THE ART OF SHOPPING.
THERE is one conclusion at which any one who studies this straggle between the Shops and the Stores will very speedily arrive, perhaps a little to his surprise. The business of distribution is very imperfectly organised. It seems in London as if a buyer can get anything he pleases, if only he can pay for it; but let him want any definite thing very much, and he will soon discover his mistake. The business of distri- buting necessaries is fairly well done. There are always in West London a first-rate baker, a good grocer, a decent butcher, an endurable dairyman, a troublesome greengrocer, and an extortionate but well-supplied fishmonger, pretty near at hand, anxious to serve, and when relations are once estab- lished and the little red books are in movement, wonder- fully regular and obedient. The shopmen come round— a practice, we believe, almost peculiar to London—they are seldom stupid, and if the customer pays regularly, orders are very seldom mistaken or neglected. The day's work of providing can be done in ten minutes, and if the books are paid up every week or every month, there is less cheating than suspicious housekeepers sometimes fancy. Greengrocers are often ignorant, dairymen can seldom count, and the clever women who invariably manage butchers' accounts, but are seen in no other shops, sometimes, perhaps, risk little mistakes in their addition ; but on the whole, the machine works with an ease which to the village clititelaine seems the perfection of comfort. If, however, the householder wants to stop beyond the range of the daily purveyors, and buy anything, say, a carpet or other article of furni- ture, or a piece of plate, or a watch that will keep time to two minutes a year, organisation is by no means so complete. In the first place, he does not know exactly where to go. It is a curious fact that, unless the article is one largely advertised, or the best dealer one who advertises, the buyer has in London no means of ascertaining precisely who sells what. He cannot tell in the least for himself the reputations of the different shops, or discover which of them go in for cheapness and which for quality, or even find out easily the reputations for speci- alties. This last surely is an imperfection which ought to be corrected. Trade in London is not often so specialised as it is in some cities of the Continent, but still there are firms with specialities—for example, there is a shop known to experts as the shop in all the world for chairs—and it is a pity that in their own interest they do not make their specialties better known. We understand their objections to advertising; but a mere card, with "John Smith, stationer,—specialty, indestruc- tible paper-knives," would not greatly injure the most fastidi- ous sense of dignity. Experts are well aware that one shop is not like another, that whim, or taste, or accident often induces a tradesman to pay special attention to some one article; but the public knows nothing of the fact, and when it wants the precise thing is always a little at sea in its hunt alter it. Any- thing can be bought in London. There are men who would undertake to provide in twelve hours a room full of rare jade, or half-a-dozen genuine Old Masters, or a houseful of oak furniture of one particular kind, or horses of any rare colour, or a cupful of tigers' teeth, or for that matter, half-a-dozen tigers, all alive and roaring. There is nothing so rich, or rare, or peculiar, or seldom sought for, that it cannot be procured in London almost instantly ; and yet, owing to the break in communication, buyer and seller are constantly sepa- rated, and the latter misses his market, or falls into the evil practice of paying commissions for introductions, while the former has to put up with something he does not cordially approve. We do not know that there is any remedy for this, though we should. have thought a "Purchasers' Guide"
quite a possibility, and if honestly done, as Murray's best agents do the kind of work for the Continental cities, would be valuable ; but the omission is an odd one,—a distinct failure in the organisation of trade. There ought to be some method by -which anybody who wants an accurate timekeeper, and not a pretty watch, should know where to go for his article. At present, the purchaser who really means spending, but wants to buy the article in his mind, and not merely an article something like it, must either consent to be disappointed, or must first of all give some attention to an inquiry among his acquaintance as to the best dealers. His female friends will know, if he asks enough of them, and the article is within their range ; and if it is not, some- one of his acquaintance, if he has patience, will give him the neces- sary clue. He will find, as a rule, if he is searching for anything in particular, that the general shops are the worst, not because they sell inferior articles, though, of course, they must catch the popular taste, but because they do not offer enough choice of the special thing. They have many specimens to offer, but of two or three varieties only, and those not quite the best. The nearer he can get to the specialist the better, if only because the specialist knows so ranch better what the purchaser has in his mind ; but even among the specialists there are differences. One man, boldly relying either on his own taste, or his reputation, or a certain monopoly he has acquired—there are the oddest monopolies in London—asks about 40 per cent. more than all rivals, declines to discuss prices altogether, and calmly remarks that possibly you do not quite perceive the perfection of his goods. If you -are totally ignorant, want perfection, and do not care about price—not an uncommon combination, in this metropolis of millionaires—he is your man ; but if not, then not. Another dealer boasts truly that he never sends out a second-rate article, and but that his own taste is certain to grow