Democratic Sentinel, Volume 15, Number 21, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 12 June 1891 — Men Behind Dress Goods Counters. [ARTICLE]

Men Behind Dress Goods Counters.

If you have done much shopping you must haye noticed that more men than women are employed at the dressgoods counters. It occurred to the writer to ask if there was any reason for this. The manager replied, just as if he had been expecting some one to ask the question. “There are several reasons for it. Women do not like to take the say-so of their own sex on dress gootls; men have better ideas of combination than women; men are more diplomatic in dealing with women than saleswomen are. A saleswoman can accomplish more at some other counter than men. But at the dress goods couni er men make the best employes. You would naturally think that a woman could grab up a piece of goods and show it to advantage. I never saw one that could do it. Few women are good judges of combinations of colors on the counter. A modiste is, of course, but a woman cannot always have a modiste with her when she goes shopping. Men who are,in the business take to a thing like combining colors Us naturally as ducks lake to water. They seem to know as soon as they see a woman what will become her in the wav of dress goods. There are many articles in such a store as this which women prefer to buy of their own sex, but when it comes to dress goods they prefer to deal with men.” Chicago Tribune.