St. Tammany farmer., 1906-12-29

travelling men who had sat with Wat
kins and his young college-man pack
er-who was fast getting used to tn
bit-again gathered in the chairs the.
had left in the Baltimore hotel q
Kansas City.
Hoover, the merchant, rocked ;
couple of times in his big chair, the1
leaned forward aud remarked:
"The greatest trouble retail mel
chant has in building a business il
with his clerks. It is hard to ge
men to work for you who are brigh
and snappy and who, for SO much pc,
week, will take an interest in you
business. So many of them, too, arr
downright stupid. Now, for example
I had case like this only the day be
fore l came up here. A lady came into
my store to buy some mating. wa:
writing in my Office and let one of my
young lady clerks wait upon her. In
stead of spreading out two or three
rolls on the floor of the carpet room
she let the customer herself finger
around over the mating. The Gus
toner and my clerk were very neal
where l could see them. The lady
asked the clerk, Has this piece a pat
tern?'
eyes, it has a pattern-4O cents q
yard
"'Forty cents?' said the lady, as II
she were a little surprised at the
price. Then the clerk showed her an.
other piece. This was 35. &
Thirty-five? Has that a pattern ?
We1l it was clear to my mind that that
lady was looking for two things-she
wanted a piece. of mating that had a
pattern and that was cheap. Won't
you let me see this piece?' the Gus.
toner asked. The clerk was absolute.
ly too stupid or too lazy to display the
rolls. She stood there like a
dummy and after a while the lady
said: I will have IL yards of this 40
cent piece, please. You say 40 cents
Is the price OF this? It seems to me I
saw some very much like this at
Springfield the other day for 80
cents a yard That clerk never made
any answer whatever. She didn't
say that perhaps the day the lady saw
It the store was making a special sale,
or that the price on mating like that
or many other things, was going up, or
that the quality of that which she saw
was probably not so good. She merely
started to cut off the IL yards and was
going to let it go at that.
Merchant Explains.
. "At this I left my Office and ex-
planned to the lady how the price could
be different or the quality they were
selling in Springfield not so good; and
when had made reasonable expla-
nation to her, she then said, Perhaps
um-12-no-24 yards. I
wish enough for two rooms
There stood in danger not only of
losing that sale, but of having that
customer feel that I was high priced.
OF course she would have talked this
around with her neighbors and this
would have kept more customers from
coming to my store"
"Ah, a clever clerk helps a store a
great DEAL" said the furniture man.
mot great while ago, when I went
to shave, one morning, found / had
no soap. AS I passed by the drug
store in the hotel, on the way to break
fast-this was in Colorado Springs
dropped in and asked the clerk for a
stick of shaving soap. Yes, SIR said
he politely, and he at once laid out
three kinds before me. When I had
picked up the piece wished he said
to me, 1T is barely possible that I
have something. here that will just ex-
actly strike you. You carry a shaving
outfit, am sure and with this he
showed me half dozen rubber lined
toilet cases. oh, haven't time to
fool with anything like that I an
swered. I throw my razor and brush
and everything right In Well, you
see this is rubber lined and it will
keep your brush, if it is not quite dry
when you put it away, from soiling
your collars or anything in your grip.
Then you see when you have to shave
In the morning on a sleeper you don't
have to lug your whole big grip to the
but merely stick this un-
der your arm. Then you have all of
The articles together. Nice place here,
see, for your razor, soap, shaving soap,
comb, brush-everything. This is
fresh lot we have just got in. We are
selling them very rapidly. Everybody
Is pleased with them-not very ex-
pensive, either. This one for $50;
the next for $500, and this elegant one
for $3.50 This boy was just young
fellow, but he was so polite, bright and
to the point that he really convinced
me that L should have one of those
toilet cases and bought it; and on
top of that he sold me a new shaving
brush, comb and few other small
articles. And he knew when to stop.
A great many clerks, you know, try
TO rub it in and tire you out. Do you
know I liked this young fellow to
wait on me and instead of going to
The cigar stand would go in and pat
ronize him when I wanted something
10 smoke"
That Kind Of Men in Demand.
Il wish l could have a corps of
clerks like that one" remarked Hoov-
nr. s'It is so hard - get them to take
IN interest in your business. That
fellow that you've just told about
won't be a clerk very long. Ha Will
either have a good position on the
road or else a drug store Of his own.
.'I have one young lady, though.