"Of course, I didn't have a salesbook that day; I didn't receive one
until after I had had some training and was beginning to know something
about the Macy system. However, customers could not see the
'new-and-green' written on my face, so I waited on them thick and fast;
even through that first morning. And a wild time I had of it--gym was
never so exhausting as stooping down to look for a certain pair of
gloves which must be a certain color combined with a certain size, plus
a certain style and so on. Some people must stay up nights figuring
along the lines of permutations and combinations, so as to work out some
unheard of ones for the things they ask for in Macy's. The other girls
were mighty nice to me, though, and as helpful as could be. And our
having to almost walk upon one another and squeezing past and bumping so
often--why, you all get clubby, mighty soon. At the end of that first
day I was rather wrecked, though happy--for in my desire to find things
for customers speedily I had, in bending down, burst through the knee of
one stocking, broken a corset-stay and ripped loose a garter! Henceforth
I managed to dress in a manner prepared for doing gymnastic stunts, such
as deep-knee-bending and leap-frog.
"My first lesson on the store system came on my first day in the
store--and then one every day for an hour, during the whole first week.
I liked that--for then I knew how things were supposed to be done. They
even took us out into departments that were not busy early in the
morning and had us make out certain kinds of sales right behind the
counter, and carry the whole thing through--all that was lacking being
the _real_ customer. It gave us confidence and showed us things that we
thought we knew, but that, when it came right down to it, we didn't know
at all. The training department also gave us pamphlets and notices about
how to use the telephones and telling us to do certain things, as well
as how our salary and commission were to be figured. Also one leaflet
told us about Macy's underselling policy, and what we should do in case
a customer reported merchandise as being cheaper somewhere else--and,
although I had heard before of this policy of Macy's, I came to believe
in it faithfully, after I had read the booklet.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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