The Waterbury Democrat., 1941-03-31
AxrHoNrs BIG IDEA
CHAPTER XVIII

n didn't know she bought her hOy-friend polo ponies," Bee said ir Q low voice. "Who told you thatP"
 Anthonys eyes avoided hers His lips frightened, and he ans wered hurriedly, "oh, l heard 4 somewhere"
 But Beatrice wasn't satisfied Where could you possibly have heard it?" she persisted. Tt isn't the sort of thing that would be mentioned in the papers. Al least" - she caught herself - "at least, l didn't see 1t in any gossip column, or anything like that"
 Anthony said uncomfortably, T don't remember where I heard it. Maybe she didn't buy him polo ponies. What earthly difference does 1t make to us9"
 None, of course" She lifted her coffee cup. What time do you have to be in class?"
 "Eight-thirty. We still have an hourr He leaned across the table and the heeting uneasiness be- tween them was gone. Listen, Bee, had e brainstorm today. It was 60 busy, I kept hearing the girls saying I wish she'd make up her mindl' and suddenly out of the blue, I got this idea"
 What idea?"
 "weil, you remember those things you said about helping cus- toners choose the proper clothes2 Today, one after another, I heard women saying, But I don't know if it'll 90 with my h'at!'-things like that. never really paid @ great deal of attention to the sell. ing angle before, but since that taiking-to you gave me about cus- toners benefitting by a salesgirl's opinion :"
 you're just trying to ring me in on this idea of yours. You're trying to give me some credit for 1t, beforehand, if it's good.'
 "No, I'm not. I'm trying to get some help from you. Because we'll both have to work on this."
 "Tell me about 1t, quickly"
 "TAe departments upstairs - the College Shops and Young Sophisti- cate and the Little Shop and even the Calon have Q stylist, don't they2 That sort of service comes much too high for basement depart menu. But suppose, Bee-here's the big idea, so listen suppose in Budget Fashions we had ready-as- sembled costumes?
 T don't mean simply display ing hat. some gloves and hand- bag together, near @ dress, the way things are displayed in show windows. I mean that we could have regular accessory section. Each item would be keyed to Q dress, or to several dresses, in stock.
 Instead of Q salesgirl advising the customer, as you tried to do, all sales would be co-ordinated. I mother words, automatically, as . matter of policy, Q salesgirl would show hat, bag, extra belts, collars = whatever 1t happened to be = every time she showed a dress. There could be some line about, of course you're not obliged to buy these, but 1t does give you on idea of how much you can do with this one dress
 T think 1t would make sales easier to close, and certainly the customer who isn't good on see- ing the possibilities of Q dress would find shopping easier"
 He was talking rapidly and en- Enthusiastically, his whole face ani- mated.
 Prom the merchandising angle, we'd turn over double or triple the accessory goods we do now. Of course, we'd have to see that items from different manufacturers were ell keyed in color and style to har- zzlonize or complement each other. Wed have to coordinate our buy ing in some way to have every item 7it in with every other as far as style, quality and finish go.
 "And the prices, too. You can't sell . $5 hat to match a $4 dress. But all that's pure mechanics. The idea of ensembled sales, ensem- bled showing, ensembled fitting and { an ensembled technique throughout Budget Fashions is the thing. Bee, I'm sure, If they'd let us experiment in a small way, we could prove the idea valuablel"