It is reassuring to know that it is a recognized ruse on the part of the salesman to intimate that unless you buy a particular article you will have to totter through life branded as the arch-piker.  I have always taken this attitude of the clerks perfectly seriously.  In fact, I have worried quite a bit about it.

In the store where I am allowed to buy my clothes it is quite the thing among the salesmen to see which one of them can degrade me most.  They intimate that, while they have no legal means of refusing to sell their goods to me, it really would be much more in keeping with things if I were to take the few pennies that I have at my disposal and run around the corner to some little haberdashery for my shirts and ties.  Every time I come out from that store I feel like Ethel Barrymore in “Declassee.”  Much worse, in fact, for I haven’t any good looks to fall back upon.

[Illustration:  They intimate that I had better take my few pennies and run ’round the corner to some little haberdashery.]

But now that I know the clerks are simply acting all that scorn in an attempt to appeal to my instinct for the preservation of my social self, I can face them without flinching.  When that pompous old boy with the sandy mustache who has always looked upon me as a member of the degenerate Juke family tries to tell me that if I don’t take the five-dollar cravat he won’t be responsible for the way in which decent people will receive me when I go out on the street, I will reach across the counter and playfully pull his own necktie out from his waistcoat and scream, “I know you, you old rascal!  You got that stuff from page 68 of ‘Elements of Retail Salesmanship’ (Macmillan).”

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Other traits which a salesperson may appeal to in the customer are:  Vanity, parental pride, greed, imitation, curiosity and selfishness.  One really gets in touch with a lot of nice people in this work and can bring out the very best that is in them.

Customers are divided into groups indicative of temperament.  There is first the Impulsive or Nervous Customer.  She is easily recognized because she walks into the store in “a quick, sometimes jerky manner.  Her eyes are keen-looking; her expression is intense, oftentimes appearing strained.”  She must be approached promptly, according to the book, and what she desires must be quickly ascertained.  Since these are the rules for selling to people who enter the store in this manner, it might be well, no matter how lethargic you may be by nature, to assume the appearance of the Impulsive or Nervous Customer as soon as you enter the store, adopting a quick, even jerky manner and making your eyes as keen-looking as possible, with an intense expression, oftentimes appearing strained.  Then the clerk will size you up as type No. 1 and will approach you promptly.  After she has quickly filled your order you may drop the impulsive pose and assume your natural, slow manner again, whereupon the clerk will doubtless be highly amused at having been so cleverly fooled into giving quick service.