Rocket Bomber - article - bookselling - 93 Years Ago: A well-fitted Book Shop.

“As you all know, the suject of service is a serious one in department stores. You know that department stores are not munificent in their salaries, so we can’t expect to have all expert saleswomen in the stores. But I have found that when my young ladies assemble in the morning if I draw their attention to the Publishers’ Weekly and papers of that kind, they are pretty well posted as to what is on the market. And certainly without a general book information they could not get on so conspicuously well.

“In moving our bookshop to the third floor we decided to remove all the ugly characteristics of bookshops and see if we could have a good-looking bookshop instead of planning one of those shops where we see great dreary piles of books going to the ceiling or books on the same subjects in different places.

“We took our books on the same subject and had little posters made. I think that is the most important feature of the table display. We make a great deal of having our posters plainly printed, and they are the center of attraction, and from each poster you can see exactly what the table contains.

…

“The room is equipped with seats with narrow cushions, and customers come in there and sit and read or look books over. No one disturbs the customer, and he has a feeling of freedom. If we cannot find the book he or she wants we get it for him, or we look it up in the catalog for him. And I want to say right at this point, that I think no one appreciates the freedom of being let alone any more than the customer of a bookshop.

…

“We have seemed to meet some success in this plan of treatment of our customers. The room is equipped to be comfortable. You should never try to sell your customer unless he is comfortable. Our experience is that if we find out what the customer is looking for, and he asks for a book on a given subject, don’t just show him that one book, but show him ten on the same subject if you can, and instead of buying one book he will buy three or four if he can look them over by himself in a comfortable manner.

“There are tables between the wall spaces of shelving, and the customer my sit near the subject he wants to investigate. The shelves are so arranged and labeled that we make a great savings in time and so does the customer, and that is the great davantage of the use of the posters if you use them on your shelves too.

“People come in and sit and discuss the book, always being very comfortable, and we have our people watching and ready to make a sale just as soon as that customer indicates that he has looked the book through as much as desired.

…

“Just one other feature of the bookshop I must tell you of before I close, our Junior Department. We have, just a few feet south of the entrance to our shop, a very beautiful Junior Department. In there there is a big couch and small chairs and the children come in there and take down any book they want and read it. My only requirement is, ‘Hats Off’ and ‘Hands Clean.’ And they come back day after day.”

— the testimonial of Mrs. I. J. Watson, bookseller, from the 1 June 1920 issue of The Bookseller, Newsdealer, and Stationer. This is the description of a department store bookshop (the corporate big box of its day) — not some quaint indy.

original source embedded below: