Showroom

“ The important matter is to learn promptly enough about her room to enable you to link some of its characteristics with the characteristics of your merchandise, so that as you point out the many desirable features of her room, and the perfect way in which your furniture harmonizes with and emphasizes these features, she is brought to the conviction that she should have the room just as you have pictured it, and therefore must have your furniture, without regard to what other stores may have to offer. ”

“ The best stores here have very little appearance, from the outside, of being stores at all. Perhaps, as a sign, there is one elegant vase, or a choice piece of drapery in the window; but upon stepping within, room after room filled with exquisite goods surprises you—rare laces, china, furniture, antiques, and everything else beautiful to tempt one to buy. ”

“ Suggestions will be welcomed.—Although no new principles are involved in the sale of sunroom merchandise, the subject merits brief comment. A woman interested in home furnishings for any other room in her home is likely to have fairly definite ideas of her own, or least to be familiar with conventional methods of furnishing these rooms. This makes the salesman's talk one of discovering and interpreting her ideas, and helping to carry them out by means of his own merchandise. With the sunroom this is not often the case. ”

“ In most houses the decorative importance of the hall is undervalued and the room itself is underfurnished and far less inviting and attractive than it could and should be. In order to expand sales of hall furniture by the suggestion and sale of related merchandise, or by influencing home owners to refurnish, you will require some knowledge of the individual rooms and their present furnishings, and a fair knowledge of the principles, processes, and materials involved in hall decoration. ”

“ Perhaps when we make use of the term ‘Brokers’ Shop,’ the minds of our readers will at once picture large, handsome warehouses, exhibiting a long perspective of French-polished dining-tables, rosewood chiffoniers, and mahogany wash-hand-stands, with an occasional vista of a four-post bedstead and hangings, and an appropriate foreground of dining-room chairs. Perhaps they will imagine that we mean an humble class of second-hand furniture repositories. Their imagination will then naturally lead them to that street at the back of Long-acre, which is composed almost entirely of brokers’ shops ”

“ Ensemble selling and complete room settings are the home-furnishings industry's modern answer. Unless she is able to arrange the major pieces of her furniture in a manner that will show them to the best advantage, unless she has at least the requisites in the smaller pieces, lamps, and other accessories, she may never get the full satisfaction that she should for the money she has spent in the furniture store. It is the salesperson's duty to fit his customer's purchases into a complete room or home. ”

“ We know, for example, that some women prefer slender, delicately de [Pg 214] signed bedroom furniture, while others want bulk. It is quite impossible to judge their preferences from their appearance. Suites shown by the method of contrast will uncover this and similar preferences immediately, and thus speed up the sale.
Assuming that you pick the second and all succeeding suites in the light of increasing knowledge of the customer's tastes and the size and decorative character of her room, move forward slowly. ”

“ The shop-girl whom you will hire, our head clerk, and your lady's-maid (yes, Madame, you are to have one!) will sleep on the second floor. On the third will be the kitchen and rooms of the cook and the man-of-all-work. The fourth shall be a general store-house for bottle, crystals, and porcelains. The workshop for our people, in the attic! Passers-by shall no longer see them gumming on the labels, making the bags, sorting the flasks, and corking the phials. Very well for the Rue Saint-Denis, but for the Rue Saint-Honore—fy! bad style! Our shop must be as comfortable as a drawing-room. ”

“ The bedroom differs from the hall, living room, and dining room in that it is a personal room, not shared in common by all the members of the family. Individual tastes and preferences may be given free rein in its decoration. Hence, the salesperson who is able to help his customer express a distinctly personal quality in her room enjoys a great advantage over the salesperson who lacks this ability. In selling bedroom furnishings, the successful salesperson will require knowledge of various decorative accessories, including bedspreads, linens, pictures, ornamental glass toiletries, and pottery. ”

“ Into the quiet of his office filtered a hum of activity exquisite to his ears, the clicking of billing-machines, the whirr of parcel-carriers, the sound of customers’ voices, buying merchandise. Out there the store was smoothly functioning, supplying modern civilization to ten thousand men and women. And it was his store! Not only did he reap the profit—that was a small part of his pleasure. It was his personality which gave all those people the opportunity to satisfy their needs, that was educating them to desire better things. ”

“ The back shop, according to the profession, serves as a store, a laboratory, or a dining-room; the gallery is, properly speaking, nothing more than a warehouse for the shop, containing a reserve of the articles sold, which are arranged in it with great order; the two little rooms adjoining, usually encumbered with chests and bales, afford an asylum during the night to two or three shopmen, while the terrace is used for airing goods that have been a long time warehoused, to beat stuffs, and, in the case of the druggists, to dry plants. ”

“ The disorder everywhere apparent in the shop should first come to an end. The present chaos of tables, chairs, bureaus, and sideboards, heaped higgledy-piggledy one upon the other—the customers edging their way between lanes of dusty furniture—must next be abolished. So must the jumble of glass, china, curios, and lamps. This completed, color and form would be considered, each taking its proper place in the general scheme. ”

“ The plate glass windows of every store lay in thousands of pieces below their sashes, and the entire stock of merchandise whether furniture or drapery, groceries or dairy products, had been hurled through them into the middle of the thoroughfare. Above these were piled pell-mell bedding and chairs, wardrobes and wash basins, all splintered and broken—the whole making the most pitiable conglomeration I ever hope to witness. ”

