DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.42346#0191
CHAPTER XII
RELATIONS WITH CUSTOMERS
I
There is just as much “brutal” buying as there is “bru-
tal” selling—perhaps a little more, since three times out of
five it is the buyer who has the seller at his mercy rather
than the reverse.
One has but to note the relative attitude of shop-keeper
and customer; the obsequiousness of the tradesman is pro-
verbial, he solicits, begs, implores custom; he dares not re-
sent a harsh word lest he lose favor, his salesmen are
trained to keep silent under insult. On a bargain day watch
the angry, struggling mob on one side of the counter and
the pale, tired salesgirls on the other—is the mob human?
It matters not how small or how large the transaction,
the buyer knows he has the advantage, he does not hesitate
to say “money talks.”
Now and then conditions favor the seller and he can
be as independent as he pleases, but these golden periods are
of short duration; if buying does not fall off, the inrush
of new vendors, attracted by favorable conditions, soon re-
stores the old state of dependency.
In a given locality there may be so much building that
all the carpenters, masons, brick-layers, painters, etc., are
employed and dictate terms, but most of the time the man
who wishes to build can make contracts that result in losses
to those who undertake the work.
179
RELATIONS WITH CUSTOMERS
I
There is just as much “brutal” buying as there is “bru-
tal” selling—perhaps a little more, since three times out of
five it is the buyer who has the seller at his mercy rather
than the reverse.
One has but to note the relative attitude of shop-keeper
and customer; the obsequiousness of the tradesman is pro-
verbial, he solicits, begs, implores custom; he dares not re-
sent a harsh word lest he lose favor, his salesmen are
trained to keep silent under insult. On a bargain day watch
the angry, struggling mob on one side of the counter and
the pale, tired salesgirls on the other—is the mob human?
It matters not how small or how large the transaction,
the buyer knows he has the advantage, he does not hesitate
to say “money talks.”
Now and then conditions favor the seller and he can
be as independent as he pleases, but these golden periods are
of short duration; if buying does not fall off, the inrush
of new vendors, attracted by favorable conditions, soon re-
stores the old state of dependency.
In a given locality there may be so much building that
all the carpenters, masons, brick-layers, painters, etc., are
employed and dictate terms, but most of the time the man
who wishes to build can make contracts that result in losses
to those who undertake the work.
179