The Richmond Virginian. (Richmond, Va.) 1910-1920, 1917-06-24
AS TO TURNOVER
Of STORE LABOR
Question Whether the Percentage
Estimates of This Are Not Too
Large.

With the coming OF war and the need
Of the practice OF reascuahls economy
by business houses as well as tndi-
vIduais the executives OF big dry goods
stores all over the country ar. err
saEed IN a keener hunt than ever for
leaks due to the Ia hor turnovsr. Fig
gres on this point. which were brought
out az the last convention Of the Ma
tional Retail Dry Goods association At
Chicago, Indicate that. in certain cities
ut least. the need Of reduction Of this
wastage ia very apparent.
For instance one speaker A. the con-
ven t5an in question. ASSERTED that tie
labor turnover cost in department.
stores has been known 10 be as great
as 4n0 per cent Especially large =
the turnover In the non selling helr.
particularly drivers. Another speaker
told Of a store in certain Middle
Western city Of Industrial prominence
/ in which the turnover was as high as
ably Including helpers, and he further
told ~ an instance In which twenty
different drivers had been used on one
route In a single year.
The reasons advanced for this conh'-
ton Of affairs included poor selections
/ Of employees at the time Of hiring, thu
! question ~ wages. the length OF the
| store day. and the lack Of considera-
ton shown TO the workers by some
employers. C'> the side Of the en-
ploycs, or ra >r to he charged ur
against them in their failure to stick
were such things as dislike for tn.
work after more or less trial. unwill-
ingness to submit 10 necessary dtsctp-
line. using position in a store as a
stop.gar while something elise. pre-
sumahfy better, IS pending etc.
YESTERDAY Virginian reporter
: talked with an executive of local
store on the question Of labor turn
over. and among the observations made
by the latter were these:
1 There Is no reason for denying that
one Of the hardest problems the heads
of modern department stores have to
contend with is that Of obtaining an
adequate supply Of really efficient
workers. Not only does this difficulty
hamper the stores in giving the kind
OF service the executives have nearest
at heart. but there Is an actual none
tary loss In the frequent changing Of
salesreopie
Let us say. for instance, that a
girl is taken on here at 81 week to
work in a given department Let US
say further tAat-the salary percentage
OF that department is T. This means
that the girl has got to sell twenty
Ave times 81 worth OF merchandise a
week in order to fll her quota or SITS.
Unless she is selling that much at the
end of a months probation. the store
has In her losing investment. r. her
probationary record has been good In
Z all but the actual selling Of goods, she
may he transferred to another depart
n,ent for a further trial. particularly
II good help is scarce. Otherwise she
must be let go. II she Is let go, the
store has lost on her the. difference
, between the amount II has paid her
for her months service and the amount
she has actually earned. II she quits
voluntarily the effect Is the same and
with any large number Of these cases
annually the stores loss is easy to see.
The non-selIiuR help presents a diff
ferent kind OF problem, but one which.
at least so far as the delivery end Of
the business Is concerned. is 1ust as
serious as that Of the salespeople. VIII lie
the direct money loss to-a store through
a frequent change of drivers. for in
stance. Is harder to trace than that
through similar changing Of sales
people and Is doubtless not so great
the indirect loss through poor or Inn
paired service to customers is apt 70
, he much greater than the average ex-
ccutfve cares to contemplate.
While It is my honest opinion that
the labor turnover OF the stores Of this
and other large cities Is much smaller,
proportionately. than 10 the cass with
stores in the less populous cities and
towns. Il must be admitted that All bill