It was a woman’s idea that brought scores of women to a store, where her husband was a clerk, who had never been in the place before, and coming in once, usually became regular customers. Her idea was very simple, but it worked splendidly. It was merely to have the management of the store put up a free bulletin board in a prominent place just inside the entrance, upon which women in need of maids, domestics, or help of any kind, could pin up a short notice of the place offered, the wages paid, special privileges and requirements. At the same time, women and girls in search of employment could also use the bulletin board to help them in securing the places they wanted, and it was not long until the store was visited with women anxious to consult the bulletin board, which well served its purpose as a free employment agency.
Very soon the store became talked about all over town, as the place to look for help or positions, and of the hundreds of women who visited the place for that purpose, many of them stayed to look over the stock, and buy.
The business was so greatly increased that the management of the store, impressed with the value of the idea, gave the husband of its originator a considerable increase in salary.
PLAN No. 300. A TRAVELING GROCERY
A southern woman’s husband was 30 years old, and a grocery clerk at $50 a month. Both were hoping for something better, when a good idea came to the wife. It was to start something new—a grocery on wheels!
She had saved a few hundred dollars before her marriage, but had never told her husband, as she intended to surprise him with it when the proper time came—and that time had arrived.
With this money to start with, she drew a plan for a wagon arranged with shelves and compartments for holding canned goods, preserves, breakfast foods, coffee, cheese, fresh-baked bread, cakes, pies, fresh fruits and vegetables—everything to be found in a well-ordered grocery. Sealed packages were a specialty, for sanitary reasons.
They had rented a neat little store in a suburb and put in a fine stock of groceries, which the wife took care of while the husband made the rounds of the entire neighborhood with his wheeled grocery. The women were more than pleased to come out to the wagon every morning and make their purchases for the day, without having to go to a market for what they wanted, so that his wagon was in constant demand in every part of the suburb. Later a motor truck took the place of the horse.
PLAN No. 301. SALES MANAGER BECOMES REALTY OWNER
The sales manager for a large Chicago concern was married, had three children, and was getting further and further behind every year, with debts that constantly increased. Then the wife thought out a plan that she hoped would bring a betterment in conditions, and decided to make it win.