LXXIV.SHOPPING.
WE have heard from ladies remarks like the following: “Before I was married, and cares and responsibilities became more and more exacting every year, there was nothing I used to enjoy more than roaming from shop to shop, seeing everything that was to be seen, but without the responsibility of purchasing, because my mother always attended to that. My shopping in those days was only to gratify curiosity. But now it must be done in earnest, withoutshopping for sight-seeing or loitering,—the only desirable part of the business.”
Now, I cannot but think this waste of time and gratification of a childish curiosity in young women altogether wrong. The amount of “shopping,” as it is called, done from no necessity, but only to while away the time, is very great, particularly by young ladies who have no intention of purchasing. While there are books to be read, sewing to be done, mothers to be helped, and their burdens lightened by their daughters’ loving care, and painting, drawing, and music to be practiced, we don’t understand how time can hang heavy on one’s hands. Pleasant walks and rides, lectures, concerts, and picture-galleries, can surely furnish all the exercise and recreation that is needed or at all desirable, and will be much more conducive to the improvement of the mind and strengthening of the body than this too prevalent custom of sauntering through the streets, gazing into the windows, or visiting the stores, looking at and handling everything one fancies, but buying nothing. Many evils spring from this absurd method oftaking exercise, or wasting time. There can be no healthy exercise in loitering in a crowded and perhaps ill-lighted, poorly ventilated store; for capacious, airy, and well-ventilated establishments are not common. The effect of such dissipation on the mind and character cannot be ennobling. To watch and criticise the people who pass, to remark on their dress, manners, and peculiarities, is almost certain to establish an unkind, censorious habit, and, in the end, make those who practice it confirmed gossips,—the most unlovable and unsafe of all characters. A love of dress; a desire to imitate or surpass those who are the most extravagant in their outlays; an envious disposition; dissatisfaction with their own condition and the income allowed for their dress; longing to cast aside good clothes and secure the newest and most stylish, every time the shopping farce is performed,—aresome of the evils which, it is to be feared, will grow out of this propensity; and added to this, another still more to be deprecated,—the selfish disregard for the feelings and interests of others.
It is painful to observe with what recklessness our young ladies will sit at a counter and call for one piece of goods after another, until the shelves before them are almost entirely stripped,—tossing one article here and another there, throwing heavy goods upon delicate articles, while the perplexed clerk endeavors to hide his anxiety, and shield his wares from harm, in the most gentlemanly and unobtrusive manner; but his politeness and delicacy are wasted, for this class of shoppers care little for the discomfort of a clerk.
In this manner they flit from counter to counter, wasting not only their own time, but that of the employés in the store, and exciting false hopes of a good sale, and then, without a word of apology for the trouble they have given, leave that store to go through the same folly at other establishments.
A few days since we witnessed a most provoking display of this manner of wasting time, and by no means an uncommon occurrence. All the room for some distance on one side of the store, and two or three of the clerks, were monopolized by a party of young girls,—we fear they thought themselves entitled to be addressed asyoung ladies. The earnestness with which they called for one class of goods after another warranted the attendants in anticipating a large sale; but when woolens, silks, linens, ribbons, and laces were heaped around them in great abundance, and many really earnest purchasers had been kept long waiting for attendance, or, not having time, had been obliged to go elsewhere, these girls carelessly rose and turned to leave.
“I am sorry we can show you nothing satisfactory,” courteously remarked one of the clerks.
“O, we didn’t come in to buy,—only to look around,” replied the leader of this ill-mannered party, with a scornful air; and an absurd, silly giggle went through the party as they left the store, evidently satisfied that they had had a good time and played off a smart joke on the clerks.
The expression of disappointment suddenly changed to contempt, visible among the young men who had so politely waited upon those thoughtless girls, was very significant of their estimate of such characters. If their mothers could have seen the whole performance, and, giving each agood shaking, sent them home to learn good manners, and a proper use of time by a term of labor in the kitchen, we should have been thankful.
But in the case of the “mother and housekeeper,” who inquires how real, earnest, practical shopping may be disarmed of its terrors, and made easy and simple, we would say there is nothing easier if you begin right. Before leaving home on a shopping expedition, be “fully persuaded in your own mind” that you know just what you want, what you must have, and how much you are willing and can afford to pay for what you desire to purchase. Make out a plain list that you can understand at a glance, and when you enter the store call first for themust-haves, examine the quality and pattern, and ascertain if the price is such as to justify you in buying. Then, if satisfied on those points, look at various patterns of the same fabric and price, and select the one that pleases you the most perfectly, and, naming the quantity and place to send, pass on to other departments. Don’t allow your attention to wander to anything but the article under consideration, until you have decided that item. If it is a dress, examine and decide before looking at sheeting or table linen or anything else. That settled, pass on to the next topic on your list, and so continue until you have finished the work you had arranged to do. Then, if you have a little leisure,you can look about you at the various articles displayed, gratifying your love of fine things, and gaining an insight into the quality and price of articles you may need in time; only take care that when your purchases are finished, you do not interfere with other purchasers, or engross the time of busy clerks unduly. In making out a list, classify the articles you are intending to buy, putting groceries, crockery, books, dry goods, etc., each by themselves, and begin at the nearest place. By this method you will save yourself much time and fatigue.
These are very simple rules; but try them and see if shopping is any longer a duty to be “dreaded.”