Self Control
However, when I first saw the suit in the window my guess
was that it was priced at about thirty-five dollars, and I doubt that I
would have paid that much for it had I not fallen into the hands of a man
who knew how to show the suit to best advantage.
If the first coat tried on me had been about two sizes too large, or a
size too small, I doubt that any sale would have been made, despite
the fact that all ready-to-wear suits sold in the better stores are
altered to fit the customer.
I bought that suit "on the impulse of the moment," as the psychologist would say, and I am not the only man who buys goods on that same sort of impulse. A single slip on the part of the salesman would have lost him the sale of that suit. If he had replied, "Fifty dollars," when I asked the price I would have said, "Thank you," and have gone my way without looking at the suit.
Later in the season I purchased two more suits from this same salesman, and if I now lived in Chicago the chances are that I would buy still other suits from him, because he always showed me suits that were in keeping with my personality.
The Marshall Field store, in Chicago, gets more for merchandise than does any other store of its kind in the country. Moreover, people knowingly pay more at this store, and feel better satisfied than if they bought the merchandise at another store for less money. Why is this?
Well, there are many reasons, among them the fact that anything purchased at the Field store which is not entirely satisfactory may be returned and exchanged for other merchandise, or the purchase price may be refunded, just as the customer wishes. An implied guarantee goes with every article sold in the Field store.
Another reason why people will pay more at the Field store is the fact
that the merchandise is displayed and shown to better advantage
than it is at most other stores. The Field window-displays are truly
works of art, no less than if they were created for the sake of art
alone, and not merely to sell merchandise. The same is true of the
goods displayed in the store.
There is harmony and proper grouping of merchandise throughout the Field establishment, and this creates an "atmosphere" that is more - much more - than merely an imaginary one.