At eleven o'clock the following day a quiet man wearing double-lens
spectacles and a pre-occupied air came into the store, asked for Mr.
Lambert and was directed to the rear where Stucker was showing Sam the
wisdom of leaving the night covers over the black goods during the day
to protect the stock from dust.
Sam was so keyed up on the wardrobe question that he heard only about
half that Stucker was saying.
When the man with the spectacles arrived Sam guessed his mission
without waiting for a word of greeting.
"You," said Sam, "are here to talk wardrobes; let's see what you've
got."
"Before I talk wardrobes, or, if you please, the New Way system,"
began the salesman, "I would prefer to get a fair idea of the amount
and kind of stock you carry and how you care for it now."
"Just as I thought," interrupted Stucker. "You're afraid our stock is
too big for your wardrobe capacity.
"Well, I don't want to discourage you, but when you count the suits on
the table, don't forget to add about 50 dozen pair of knee pants and
odd trousers stored in case-goods boxes under the tables.
"Remember too, that when you take the tables out, you must find
another place for our last years sweaters, mufflers, caps, gloves and
underwear, as well as all our advance stock of shirts, hosiery and
ties which we keep under the tables because we have no room for them
on our side shelving. You can see it is piled to the ceiling now; and
all that on top is active stock."
"That reminds me, Mr. Stucker, of a joke your friend Jones, over at
Dennisville, played on Sakes, his partner.
"Before we remodelled their store, they had a lot of money tied up in
stock piled under the tables like you have. Most of it was odds and
ends--left overs of many seasons that Jones knew even a clearance sale
would not clean up.
"He inventoried the lot and shipped 72 dozen pair of knee pants to New
York, and wrote the auctioneer to send a check for whatever amount
they brought.
"The funny part of it, Sakes never discovered that the stock was gone
until about three weeks later, when he noticed a check in the mail and
asked Jones what it was for.
"You can do the same thing, Mr. Stucker, with your stock under the
tables, and the check you will get will help buy New Way sectional
shelving that will give you about three times the capacity your
furnishing department has now; so it will not be necessary to climb to
the ceiling for your active stock or dig under the tables for your out
of season goods.
"Before we discuss detail, Mr. Lambert," continued the salesman, "I
have something to say about the practical arrangement of the inside of
the store.
"The business of a store is to sell goods. A customer may come in for
one item. You want him to buy two or three or a half a dozen. The
easier you make it for him, the less he has to cross and recross the
store to complete his purchases--the more goods you will sell him.
"What you want--what every merchant wants--and what few have--is a
practical, natural selling arrangement of the goods.
"The invention of a practical wardrobe merely made the right plan
possible.
"Our business is to suggest the plan and fit the wardrobe arrangement
to the needs of a store.
"Every clothing store has its own individuality. Each problem must be
worked out on the ground with a full knowledge of the stock and the
business, the history of the store, the nature of its trade and the
personality of its proprietor."
Sam's interest was excited. This point of view was new to him, but he
could see the truth of it and he was impatient to get at the heart of
the matter as far as his own store was concerned.
"You're right," he said, "about the personality and individuality of a
store; and for that reason don't tell me to put the furnishing goods
shelving down the middle of the store. This is a clothing store and
not a haberdashery."
"Mr. Lambert," said the salesman, "you have hit the nail squarely on
the head. This is a double room, a very different problem from that of
a single store. I looked over the place of one of your competitors
this morning. He also has a double store with much the same
arrangement as yours and I find that he is making a mistake--adopting
a plan that is about five years behind the times.
"You see, in the earlier days of the wardrobe, there was no such thing
as a center wardrobe. Therefore the clothing had to be hung against
the wall in pull-out cabinets. When the clothing went to the side
walls the furnishings had to move to the center floor space.
"Such an arrangement is not practical for a double store and the
effect is bad. It kills the first impression of a big store. The
shelving will look bare if it is not trimmed, and if it is trimmed
your big double room looks like two small stores divided by a wall.
"The center shelving will always have stock boxes piled on top and
that will throw one side of the store always in shadow. Besides, this
arrangement divides the trade and screens half of it from view.
"The stock is cut in two and looks small.
"One salesman can not wait on the furnishing goods trade without
neglecting half of it all the time. If you have two clerks, a customer
must be taken from one side to the other for his ties or underwear,
and there you are again, both on one side at the same time.
"If another customer came along they'd have to stop in the middle of a
sale and refer him to a clerk around in the other aisle.
"A furnishing goods department should be continuous. The sale of a
shirt will lead to the purchase of a tie or a collar or hosiery. The
goods should be in sight so that they automatically suggest
themselves.
"You enter this store and the first impression you get is a big
clothing store. That is what you want. Clothing dominates the store.
Furnishing goods and hats are important and necessary side lines. No
one would mistake it for a haberdasher's. You have been known from the
beginning as the leading clothier. That's the reputation you want to
keep.
"Mr. Lambert, one of the important problems of this store is to house
your stock in new fixtures and at the same time widen your aisles.
