Arizona republican. [volume] (Phoenix, Ariz.) 1890-1930, 1910-11-11

There are three of us in the bust
ness, all women, and we can furnish
your kitchen, be it large or small,
inexpensive or costly, in very little
more time than it requires for you to
name the desired articles. We are all
widows and have all had homes of
our own. l am the only one who
has previous business experience, and
might also add the poorest of the
three My mother who is the head
of the firm, put in what capital we
started on. 1t wasn't much, but in the
last four years it has more than
doubled.
Il had clerked in the house furnish
ing department of a large depart
ment store for nearly seven years
when we decided to make the venture.
We took in a cousin because she was
both reliable and a good talker. She
was looking around for something to
do. SO we all got together and have
devoted ourselves to equipping kitch-
ems. At first we divided our force
about as follows: l tended shou,
mother looked after the books. while
my cousin went out and solicited
orders. We were to pay mother in
terest on the money invested and
after rent and other incidentals were
paid we divided the balance equally
between us. The first year we came
out less than $40 to the good Fortu
nately we then lived in the same
building with the shop and our living
expenses We're counted in amoung the
.ncIdentals
1.-THE second year we cleared several
hundred, and since then have been
going ahead steadily. We equip kitch-
ems or we sell by the piece We claim
to have everything that can be called
for in a kitchen and | believe we do
not claim any more than we have.
Though we prefer to have a plan of
the Kitchen we are called on to equip
we often supply the furnishings with
out knowing more than the size and
the amount of money to be expended
Very often we have orders to equip a
kitchen which the owners themselves
have never seen. 1t is usually some
out of town place they have bought
bought unfurnished, or maybe they
have leased it for a term of years
If we find out the amount of their
order is large enough my cousin
makes a trip out and looks things over
If not then of course we select the
equipments according to the varity Of
fuel, gas. wood, cold or electricity
we try to keep our eyes on all the
new houses. especially the private
that are being built. My cousin goes
to see the prospective occupant and
offers to equip the kitchen. She
names rates and shows samples, be-
sides giving the names of reliable
customers as references. Though we
have no rivals who make a busiress
of keeping kitchen equipments only.
all the large department stores in
town sell such supplies and are eager
TO get the orders.
$50 far as l know we were the
first to go out soliciting orders for
equipping the kitchens in new houses.
but now nearly all the stores nave
tunately for us they haven't yet
learned that women are better in
that particular branch of soliciting
than men. Both of my Cousins assist
ants are women, and we are ALWAYS
congratulating ourselves on their
keeping ahead of the men from the
large stores.
"All of the employees, with the ex-
oeption of the drivers and the men
who deliver and set in place the
are women. At one time
we thought of getting a mans in the
shop as salesman. but we gave up
the idea. 1t wasn't because of hav-
ing to pay more. for we give our
women the same as men in other
stores receive for the same work. but
because we were convinced they
wouldn't be as agreeable to custom
ers. You see when a woman comes
in to buy kitchen furnishings she is
quite willing to have another woman
wait on her. because in that depart
ment at least she feels that they I'M
derstand each other. When man
comes in he prefers a woman clerk
because he feels that she naturally
would know more about what is
needed in a kitchen than another
man. l saw that in the housefurnish-
ing department of the store where /
worked before we opened this shop
thing is that there are not
many men who can work day after
day with a woman without trying to
boss the job.
Besides all sorts of new equip
ments and utensils we try always to
keep at least a few old ones. Unless
you were i'm the business you could
not guess how many calls we have
for the old fashioned wafer and
waffle irons. Then We get many
calls for old reflectors or Dutch
ovens. Persons who have homes with
open fires want them. In certain
suburb where a good many of these
reflectors were ordered we learned
that the fashion was started by an
old lady who was in the habit of
having tea instead of dinner or sup
per Sunday evenings. Everything
was served, cold except the tea and
the biscuits. These latter were bak-
ed that morning at breakfast and
warmed in a reflector before the sit
ting room fire. where tea was served.
OF course they came out piping hot
and were all the nicer for the extra
toasting of being warmed over.
1T was impossible for us to find
reflectors, so we had to borrow the
only one so far as we knew in ex-
istence and have the others made