PAGE TWELVE MERCHANTS' COLUMN Edited by MANSFIELD F. HOUSE ! (Copyright) _---- In this column, which appears every Monday, Wednesday and Satur day, will appear news and short articles of specinl interest to merchants, their salespeople and business men and women in general. All phases of store management---buying, accounting, advertising and retail salesman. ship--will be dealt with, not theoretically, but by descriptions of methods 'actually in use by successful merchants, One Girl's Voice Worth $50,000 a Year # What is a "telephone voice' worth? here is one which is worth $50,000 A year in sales to Bonwit, Teller & Co.'s Philadelphia store, and several which range up to this in value, They, all belong to women, and their names ure shrouded in secrecy. .« Exactly what is a Voice?" P..J. Walsh, manager of the store, @axplaing it this way: "Physically it is #® voice which sounds pleasant and distinct on the phone. It is a volce which carries a smile with it over the wire. Very few good speaking voices measure up to the standard of the telephone voice. They may be soft- ly modulated, distinet, appealing, Sympathetic and everything a voice ghoud be, but some little trick of A wire robs them of their indivi- duality, and they "become common- place: A very small percentage re- tain these characteristics, "On the other hand, a voice which dges not seem at all out of the ordi- nary, when the speaker is facing one, takes on the desired qualities when Beard over the wire. ; "+"But the valuabie telephone voice means more than all this. It means # high.degree of selling ability on the part of the owner, who can rely only on her voice, who can bring to bear no charm of manner, no attrac- ti¥e appearance. It means a 'quick brain, and an intuitive ear, which must make up for the lack of ob- "telephone Ssrvation of tne eye in following the | Arend of the customer's thought and | 'mod. It means tact in the highest degree, for the customer may be in ar from a buying frame of mind hen she picks up the receiver. It means appreciation and memory of the individual customer's habits and | tastes, $ ------ she is on the point of going to Palm Beach as the guest of Mr. and Mrs, Gaston Wexel. Then Miss Fifty<thou- sand runs through her card index and her memory to put herself in the mood of Mrs. Cadmalader's tastes and preferences in gowns. Then she runs through her exlusive models which have just been received or which are on the way and she makes mental pictures to herself of Mrs. Cadmalader gowned in the few best suited to her complexion and the occasion. "Then, and not until then, she goes to the telephone, She tells Mrs. Cad- malader who is calling. Here again is an important link in the chain. Mrs. Cadmalader knows who she is. THE DAILY BRITISH WHIG even if Mrs. Cadmalader is only cur- lous to ses these Parisian models, The store feels repaid just to have her judgment on them. ma, > Really a Buyer for Customer. : "Miss. Fifty-thousand has succeed- ed in building up a peculiar and very profitable relationship between her- Self and the store's good customers. Her attitude is really more that of & purchasing secretary than of a sell- er. She never indulges in the slight- est thing that remotely suggests the forcing of a sale. She's just enthus- iastic about glving them the oppor- tunity to buy things which she knows they like." That is why Bonwit, Teller & Co. do $50,000 more a year in gowns and dresses than they would without the telephone, plus the telephone voice, plus their records of customers' tast- es. 8 Discovered "Self-Sale" Plan by Accident Long cafeteria was started, Lester Turn- er, a young man operating a shoe store in Brazil, Ind., stumbled across the self-serve idea entirely by accl- dent. Turner was in business with his uncle' The older man had operated a store in Brazil for a good many years and. being a merchant of the old school, insisted on holding on to stocks which should have been turn- ed Into cash at reduced prices. It isn't like a Stranger calling up. Miss Fifty-thousand has seen to all that before she ever put Mrs. Cad- malader on her list, upon the occa- sions of that lady's visits to the store. "From thére on it's just straight good salesmanship, with specific in- terest in Mrs. Cadmalader's activity of the moment, couplied with friend- ly courtesy. Miss Fifty-thousand mentions the affair and. she mentions When his uncle retired, Turner took an inventory, piling the older and less attractive shoes in stacks at the back of the store. Then he ad- vertised a special sale of these shoes and the Brazillans came in droves. He and his clerks simply could not handle the crowds, so he told a nam- ber of the customers to pick out shoes that fit them out of the boxes and barrels, as he was entirely too busy to find the right sizes for them. the gowns. She describes them as only one woman can to another, and may she not send these four for Mrs. Cadmalader to look over at her leisure? There is no obligation to