THE SALESWOMAN
The employment department of a big store is the testing place through which
many girls who mean to be saleswomen must pass before they reach the store
itself. Naturally the girl should be careful to do herself justice when she
goes to the employment department. The head of the department will be
certain to note her appearance carefully. The girl should make sure that
she is cleanly and neatly dressed; she should speak quietly and politely;
and she should show that sincere willingness to be cheerful, obliging, and
agreeable which she will find one of the best aids in her life both at work
and at home. To enter a store no particular training is required. The girl
leaving school when she is fourteen, fifteen, or sixteen, who is able to
read and write correctly and who has a thorough knowledge of the common
rules of arithmetic can hope to obtain a position in a store.
Having once obtained a position in a large store, the girl will find
herself part of an establishment where perhaps hundreds or thousands of
people are employed. It is probable that her position will be an easy one
suited to her age, without much responsibility, and with small pay, but,
if she shows interest and willingness to learn, she will be in line for
promotion. There are many positions which carry with them great
responsibility, and correspondingly large wages. A girl's chance to
occupy some day such a position depends largely on herself. She should
try to understand as much as possible about the store and its methods and
rules, and she should make her work part of the successful work of the
establishment.
In a large store the younger girls are employed as messenger girls, parcel
girls, markers, or, after some time in a store, a younger girl may help in
the care of the stock. The payment received in these positions is small.
Indeed, the problem of the youngest girls in the store is not an easy one.
The girl herself should try to realize that this big store in which she is
employed must be to her what the high school or college is to other girls
who stayed at school when she went to work. Here, in the store, she should
continue her education, which is to take the practical form of a business
training.
Unfortunately, some of the girls thus employed are indifferent to their
work. These are the inattentive, listless girls who look about them idly,
instead of attending to the needs of possible customers, or who spend more
than half the time talking to their friends visiting the store or to their
fellow-workers. One large establishment reports that only one third of
their staff become skilled in salesmanship. Another famous firm of
employers says that twenty-five per cent. of their girls do not improve,
another twenty-five per cent. are only fairly satisfactory, while fifty
per cent. are satisfactory. The girl who enters the employment of a store
should determine to become a skilled saleswoman.
Fortunately, the work of the saleswoman is steadily rising in its standing
as a good occupation. It is becoming skilled employment. Already there are
a number of schools which teach salesmanship, and many of the larger
departmental stores have courses of instruction for their salespeople.
The managers of these stores say that this training pays both the store and
its staff of employees. After training the employees make better wages and
the store earns a higher percentage. Any girl who wants to be a saleswoman
should, if possible, take a course in salesmanship either at a business
college, a trade school, or at a Young Women's Christian Association, or
she should try to find a position in a store where there is a school for
employees.
Our young saleswoman will study her store, she will take lessons in
salesmanship, she will be interested in her work and eager to learn. Such a
girl will find that the place of her employment is a world in miniature,
where she can study life and human nature and where she may become a useful
and well-equipped member of society. No girl who is a good saleswoman can
fail to learn how to deal with many different kinds of people and to have
many opportunities of making friends among her fellow-workers.
It is not difficult for the average girl to become an efficient saleswoman.
To recapitulate--she should be neat and pleasing in appearance, quick to
learn, willing to obey, with good manners and bright intelligence, and she
should be interested in her work. She should have a "head for figures," a
knowledge of correct English, and ability to work quickly and courteously
at the same time. She should, of course, have a thorough knowledge of the
commodity she is selling. The more accurate her knowledge of materials,
the better saleswoman she will make. She should also take a personal
interest in the wants of her customers. Her object is to sell articles
which will give satisfaction.
The average earnings of saleswomen at times seem disappointingly small.
It should be remembered, however, that the indifferent or careless girl
lowers the average. The successful saleswoman, after some years of work,
may earn from fifteen to twenty dollars a week. A great many girls earn
less. The beginner may get five or six dollars a week or, if she is in an
establishment which pays no employee less than a certain amount, she may
get seven or eight dollars. The girl who earns less than eight dollars a
week after a year or two years is not a successful saleswoman and is not
likely to be kept on in any well-managed store. The saleswoman who is
dissatisfied with her wage may ask at any time to have reference made to
her actual sales, of which an account is kept. Wages are based on sales.
Sometimes a commission is paid on sales over a certain amount. In any case,
the girl feels that there is a direct connection between her successful
salesmanship and her wages. Character, skill, tact, and energy are all
required for successful salesmanship. The saleswoman who really gives
herself to the work of serving and satisfying her customers finds her
employment an exacting one.
A saleswoman may be promoted to have charge of stock; she may become
assistant buyer or head of a department; and in somewhat rare cases she
may become a buyer. These are all responsible positions requiring unusual
business ability and character. The salaries are high. If a saleswoman has
excellent business ability, she may, after years of experience, become an
important influence in the management of the store. Some departments offer
greater opportunities than others. The more expensive the article to be
sold, the more is required from the saleswoman. A very young girl will
not be found selling coats and cloaks or expensive suits and dresses.
"The customer who is spending a large amount of money wants to have
confidence in the judgment of the saleswoman," is the saying of an expert
in store management.
The large department store, while it affords training and opportunity
to the girl who intends to become a competent saleswoman, employs many
girls and women in occupations other than salesmanship. In the store there
is a large clerical staff, including stenographers, who may receive
promotion to the position of private secretaries and bookkeepers.
Telephone and telegraph operators are among the employees. The store
shoppers act in connection with mail orders and orders received by
telephone. The advertising department employs writers, artists,
proof-readers, and card and sign writers. Milliners are employed in the
millinery department and fitters and dressmakers in the alteration
departments. Manicurists and hair-dressers carry on their special
occupations, and waitresses are employed in the store lunchroom or
restaurant. Trained nurses have positions in the store hospital and visit
employees in their homes. Machine and handworkers carry out special orders
in making curtains, cushions, lampshades, etc. A store school employs
teachers of salesmanship and store system.
Many girls are employed as saleswomen in smaller stores which need only a
few employees. The system of the great store is not so necessary in a small
establishment, yet the individual saleswoman in the small store holds a
responsible position. Sometimes a girl with business ability becomes in
time assistant manager, or even part owner, of such a store. Ideas and
initiative will tell wherever they are found, and the girl who is really
interested in salesmanship will succeed in a large store or in a small one.
The hours are fairly long, sometimes longer than the average in women's
occupations, but they are no longer than the hours required in many
professional and other employments in which women are engaged.
The well-advised saleswoman will have interests outside of her work. She
should study some interesting branch of knowledge and cultivate a hobby.
She will find both pleasure and benefit in belonging to a club or other
association. One of the most interesting developments in the large
business establishment where numbers of men and women are employed is
the organization for comradeship and improvement. Thrift is encouraged;
opportunities are provided for exercise; sometimes those on the staff of
such an establishment are offered housing of an attractive kind at
moderate prices. The girls of the establishment may be provided with a
club house.
Altogether, the character of this employment is complex and interesting.
It is an attractive occupation, in which the girl is brought into
relationship with people with whom she can help to develop a sociable,
co-operative life, tending to improve her own character and usefulness
and that of others.