The Pittsburgh Press (October 30, 1940)
CANDIDLY SPEAKING
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Salesgirls And Shoppers Are Often Impolite
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By Maxine Garrison
There being at least three sides to every argument, I think it might be a good idea to turn the floor over today to Mrs. Frederick Vinson, who takes exception to this column’s recent statements:
I’ve had enough! Not only have I had enough of Eleanor drooling an=bout the ill-housed and the undernourished in her daily column, while the column is being written in her luxurious New York apartment or while she is traveling about the country in the comfort of a plane or the drawing room of her Pullman.
I’ve had enough of columnist Dorothy Thompson who in one breath becomes hysterical about Hitler and in the next breath endorses Mr. Roosevelt’s dictatorial policies.
I’ve had enough of Miss Maxine Garrison in her daily column criticizing the American woman. Especially the woman who is not occupied in making a living outside her home, namely the housewife.
She’s Important
Your latest diatribe is against the woman shopper. Did it ever occur to you that she is a very important factor in keeping the standard of American-made merchandise up to its fine quality, and that she is the important factor in keeping the country sane by her very insanity of finding simple pleasure “just looking?”
Now let’s look at the poor “hard-pressed” clerks. Have you ever found it necessary to replace a pair of hose that decided to “run” around 5:15 p.m. and faced the stony and angry stare of a clerk who is hired to work until 5:30 p.m. but has her counter and her face “fixed up” to quit at 5 o’clock? If you made your purchases you have a courageous woman.
Have you ever undergone the supercilious stare of the French Salon Modon, as she sized up your spending power by the $7.95 dress you might be wearing at the timer, not k owing you have just won at Bank Night and have decided to buy an “Original”? She will, if you don’t scare easily, show you a dress, but you won’t be shown n the better dresses.
Maybe the women have gone sort of “crazy.” Perhaps the effect of years of being frowned upon if they did not buy one of the two dresses the clerk disdained to show has finally taken its toll of us woman shoppers. Let’s hope the woman shopper has become “crazy” enough to put some “Salaam in the Salon,”
Point Well Taken
My original premise was that something seems to have unnerved women in general – not that housewives out shopping are crazy.
However, Mrs. Vinson makes a good point. The delights of shopping from either side of the counter, are not unmixed with bitterness.
Women who work outside the home also shop, strangely enough, and they have the same experiences as housewives. The only way you can tell which is which is that career girls are always in a terrific rush to get everything done on their lunch hour.
Bored salesgirls who act as if it were an invasion of sanctified privacy every time they’re asked to wait on a customer…girls who call customers “dearie” and “darling,” and insist that any dress looks “divine,” hoping to get the sale over quickly…salesgirls who gossip together while a customer waits impatiently for service – they’re all too familiar characters.
My hope is that someday both factions in the feud – customers and salespeople alike – will mind their manners. The trouble seems to be that each side is too proud to make the first move!