The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1912-06-24
TRAINING STORE GIRLS IN SAlESMANSHIP
Haphazard Methods Drag to Mercantile BusinessPesent Inefficency Means Starvation Wages-Girls
 Start Work Without Instruction
 ELIZABETH BEARDSLEY BUTLER Exclusive Service The Survey Press Bureau)

.e Mercantile establishments employ
 large proportion of the women wage
 earners of this country. Although
 the types of saleswomen vary from
 district to district, from city to city,
 yet the requirements for salesman
 ship in all cities are fundamentally the same. Whether they chance to
 be in small cities or large, saleswo- men are in great measure in a class
 by themselves. Reaction against the
 idea of the department store, demand
 for the finest sort of merchandise, ap. peal to an exclusive trade, have
 brought into being many speciality
 shops but their greater specialization does not as a rule mean that a more
 thorough knowledge or that a more professional attitude is required of their employees. a. - This occupation, simple as it ap-
 pears. involves prompt personal ad- justment and quick understanding. It is upon the intelligence of the sales woman and upon her attitude, to the customer quite as much as upon the quality of goods that the number and value of sales depend. The mercan- tile house, however varied in organ ization, however responsive to. pub lie demand, must in the last analysis. reply upon it's sales force for success and the personal efficiency of the lat ter must keep pace with the imper- sonal efficiency of store organization. To secure and keep at it's maximum this personal is one problem of the store superintendent. Individuals and organizations through personal ef- forts and reports have called atten- tion to certain other phases of the mercantile industry such as the hours of work, the scale of wages paid, the need of seats for women employees
 and the importance of more business like dealing with employees.
 Wages in the mercantile industry are practically never complicated by piece rates. The rate per week for l wrappers, for stock girls, for. altera- tion hands, for first floor saleswomen and saleswomen of c1oaks and suits, Is unaffected by seasonable variation and tends4if each occupational group toward. fixed point, and that a low one not in one store only but in all
 stores which approximate one grade. The social advantage which the mer- cantile industry has over many other occupations open to women, has led to an over supply of saleswomen. In
 evitably s6ver supply in any labor group lowers the market rate of Ewages.'laTt is to this social cause that we may attribute the fact that S1 per cent. of the women employees in Baltimore stores although this show ing is Eorse than it is in some cities are earning wages lower than the To- cal cost of living,
 That the problem of how saleswo- men are to become. self-dependent is a social problem of grave import, ap- pears from the following instance
 which though extreme is but one of many similar. Tessie Schlueter. en- tered-.a store and became a. sales woman. For this service she was paid s3 week and after she had been there five years she became head Snr ya$-
 ment and received $4.4 This sum was the most she ever got during eleven years of services.
 In ability to bargain, the possibility of marriage and assistance from their families, as we'll as the social preference given to mercantile work over labor in a factory, in part ex- plains such low wages as these. Tn part, however, the reason is to be
 found in inefficiency of the sales | women themselves.
 The occupation of selling is sup posed to require neither training nor experieflce It seems an easy way to 1 fill in the years which succeed public
 school. The learning of details is l left to chance. Saleswomen who
 shave been long with the house show 1 the new conner where the stock is
 kept, and if indly disposed, give her suggestions as to the peculiarities cf
 buyers. Some one tells her the GUS tom as regards sales checks and other
 records and with this preliminary in- formation she is prepared to repre- 1 sent her employer to his clientele, She stays in the department to which she is assigned, keeps her stock in l order, tries to remember when new stock comes in and when customers are around does not converse more
 than is necessary with her co-work- CTS. If the customer asks for some l thing that is in stock she produces 1 it and awaits decision. If a customer
 asks for something that is not in
 stock she states the fact. She is in
 reality '.counter-server.''
 ! But how is expert knowledge to be
 obtained? How is the saleswomau tc
 learn and recognize types of person
 alities, to grasp what points make I the strongest appeal to each type o1