Cause For Embarrassment

1895

One of the things that she believes in — and a very good belief it is, many husbands will say — is that the woman who is at the head of the house should do her own marketing. She dropped in at her butcher's in the afternoon, when she was on her way to a matinee at the opera, and gave an order. Another of her principles is to pay spot cash for everything she buys and to run no accounts, but on this day she had forgotten her pocketbook.

"I did not ask them to charge it to me," she said. "I did not want them to do that. I explained that I had forgotten my pocketbook, and that they were to send the purchase to my house, and on the next day when I came again I would pay them.

"And, would you believe," she said, opening her eyes, "that they refused? And I said to them, 'Very well, then, send it around, collect, and I shall not come here to buy anything more.'"

So far so good, but —

"And do you know," she said, with the most innocent smile in the world, "that I went there the very next day and have been going there over since because it's the best shop and the most convenient. And they looked very funny when I came in and gave my orders as usual. I think they must have been embarrassed." — New York Tribune.

Borrow Where They Ought to Buy

1895

The proprietor of a hardware store has found it necessary to display conspicuously over his counter the following sign: "Our business is to sell tools, not to loan them."

"Did you actually find it necessary to hang up that notice?" I asked him.

"Of course I did," he replied. "Hardly a day passes that I don't have somebody running in here and asking me to lend him a hammer, a saw or a chisel. It's one of the freaks of human nature, and I can't account for it. Persons who would not think of going into a hatshop to borrow a hat or to a furnishing store to borrow a shirt seem to think it's the most natural thing in the world to come in here and ask me to lend them a hammer." — New York Herald.

Shop Windows Abroad

1895

Ingenious Scheme of Merchants to Attract Attention to Their Wares.

"Europeans don't go in for newspaper advertising to anything like the extent that we do here," said an American recently returned from abroad, "but they take the shine right off Americans for original schemes to attract attention to their shop windows. In London, Paris and the larger cities in Belgium the shopkeepers are continually devising catchy advertisements. Shoe dealers, hatters, safemakers and men in various mercantile lines do the business up best, but the confectioners, pastry men and other small merchants are not a long way behind them. A shoe dealer in Brussels, who makes a specialty of a waterproof shoe, keeps a pair of the shoes standing in a pan of water in his window all day long. The water comes just up to the top of the soles, and the public are respectfully invited at all times to step up and feel the inside of the shoes and see that they are perfectly dry.

Another shoe dealer in London made a specialty of shoes for bus drivers, and his greatest claim for them was that they were unusually warm. He kept a pair of shoes imbedded in a cake of ice in his shop window, and any one could walk in and feel the inside of them and see that they were warm. A hatter in Antwerp who manufactures a waterproof silk hat keeps one of them in his shop window suspended over a pan, with a stream of water running over it. I never passed this store once without seeing a crowd of people standing in front of it, and I don't doubt that this scheme brought him many a customer he would not have otherwise had.

"In Paris a firm of safemakers employed two men to stand in the window of their place all day and hammer on the lock of one of their safes with huge sledge hammers. The novel designs that confectioners and pastry cooks get up and put in their windows attract the attention and admiration of all foreigners. Every confectioner in Paris who goes in for window advertising at all has a big Eiffel tower of candy in his window, but fine as the Parisian displays are they are not nearly so handsome as those in Brussels. The amount of cake and candy which is wasted in window decoration in the big Belgium cities is amazing. I can't see what use the sweets can be after the things are pulled apart, and certainly no one can have any use for a huge castle or figure made out of cake and candy unless it is used as a centerpiece on a banquet table.

"I have noticed in New York of late a tendency among small retail dealers to emulate the foreigners in this matter of window advertising. A Broadway shoe dealer is advertising his waterproof shoes like the Brussels merchant." — New York Sun.

Point To This Needle's Joke

1916

Woman From Timber Country Finds It, Too.

WINSTED, Connecticut — Entering a Winsted store on which appeared the word "Needles," a woman from the city who is passing her first summer here. asked for a package of needles.

"We don't keep any small wares," said the man behind the counter.

"Then why do you say 'needles' on the window?" retorted the stranger.

"That's my name," ejaculated Solomon Needles, proprietor of the store.

—The Saturday Blade, Chicago, Sept. 16, 1916, p. 7.

Writing An Ad

1901

Did you ever stop to think, you who read the advertisement in the newspapers, just what it means to get up the "ad." every day for a big department store? The man in charge usually has a staff of assistants, who are assigned to certain departments of the store each day. They must familiarize themselves with the stock of these departments, while the manager of the advertising department himself is supposed to keep thoroughly in touch with the entire stock of the store. He writes the general introduction to the advertisement each day and edits the copy turned in to him by his assistants, just as an editor handles the copy of his reporters.

"Just as much care is taken with this matter as though it were so much imperishable literature," said the advertising manager of a big department store. "You sometimes hear of a famous author spending hours over one paragraph, writing it and rewriting it to get the best and strongest effect. You wouldn't think that would be necessary in writing an advertisement, but it is. My assistants sometimes spend an hour over one sentence. There is more science in writing an advertisement that will bring results than perhaps in any other form of composition." — Philadelphia Record.

Harry Potter Stresses Style in Shoes

Ogden, Utah, 1940

Ogden Women Invited to Visit New Firm On Opening Day

Grand Opening of Store Set Saturday

With a complete stock of the newest spring fashions and a store as attractive as the stock it sells, the Fashion Bootery will have its grand opening Saturday at 2481 Washington, according to Harry Potter, manager.

The store will specialize in women's shoes, hosiery, and bags.

"I am thrilled with the opportunity which this new store will give us to serve the women of Ogden," Mr. Potter said. "I extend an invitation to Ogden women to visit the store on its opening day."

"One of Finest"

"I feel this store will be one of the finest of the kind in the west," added Jack Porad, secretary of the firm. "This is our newest unit of 11 stores in Utah, Washington, Oregon and California. It will bring to Ogden something new in last minute styles from New York, Hollywood and Paris."

Exterior of the store is of Colorado Yule white marble, trimmed in bronze and maroon carrara. The entire interior is of natural walnut. The store is completely air conditioned, and all interior lighting is fluorescent.

Founded In Seattle

The Fashion Bootery firm was founded in Seattle in 1922 by Joseph Porad. Since then it has expanded through the entire west coast.

Harry Potter, manager of the Ogden store, comes here from Portland.

—The Ogden Standard-Examiner, Ogden City, Utah, March 15, 1940, p. 4A.