“ The carpeted floor and tasty furniture serve to give that comfort that is looked for in the modern office of the business man. Beyond and leading from this office are show-rooms for the exhibition of the firm's products. These show-rooms, two in number, are without doubt the best in finish, breadth of space and arrangement of any in this branch of business in the United States, affording the best conveniences for the display of the handsome goods they contain ”

“ A little ingenuity, a little taste, an idea of the harmony of colors can do wonders in the interior of any store, no matter what the character of the stock may be, or its quality or quantity. The thing to do is to let your goods tell some clear, legible story that shall be as plain to your customers as was the handwriting on the wall of Belshazzar’s palace to Daniel, the prophet. ”

“ In every sale of sunroom merchandise, whether for a new house or an old, we must have the courage to point out that this room, potentially so large a factor in the comfort and enjoyment of the family, so much used by intimate guests, and so conspicuously placed as to be an open advertisement of the taste of its owners, should be furnished in a manner consistent with its proper importance. ”

“ The Chicago Automobile Trade Association says the average family buys an automobile every 2 years—not because the car is worn out, but because of model changes. To increase furniture purchases dealers must put more emphasis on style changes through better display, better advertising, and better merchandising.
Over one-half of all furniture buyers shopped more than one store or department.—Better selection, better floor display, and better selling might have converted many shoppers into buyers in the first store. ”

“ A well-furnished and decorated room will have colors, contours, and groupings that fit into the architectural background as though all were conceived and executed simultaneously. The salesperson should guard against the customer's rather natural feeling that there is inequity between cost and the characteristics and qualities which give harmony and beauty to home furnishings. In handling a sale at this point, the salesman will develop convincingly the idea that home decoration, although it is the distinguishing mark of all lovely homes, actually is not dependent on lavish expenditure. ”

“ There are two accepted methods of dealing at old furniture shops. The first is to approach them, well-groomed, be-ringed and perfumed, smoking a jewelled gasper and entering the shop with a circular movement of the arm to expose the gold wrist-watch that will crawl up the sleeve at wrong moments, and to ask in a commanding voice, "How much is the—ah—oak-dresser—what?" ”

“ Inner-store displays.—The theme is "Fine floor coverings are a necessity in the home of today." Every one of the model rooms features as an integral part of the furnishings a fine rug. The same holds true in the "Smaller home groupings." These rugs are not placed on the floor and forgotten. The furniture salesmen call attention to them daily. The carpet salesmen from time to time make use of these groupings as selling aids.
4. Trained salespersons.—New merchandise is sold first to the salespersons. They are taught also that "truth" is the most powerful selling argument. ”

“ Furniture has been given a diagram placement on paper to conform to wall spaces and windows. Rugs, draperies, and accessories have been subjected to tests of suitability for the purposes for which they are to be used.
When the salesman finally faces her in the first vital moments of this sales effort he quickly will realize that she knows what things she wants to see, their styles, shapes, sizes, and even their colors. Without knowledge of at least elementary principles in the art of interior decoration he is certain to feel a sense of inadequacy, even of humiliation. ”

“ There is no sound artistic or practical objection to the use of pieces from different suites in the same room; provided, of course, that the resemblances in proportion, line, and coloring are sufficiently marked to ensure harmony. This is the only way in which antiques can be used, and it is no less effective with modern pieces. This point is particularly important in the sale of furniture for a child's room or a small guest room, which will not take a full suite in any case, but which will offer a valuable opportunity to sell broken lots. ”

“ The shops, with the exception of the Louvre, the Bon Marché, and one or two of the large department stores of similar scope, are all small—tiny, in fact, and exploit but one or two things. A little shop for fans will be next to a milliner who makes a specialty of nothing but gauze theatre bonnets. Perhaps next will come a linen store, where the windows will have nothing but the most fascinating embroidery, handkerchiefs, and neckware. Then comes the man who sells belts of every description, and parasol handles. ”

“ Here the long lines of lighted shops are now packed with their evening customers, who are buying meat and groceries and selecting furniture, being measured for new suits, trying on smart hats and cloaks of the latest West-end fashion, and examining the pink and blue and yellow silk petticoats which make such a gay show in the brilliantly-lighted windows of the milliners. ”

“ He never permits himself even during periods of slow business to fall into the dangerous habit of assuming that every customer will be reluctant and exacting, and every sale difficult. He expects a [Pg 222] fair percentage of quick and easy sales, and is prepared to seize every opportunity to make them.
Having confidence in himself, his store, and his merchandise, he works on the assumption that most of the people who enter a furniture store are definitely interested in an immediate or later purchase of merchandise to suit their particular needs and tastes. ”

“ He always can make some sales merely by showing furniture and quoting prices. He always can make more sales by a skillful presentation [Pg 5] of style, design, materials, and construction. But in order to build a personal following and to sell to the highest possible percentage of his customers the largest possible amount of merchandise, he must become a competent adviser in the creative processes of home furnishings. ”

“ It is in the air they breathe. For even as we pass out from this rich inner sanctum, into the open street shop, where the crowd of customers, each seated on cushions on [196] the counter step, with a salesman squatted before him, swiftly running the counters of his abaca up and down, multiplying and dividing like lightning by this ingenious machine, we see piles of coloured goods, of quite common quality only one degree less delightful in colour and design, than those we have chosen from. ”

“ When such buyers fall into the hands of a skillful salesperson, price (within their economic limits) becomes a matter wholly of secondary importance, and competitive shopping is forgotten. Selling from this approach becomes largely a matter of giving studied expression to the decorative motif chosen for the room. If it is daintiness—furniture, walls, floor covering, draperies, and accessories must be selected and arranged to concur in creating an effect of daintiness. ”