"You can not see how that is possible. It is really the only problem I
have to solve for you, and it is easy."
The little man with the big spectacles had things moving. He was not
much of a salesman but he knew all about merchandising in a retail
store.
And he certainly was familiar with every store fixture and selling
device that had ever been invented, its good and bad points, where it
was practical and where it was not.
"Before a merchant puts money into store equipment," said the wardrobe
man, "he ought to be sure that he is getting the very latest and most
improved models. He owes this to himself as a protection for his
investment.
"There is always a temptation to save a few dollars by adopting a poor
imitation or some out-of-date device.
"The latest and best is the cheapest in the end, especially when you
consider convenience and durability.
"A pretty safe guide is to see what the biggest and best stores
everywhere are installing today.
"You will find such merchants as John Wanamaker in his Philadelphia
and New York stores equipping his clothing departments solely with New
Way Crystal Wardrobes;
"Browning, King & Company in seventeen cities;
"Schuman, Kennedy, Posner, Talbot Company, Jordan-Marsh & Company,
Leopold Morse Company, McCullough & Parker in Boston;
"George Muse Company in Atlanta;
"Mullen & Bluett of Los Angeles;
"Becker of San Francisco;
"Burkhardt of Cincinnati;
"Lazarus, and Meyer Israel of New Orleans;
"And more than a thousand others--all the representative stores of
their localities.
"These men have selected the New Way Crystal Wardrobes after careful
comparison with every other device on the market.
"They have found the New Way Crystal Wardrobe the most sightly and
compact--having the largest capacity with the greatest ease of
operation.
"They find that they show the goods better; that the clerks can work
faster from them; that half a dozen clerks can sell from one wardrobe
at the same time; that one boy can keep the stock in good shape where
four were inadequate under any other plan.
"They find that the New Way people have basic patents on special
features, such as the New Way disappearing doors that divide in the
center, and slide into the ends of the wardrobe and do not project
into the aisle.
"The New Way revolving rack with the patent locking device, which
works loaded or unloaded with equal ease--no friction, no leverage, no
noise.
"They find the New Way low center wardrobes give an unobstructed view
all over the store and are the only wardrobes made that are entirely
practical for grouping in front of a furnishing or hat department.
"Likewise the high double deck wall wardrobes have more than double
the capacity of tables."
The wardrobe man illustrated his talk with photographs and backed his
arguments with figures.
The upshot of it was that he made a complete ground plan of the
Lambert store with a modern selling arrangement and New Way fixtures
in their proper places.
But before Stucker would admit the wisdom of the improvement, he
argued it from every point of view.
"The farmer trade," he said, "would imagine that they would have to
pay higher prices for clothing to make up the cost of new fixtures."
This, mind you, today when the farmer is the most enlightened member
of the community--when he is using progressive methods in marketing
his own product, to reduce his costs and increase his profits!
Lem acknowledged that the clothiers who are handling the finest
merchandise are fitting up their stores with New Way Crystal
Wardrobes, and he didn't like to admit that the Lambert Store didn't
sell high grade merchandise.
He conceded that fine goods in every other line of trade are treated
with the care and respect they deserve, otherwise they would suffer in
the handling and cease to be fine merchandise.
Finally, Lem admitted that the discerning public does judge a
merchant's stock by the way he treats it, so that the store with New
Way Wardrobes as a feature is not only the most progressive store, but
in practically every instance the most prosperous in the clothing
trade of its locality.
After Sam had given the order his one thought was impatience for the
completion of the job.
"I must have that stuff all installed so that I can have my opening a
week ahead of the other people.
"Here, Stucker," called Sam to that gloomy soul, who had gone behind a
stock of work-shirts, while the order was being signed, "we'll let you
dispose of the old fixtures. That's a job that's just about your size.
"I tell you, Stucker, a natural-born retrencher has his virtues. But
if you give him rope enough he will retrench you out of business. He
never builds anything. If it wasn't for the creative man there would
be nothing to retrench.
"The retrencher is all right if you don't pay him too much. He is
worth about $10 a month, because you can find fifty of them in any old
man's home that you can hire for less money than that.
"No, Lem, I won't be unfair. You're not as bad as all that. It takes
all kinds of people to make a world and there is plenty of room for
both of us in this business--there always will be leaks to stop and
work to do for an earnest man who has the interest of the store at
heart.
"The fault has been in the division of our labor. I'll show you the
way we can get the best out of ourselves."
"Sam," said Lem, "I reckon I've been looking at the world through a
crack in the fence and I'll have to widen out my view a little. You
give me the books and the sales slips to look after. In the meantime
I'm going to make the most exact inventory this store ever had and be
ready to check in the fresh stock that is to go in these New Way
wardrobes.
"My talents are all right if I don't try to cover too much territory."
The two men shook hands.
All was in readiness on the day set. Everybody in Medeena County came
to the Grand Opening, and Sam Lambert's New Way Store is doing the
business of the town.