinpSS is en- lI,ctu
during January"
I'VE now consider the month Of jan
uary the biggest bargain season Of the