Evening star., 1914-06-08
IMPROVING THE LOOKS
OF BASEMENT STORE
Things Done to Make Downstairs
Attractive to Customers
in the Big Shops.
From the New York Times.

From the New York Times.
Hes doing the cellar trick now" or
they're letting the youngster struggle
belowstairs.' often used to be said of
the supera uuated and the young and
inexperienced man. respectively. after
he had been relegated to the under =
price section" to try his hand at minor
merchandising
Rut no longer in a department store
of the higher grade is ''banished to the
basement or Segregated in the sub
way" an apt phrase when speaking of
the persons who pilot the destinies of
the separate downstairs establishment.
These men and women in stores where
the general tendency of the times is OBJ
served are experts in the zenith of
their abilities. thoroughly versed in the
letter and lore of the buying and SELL
ing game. and. indeed, not fnfrequently
the buyer of certain stocks on the under
ground floor is afso ''the man higher up.
attending to simila rduties on the regu-
lar selling floor, even though the store
one flight beneath the main floor is an
entirely separate establishment. Occa-
sionally the basement store has its
own merchandise and general manager.
who exercises as much watchful care
over tut uINiSIcIIS MS JuiiSui
tion as does his colleague upstairs.
Not a Dumping Ground.
No longer either. is the basement made
the dumping ground of the "stickers,
the shopworn merchandise and the dam
aged goods. Instead it is the object Of
the mana cement to have the various divi
sions as high grade as possible and with
Gyt in
stairs, although covering less space. The
efficiency bug" too. has been buZZing
around downstairs. with the result that
in the department stores of the most
modern propensities the arrangement and
layout of stocks and their display on
fixtures are carefully thought out in adj
vance with the idea of convenience of ac-
cess and inspection always dominating.
How did this change in the attitude OF
the store management toward its under
price division come about? What wrought
the transformation? The answer is that
somebody saw beneath the surface of
things-and that's basement joke-no-
ticed that nine times out of ten the base
ment customer is of the "one-per-cent'
variety; that is, he is the man who
walked right i'll and turned around and
walked right out again Immediately aft
he had bought the tin spoon, or tack
hammer, what not that he had gone
to find. Experience, then. having shown
that it was very nearly useless to at
tempt to lure OF decoy upstairs for high
er priced merchandise the basement shop
per of the old-time type Mohamrned de-
cided to go to the mountain and change
the store. since the customer seemed un-
changeable.
But this. the underlying cause of the
new era of intelligence regarding busi-
ness in the bowels of the building, was
not the only factor which contributed to-
ward haStapine the daC 0f betfar things
Some man. or woman. with the same hab-
il of SagacioUS snooping after Satisfac-
ton, noticed that if a customer could not
be fitted, for instance, with cloak
bought in the basement, without altera-
ton on it having to be made, the delay
necessary owing to the red tape of tags
and bookkeeping incidental to .'interstore
commerce sometimes spoiled the sale.
Then it was seen clearly that it was bet
ter to have more sizes in stock in the
basement division of garments, and as
this idea grew to cover other stocks, the
next step forward was made.
Points of Policy.
Thus far it has been seen that mer-
chants decided:
l. 1t is good policy to have the base
ment department separate store.
2. 1t is good policy to have an ad-
vantageous arrangement of stocks and
fixtures.
8. 1t is good policy to have good mer
Chandise at a low price-actual bargains
instead of junk, and to have that mer-
chandise in a sufficient quantity and
range of sizes and to have the stocks
well displayed on modern fixtures.
OF course, the dominant idea in con-
Quoting a basement store is to have 1t
an economy section, nasmuch as its
chief support is drawn from young per-
SONS used to good merchandise, but who
in their start i'll life must buy close ;
from those who have been used to decent
goods. but whose financial reverses COM
pei them to be economical and from the
stranger in d strange land who knows
what is what. but who has no means to
purchase expensive material.
The old-time bargain basement, how
ever, sought mainly to sell TO persons
looking for merchandise that was simply
cheap. The person of limited means
who buys in the truly modern subway
store can feel that his standard is be-
ing maintained, even if he is paying
less money for his goods. You never
heard of man or woman feeling
disgraced. or ''demeaned" because
genuine bargain had been purchased.
Acceptable merchandise at a low
price is the slogan of the basement of
today. and sometimes this space at the
bottom of the elevator shaft proves
verNabie mine to the one who would
keep his person and his household up
TO the level of responsibility without hav-
ing to pay the price that is more than
apt to go with luxurious store appoint
Inents This does not mean, however.
that everything possible is not being
done toward the maintaining of efficient
service below stairs.
Indeed. it has been found necessary.
since improving the general Idea of the
basement store. to man it with statesmen
of more effective mental caliber than
formerly. as already pointed out: and
the buying of stocks is being done for
many basement stores by persons who
visit the great markets Of the world at
least once year.
The less ambitious houses used to with
draw basement section if it did not
SHOW a balance OH the credit side of the
ledger within certain period; now, how
ever. the tendency is to keep at a poor
paying section until ii has been put on
its feet-the same would be done up
stairs
Hold Special Sales.
Following out the analogy of the sepa-