The Birmingham age-herald. [volume] (Birmingham, Ala.) 1902-1950, 1924-04-04
Dodley's billiards
BY H. ADDINGToN BRUCE

Dodley, as a storekeeper, was not exactly
success. He frankly acknowledged this
He had to acknowledge it. Even before com
petition moved into the neighborhood, bod
leys trade had not been what it should have
been. After a store had been opened on the
opposite corner, his customers became fewer
and fewer.
Which naturally exasperated Dodley
Though, he sometimes remarked to a sym
pathetic auditor, meantime glarng balefully
in the direction of the one clerk he had re-
tanned
You can't altogether blame people for
trading across the street. The kind of help
I've had would drive anybody away. Seems
as II the only clerks pick are stupid ones.
cts long. sad story of slow service
orders getting mixed, deliveries to the wrong
houses, incompetence in general. And be,
sides being dull, my clerks have been lazy and
grouchy, every one of them I've ever had.
Looks like I'd have to be content with a
business I can swing entirely by myself
Then, perhaps, I'd have folks coming back
know what people want and can give It,
which is more than the dolts who have
worked for me could do. It's been all their
fault, the trouble I'm in"
Suppose, however, that you questioned one
of Dodley's ex-customers, a particularly OBJ
servant customer. This is what you would
be told:
"Dodley blames his clerks, does he? Says
that one and all, they have been stupid and
lazy and grouchy? Well, all / can say is
that they mostly caught those failings from
him.
And he caught them, as in part his luck
less clerks did, too, from the kind of store
Dodley keeps. Did you notice the Crime on
the window panes, the dirt of the floor, the
dust on the shelves?
1.-The place is never aired right. In winter
time it's positively sitting And it is never
more than half lighted.
There isn't man can work in it any
length of time without having it get on his
nerves, feeling stupid, and developing the lazi-
ness of fatigue. Dodley himself makes about
as many mistakes as the stupidest clerk he
has ever had. And his biggest mistake is
his failure to keep his store fresh and clean
and neat"
In every city, town and village, particularly
among small storekeepers, there still are
Dodleys to be found
ignorant of mind-body relationships, they
fail to appreciate. the malign influence exer.
cised by unsanitary store conditions on their
own efficiency and the efficiency of those
they employ to assist them. Often, like bod.
lay. they blame their assistants for what Is
really their own fault.
Nor is 1t only the efficiency that is i'm.
paired when the store environment is wrong
The health may suffer, too, and often suffers
seriously.
Under even ordinarily good conditions, the
combining work of store has special health
hazards. To minimize these by providing ex.
traordinarily good conditions is today the
earnest effort of all progressive storekeepers
They have had it impressed on them, by the
findings of numerous statistical surveys, that
employe absenteeism from ill-health consti.
tutes heavy charge and one largely within
their power to lessen.
Of this more again. The subject is indeed
one deserving of discussion.