Something we do almost everyday has had its' changes, like everything else in life. Shopping for instance. Today we go to almost any store, they scan the items we are buying and then tell us what we owe. The transaction is completed by either passing over cash, or swiping our Debit or Credit Card for the amount owed. Well, back in the "dark ages" of my youth, things were done quite differently. Oh, there were clerks who handled the transactions, and there were general areas where we took our selections to pay for them, but that seems to be where the farmiliarity stops.
When we would go to the "Dime Store" for instance. There were a lot of counters, but few clerks. You could wonder all over the store selecting what you wanted, then pay for it. Not like in K-Mart or Wal Mart today. Today we wonder up and down ilses full of merchandise from floor to ceiling. Back then the "counters" were just that. Flat, and I was so short, it took years before I could even see what was displayed on them.
I think it was J.C. Penney, I guess Sears and Roebuck and Montgomery Ward that stand out the most. Well, many of the better Mercantile Stores had the same system. There may be a few stores using it today as well, but they would have to be way back in the outer limits. The Cashier was in another part of the store. When the clerk made a sale, cash was the tender used.
No Credit Cards back in those "good old days". No, and few checks either. Well, it was after the depression, and a good many people still didn't trust the Bank with their money, so Checks were just not an item in most households. Back to the Clerk - she, (you saw few men on the floor of most of the stores, unless it was in Hardware), would make out a sales slip - handwritten of course - put it and the cash in the small tube like container that either opened at one end, or had a door in the side. The tube was placed in another tube that had suction, and was wisk away, usually to the second floor or the building where the Cashier would finalize the sale. If change was due, it would be returned by the same method. The tube would return with a "thud" into a wire basket on the counter. This always fascinated me, well it still would if they had such things.
Stores always smelled differently too. Wood floors, and I believe I have mentioned it before they were usually cleaned at the end of the day with oiled saw dust. That is what kept the dust down and the wood well oiled. I don't know they used wax back in those days. The floor serfaces were pretty pourous as I recall.
The days of handwritten sales slips and no cash registers in sight are long gone from the scene of shopping as we know it today. I remember when we moved to Paso Robles in 1985 the Paso Robles Mercantile store on 12th Street (Now a Furniture Store) use to have the old system. I was shocked to see it after so many years. The Mercantile is gone now and so are those reminders of things as they once were. Everything is modernized now. Makes things faster, and more accurate, I guess. Doesn't change the thought that some of the old things were neat in their own way. The time people took in doing business. The personal care that was given in making sure the customer was taken care of. Everything is efficient now, but a lot of the personal farmiliar touches have been eliminated. Years ago, when we went into a store, we were not met with so much merchandise, but with a more personal touch when doing business. I remember the Hardware store on Pacific Blvd. in Huntingon Park. It had such lovely things at the front of the store. Pottery, fine china and a number of small appliances. I loved to brouse around the glassware and dishes. A favorite place to buy something for Mother on special occassions. That kind of store has disappeared from the scene of things. That and the Mens and Womens Clothing Stores. I remembering how I looked forward to "growing up" so I could shop in one of those. Mode-O-Day for women was a big dream of mine. In fact they had one in Paso Robles on Park Street when we move here. I shopped in there, and was sad when they left. I don't think they are in business anymore any where. A shame, they had a great line of dresses and things for women.
Now we have the "one stop" stores. Everything in one place. No longer the meandering up and down the City Streets, in and out of one store after another. Where you could check things out in three of four "Dime Stores" and window shop in as many Shoe Stores. A lot of the same items, but in the Shoe stores, you found prices were different even when the styles were either the same or very similar. Shopping was an "art" back in those days. You were tried by every choice you had to make. A chance to try your skill at making your dollar go as far as possible. Now we shop where the store is, very few chances to check out compitition, or know if there is a better price unless you go to the "warehouse" type stores and buy in quantity.
Yes, Shopping has definately changed, and I am not sure that it is that much better. I miss the Shoe Stores with their classey styles and changes for the Season. When I was younger I hated the shoes the "old ladies" wore. My Grandmother and Aunts wore the most practical, but least sylish shoes I have ever seen. I dreaded growing older because I would probably have to settle for "those shoes". Aunt Bertha I remember had a pair of black ones for the winter and bone colored ones for the summer. Laced up with a flat heel about 1 1/2". I believe they were Red Cross label shoes. What ever, I don't see them anymore - thank goodness! Oh, and when my kids were small, we had the Childrens Shoe Store where they carried nothing but the best for younger people. We never bought anything but Buster Brown Shoes for the kids. Every new pair of shoes ment they got 4 new pairs of soxs as well. No flip flops back then. Good shoes to develope good feet. Well, that was then, and this is now. Times have changed and so has SHOPPING!
Written this 16th day of May 2010
by: Eileen C. Rosenberg
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