debauched by a liking for solid ugliness, or out-of-the-way and imperceptible excellencies, is a trustworthy counsellor. A third, again, sells both bad things and good things together, treats you fairly, praises only the good articles, but leaves choice entirely in the purchaser's hands. If the latter can rely on himself, or knows definitely and finally what he wants, this is usually the best kind of dealer; for dealing with the public, and not with "a connection," he has every- thing except the "very, very" best, shows a large choice, and is indefinitely more reasonable as to prices. This difference of prices is sometimes extraordinary, and is often denounced as dishonest, but it seems to arise mainly from three causes. First and foremost, from differences of quality, often quite im- perceptible to the buyer, or perhaps not even desired. [Dura- bility, for instance, is always costly and always absurdly praised by the tradesman, who never will understand that everything is not the better because it will last three life-times. It is often wanted to last ten years, and no more.] The differences, when strongly relied on by the tradesman, are usually real, price being in almost all trades one, though not the only, guarantee of quality. Secondly, the differences arise from locality, the • same goods having in one street to pay twice or thrice the rent they pay in another ; and thirdly, from the dealer's reputation, which enables him to charge for his own ability,
• —quite a fair charge, perhaps, in itself, but annoying to a purchaser who happens to be an expert himself, or who, from any motive, is anxiously careful about price. Then the varieties of style are endless, and extend not only to individuals, but to streets. "No, Sir," remarked a great jewel-designer, recently, "you -did not see that pattern in Regent Street, and you never will. You may have seen it in Bond Street, but it would be useless to make it for Regent Street." And lastly, there are the differ- ences of honesty. These are, perhaps, not so very great as the public imagine, a good many fancied dishonesties being merely high prices, which the dealer could explain ; but still there is -always the broad distinction between the dealer who will lie and the dealer who will not, between the man who charges to all a price and the man who alters his price to every new customer, putting on or taking off a heavy per-centage, according to minute indications of his customer's wealth or lavishness. We believe this to be really common, especially in trades accus- tomed to long credit, in which the dealer habitually forgets to mention the very heavy discount he is prepared to sacrifice for money down.
A very little time and a few inquiries will usually put the purchaser in possession of necessary information for his quest, and thenceforward he needs only three things,—a little patience, a little callousness, and a little clearness of thought. He must
be patient, or he will not defeat the trick which no dealer, how- ever honest, can ever quite resist,—that of putting forward his unsaleable or, at all events inferior, goods first. He does this for three reasons,—first, because the practice gives him a chance of recovering money which otherwise he might lose ; secondly, because the best articles "take the conceit" out of the others, and make them seem worse than they are ; and lastly, be- cause it is a tradition to do it, and trade, like everything else which is prosperous, is apt to be unreasoningly con- servative. The purchaser must be a little callous, or he will not be able to resist the inclination to buy an article he does not sincerely like ; and he must think clearly, or the dealer will take little pains, and he himself will be attracted by something which, when he has thought the matter out, will not do. In fact, we do not know that a little callousness is not the kernel of the matter. All women have it by nature in shop- ping, and no men. The reluctance of most men to leave with- out buying a shop where they have given a little trouble, and their wives' contempt of them for that reluctance, are two unex- plained facts in English human nature. The men, if merchants or brokers, would see all the dealers' samples in their own trade, test them, use microscopes to them, ask worrying questions about them, and then abstain from buying without a pang; and. the women are far more considerate under other circumstances than the men, but so it is. A woman can rummage a shop and then bow herself out contented, while a man looks hot, and feels more than half-ashamed. It is absolutely necessary to be rid of that feeling, if you are to shop artistically, and if your ideas are clear—that is, if you know your own mind—there is no necessity for it. The tradesman's business is to sell, and if you evidently want a definite thing visible to your own mind, and he has not got it, he may be disappointed, but he is not annoyed. He is in fault, or rather in defect, if anybody is so, and not you. Your inquiries and overlooking of his goods are all in the way of business, and part of the day's work. It is when the purchaser is giving trouble from indecision, or not being a customer, is seeking to increase his experience in a. somewhat illegitimate way, that the tradesman is annoyed, sometimes very justifiably, by a profitless loss of time to him- self and his assistants. It is, however, only necessary to be decently considerate, to decline the regular offer to "get it for you," which, as the tradesman cannot see into your mind and only half understands your description, always results in dis- appointment; and then, with a little time, a little callousness, and a fixed idea of what you are seeking, the article wanted, however peculiar, is certain to be found, and found in London. The resources of the Metropolis are endless, and the quest, if prosecuted long enough, almost invariably succeeds.
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