Volume 1

Practical grocer : a manual and guide for the grocer, the provision merchant and allied trades / by W.H. Simmonds ; with contributions by specialists, trade experts and members of the trades ; illustrated by a series of separately-printed plates.

  • Simmonds, W. H.
Date:
1909
Catalogue details

Licence: Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International (CC BY-NC 4.0)

Credit: Practical grocer : a manual and guide for the grocer, the provision merchant and allied trades / by W.H. Simmonds ; with contributions by specialists, trade experts and members of the trades ; illustrated by a series of separately-printed plates. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    238/330 (page 198)
    one plan; but there are many others. Variety is charming, and the special circumstances of each case should be considered. Some of the more recent ideas with regard to windows are (1) that they should be dressed according to the season; (2) dress- ideas in r^em f°r special goods which it is desired to push, Window such as a butter window, a cheese window, an epp- Treatment. . . && window, a currant window, a soap window, a tea window, and so on; (3) having the dressing done by a profes- sional window-dresser; (4) having “demonstrations” in the window, quick men or pretty young women shown actually at work on some interesting operation or other connected with the business, or some process of manufacture of goods sold; (5) show- ing machinery at work in the window, such as that which we have spoken of in a previous chapter, for cleaning currants, roasting coffee, and so on; (6) placing ingenious or attractive working models in the window; (7) arranging the window so as to re- present some novel or picturesque scene; (8) decorating the window and setting off the goods with coloured cloths, rich plush or curtain backgrounds, “ Liberty ” silks, and tastefully arranged groups of electric lights or other illumination; (9) filling the window with articles priced all at one figure—such as a seven- penny display, a shilling display, a sixpenny-halfpenny show, or even a “popular penny” assortment. A grocer should take a trip occasionally to one of the large towns—London, Glasgow, or Manchester say—for the purpose Picking up of picking up ideas about windows and display gener- ideas. a]jy. jf ^ js not a good window-dresser himself he should encourage his young men, or the particular young man who shows most aptitude for the art, and if necessary pay a special salary in order to obtain a good dresser. Grocers who have not been much in the large “up-to-date” towns—a fashion- able sea-side town is sometimes as good as any in this respect— have little notion of what can be done in window displays. Even such a commonplace article as sugar can be made interesting and very pretty and effective in a shop-window. One may sometimes see, for instance, a window devoted solely to pure cane-sugars of all descriptions, with lump and sugar-cane included. A tea window, again, is made very attractive by being tastefully embellished with beautiful Oriental pictures and curios, Chinese and Japanese figures,