Courier Democrat. (Langdon, N.D.) 1891-1920, 1910-06-30
HOME TRADE WINNER
Keeping Display Windows At
tractive an Excellent Means.
NEATNEss is NECESSARY.

0endS custom to Mail order Houses.
The other day I visited a town of
about 1000 population. 1t is a good
town, too, with live and up to date
farming people around it and many
enterprising citizens within it's limits.
I noticed scores Of handsome girls
well gowned and neatly dressed house
wives doing their family buying. Most
Of the young women seemed to have a
taste for soda water. The soda foun-
tains in two drug stores had just be-
gun business for the season. The
older ONE were attracted to the
grocery stores.
One drug store was located on a cor
ner. Up the street and on the oppo-
site side half a block away was the
other drug store. The corner store
certainly had much the advantage in
location. The druggist, If he did not
own the building, as 1 strongly sus-
pect he did not, must pay nearly twice
as much rent as his competitor. But
I observed that only two of the girls
entered the corner drug store to buy
a soft drink, while more than a dozen
went into the other store for the same
purpose.
Being an investigator, I went to each
drug store in turn just to ascertain If
possible without asking a question of
anybody why the corner store had less
patronage than the other.
The soda fountain in the corner
store was Of more modern make than
that in the other pharmacy, consider
ably larger IND more elaborate. In it.
self it had the advantage over the
other M on points. Why didn't the
| girls %patroniZe it? The corner store,
| with fine show windows Of plate glass
opening on two streets, had failed to
take advantage of its opportunities for
window dressing.
The other druggist, whose show win
dows were smaller, utilized his display
space with dignity and taste. The lat
est magazines We're on display, taste
fully arranged. His special bargains
in proprietary medicines were adver-
tised by an artistic arrangement Of the
bottles and neatly printed cards giving
his cut prices. There was a safety
razor eXhibition-the raZors themselves
and a series of views showing how to
use them. No trace of dust was visi-
BILE anywhere. Fresh paint was in evil
dence. The windows were highly at
tractive. That druggist knew how to
dress his windows.
And-he caught the soda water girls
patronage.
I noticed that most Of the matronly
women We're buying their groceries in
q certain store, while Immediately
across the street was another grocery
store equally large. The proprietor
Of the latter store was standing out
side chewing tobacco and talking with
his clerk, who was sitting on a soap
box half asleep. The proprietor Of the
other store, with three clerks, was
busy selling goods. l inspected the
windows of both stores. The store
that had a stream of women going in
and out presented an inviting aspect
from the exterior. | stood on the side
walk and admired the window dress
ing. 1t is easy to dress up a grocery
store window so that the goods dis
played will make a hungry mans
mouth water. There were pyramids Of
oranges and lemons that looked like a
small section of southern California in
epitome. There We're terraces Of can
ned goods that made II yearn for a
can opener on the spot. Fresh looking
English walnuts We're arranged N q
slanting board to spell the word
NUTS" in big letters.
l crossed oven and gazed briefly into
the windows of the other grocery
store. 1t was a difficult matter to
gaze therein. for the window panes.
both inside and outside, seemed to be
incrusted with the dust Of ages. l
verify believe those windows had not
been washed since the era that ended
with the Johnstown food. But |
could see some Of the nondescript OBJ
jects that lay beyond the panes-some
boxes Of crackers unopened and lack
ing glass fronts to show the contents,
a bushel or two Of dirty potatoes heap
ed in q corner. three or four sacks of
flour thrown carelessly across each
other and a fly bitten placard reading,
"Fine Fresh Grocery Goods Always In
Stock"
"How's business" I asked the gro
Ger.
"Mis'able," he replied. "Nothin'
much dom nowadays. I'm thinkin' Of
sellin' out, so if you're a drummer you
needn't expect to sell me any goods"
In the same town were three dry
goods stores, each with tastily dressed
show windows. The owner Of each
assured me that business was fair.
Neither man had any complaint to
make.
1t occurred to me that the corner
drug store man might improve his
patronage by getting a little up to date
ness. in his fine show windows and
that If the grocer who was too busy
selling goods to stop and talk with
strangers had neglected to keep his
show windows attractive the people Of
that town and community would have
been buying a large part Of their