buy at all The store is only too That night he and his clerks sorted the shoes by sizes and marked the prices on the soles. When the crowd gathered the next morning they were requested, by means of hastily .pre- pared signs, to pick out their own glad to perform this little courtesy, -------- . purchases and kindly to return to ---- fore the first groceries or their proper boxes any shoes that did | not fit. The sale went so well that Turner decided to establish a department at the rear of 'the store for the handling of jobslots, reserving the front of the establishment for & "regular" shoe Store. Later the self-serve depart- ment was moved across the alley, where it may be found today--the first of the "'eria' stores in the coun- try. Customers Can Watch the "Mark-Down Man Davidson Brothers, in Sioux Falls, N. D., introduced a decided novelty Nd on mtn A res «ATE J. S. BARBER Member of the Inland Revenue. De- partment, Toronto, for forty years, who died at his summer residence at Oak- ville, Ont. PAA rr i A im in reduction sales recently. They ad- vertised, "The Mark Down Man will visit each section of the store, start- ing at opening hour in the bargain basement, 'and continuing his trip through the-store, visiting each de- partment in turn till the close of the The "Mark Down Man' proved to be a real live fellow, dressed in the height of fashion, silk hat, frock coat, Patent leather shoes and the rest of it, who, blue pencil in hand, visited each gection. and reduced goods be- fore the 'very.eyes of the crowd, which followed him about, eager to share in the activity, \ The picture of the Mark Down Man was published in all the papers 80 shoppers 'wou recognize him. The store reports crease of 125 per cent. in sales the first day of the "Mark Down Man's" work. a ----. --. Bridging a Trade Qap A ga) in Stillwater, Minn., found one of his most profitable forms' of advertising to be plain tally cards = one-and-one-half inches by three, punched with a hole in the top. On the back was printed his business card with a catchy phrase or two. During last winter he distributed be- between 3000 and 4000 for use at card parties. Makes Authors Help To {ntroduce his book department, the owner of a New York drag shop performed a rather daring stunt by writing to a dozen popular authors asking how they came to write thelr |: first novel. Authors dislike public- ity about as much as a small boy dislikes strawberry jam, so out of a dozen he = received seven replies. These were mounted on cards and conspicuously placed in his window, together with some unusual arrange- ment of the six best sellers. ------------------ 100,000 Bass Planted. Brockville, July 26. -- 100,000 small black bass, ranging in size from an inch and a half to three inches in length, 'were turned loose into the River St. Lawrence to-day in various feeding places, all within two miles of Alexandria Bay, They were tak- en there by an agent from the State Hatcheries at Ogdensburg, who was accompanied by F. L. Raymond, one of the leaders of the Anglers' Asso- ciation of St. Lawrence River. Silence is golden--and some pe- business day." BRINGING UP FATHER st S32 38 - marks are very brassy, Ice Bo For Year 'Round Service Is a Present ~ Day Necessity Health statistics absolutely prove that an Ice Box is a household necessity for the good of the family's health all year around. Better take this precaution' and safeguard your food before it's too late. Here is a complete assortment of Ice Boxes in all sizes and styles gt moderate prices. CRYSTAL BOTTLING WORKS St. Lawrence Ale & Porter Also manufacture all kinds of soft drinks. Wie deliver to all parts of the city. ' Special attention given lawn socials and picnics. A. Tyo, 478 Princess Street Phone 048 pL HE | ki YOU HELP ME FIND MY | APARTMENT - | DONT | DAY- KIND JANITOR - wit) | i EVEN KNOW WHAT FLOOR ITS ON? LL HELP NCU: BUT CONT CALL ME KIND - TENANT - ILL Lose Mes THE APART MENT DOORS ALL LOOK ALIKE TO A NEW | HAVEN'T GOT A LIST OR | COULD TELL You INA SECOND = OO YOU THINK THAT'S IT? A SWEET VOICE LAUGHIN' IN HERE - IHERR A LADY WITH 'COME'ON- THAT'S, NOT MY WIFE - a pn TE oF fron It *s Used. . In' putting the $50,000 voice to | Work its owner does nothing so crude | #8 running down a general lst of | Prospects. 'She rarely calls up wo- men who are not already patrons of the store. When she does it is be- fause she has special information Which leads her to believe that the is pretty certain. It is rather a tion of increasing the volume of urchase by those Who already are 2 a oy of the Store. 3 or instance, iss Fifty. ~ Sand reads the Society columns +o daily bapers, -and learns that Mrs Cadmalader is about to stage a tri. uumph as a gracious hostess, or that n 000 O00 AO A t . Bicycles | Phonographs All Prices on These Wheels have had a little water, that's all-- : : some newer wet at all. a Sl sail 83 mi sis i : Phonograp hs i Come Men--Save Lots of all kinds: Baseball © © Fishing Tackle Tennis Racquets Ey