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Qualities of Importance in a Clerk.

This subject may prove more or less delicate. We have found from experience that clerks often resent it when proprietors contribute articles to drug journals pointing out the directions in which they should develop to attain a greater measure of success. In the present instance, however, the topic under discussion was first proposed by a clerk, and three of the four contributors are either clerks or managers. What is written may therefore be taken as the message of one clerk to another.

PRIZE ARTICLE: THE PRIME ESSENTIALS. BY FRED BORTH.

Mythology tells us of Cyclops, one of a race of giants, who had but one eye, and that in the middle of his forehead. He may have had the modern drug clerk bested in physical proportions, but he would be a sad loser if it came to eyes, for the good clerk of to-day should have at last half a dozen-two in the usual place, the other four scattered where they would do the most good. And these four, named in the order of their importance, and marking the qualities of supreme importance in every clerk, are: Integrity, Intelligence, Industry, and Individuality.

A clerk may be ever so intelligent—even to possessing a college degree or beyond; he may be industrious—yea, a “working fool;" he may possess individuality-a "hail-fellow-wellmet;" but if he does not heed the old honestybest-policy adage then the cash register is likely to ring fifty cents on many a dollar sale, and the boss be the loser by entrusting him with the business. The conscientious man knows the proprietor's interests are his own. An honest clerk may be taught the other qualities, but to start any other way!

COMMON SENSE BEGETS CONFIDENCE.

Yet a man may be honest as the days are long, but without enough common sense to pound sand in a rat hole. And so the clerk must have another qualification—intelligence. Intelligence begets confidence, both as to

keep up, and look up. He is on the job from morning till night, for there is always something to do around a drug shop.

But granting that the clerk has the qualifications of honesty, intelligence, and industry, if he is burdened with a disposition—which is only another word for individuality-that is sour and grouchy, he would still be lacking in a very important qualification.

THE VALUE OF BEING HUMAN.

Don't you know a certain store where there is a clerk who is honest, who is intelligent, who is industrious? But, oh, what a look on his face! Don't you like to be met with a smile? Don't you like to be called by name, even though you may live twenty miles out in the tall timber? And don't you like to see a clerk

who is kind to little folks and considerate with old men-one who does not break his neck getting to the pretty miss wanting a postage-stamp while he lets the old lady wait for her dollar bottle of nerve tonic?

I know places where I go to trade, fully realizing that I will have to pay more for some articles, but also knowing that I will be met with a courteous greeting and that my thirty cents will be appreciated.

After all, it isn't so much a matter of price as it is of treatment.

There may be other qualities necessary for a good clerk, but give me the honest, intelligent, industrious fellow, with an individuality that speaks of a pleasing, cheerful, sunny dis

one's self and one's customers. Intelligence position, and if any of those other qualities

makes good salesmen, and careful, tactful clerks. It can push profitable paying goods with prudence. Intelligence can fill prescriptions when the boss is away to lunch and handle customers when he is off on a vacation.

But a man may be honest, he may know how to do things, and yet not realize that the drug store is no place for the hookworm clerk. So we must place on his shoulders a third qualification-industry. The industrious clerk does not wait to be told to clean up, straighten up,

are lacking they will come out in due course of time.

Then if I don't make 'er go I sure won't blame the clerk.

CO-OPERATION BETWEEN CLERK AND PROPRIETOR.

By F. T. Bosworth.

Not to mention the selling of postage-stamps and other incidental duties which require no great amount of training or ability, the duties of the average drug clerk are threefold: first,

salesmanship; second, professional duties; and third, those of an executive and advisory

nature.

Among the essential qualifications of a salesman are courtesy, neatness, tact, enthusiasm, intuition, persuasion-these, together with a thorough knowledge of the goods in stock. This last is decidedly essential, for but little enthusiasm can be worked up over an article unless the clerk is thoroughly acquainted with its merits. Familiarity with the virtues and uses of the various items carried is an important element in the kind of service the public is coming more and more to demand.

All clerks do not, it is true, possess an equal share of some of the qualities mentioned, but fortunately most of them can be developed to some extent, at least. Many valuable suggestions may be obtained from the study of books and articles on salesmanship. Expert advice of this sort is available for every clerk, and he should endeavor to make the most of it.

As to the qualifications for a pharmacist, those that at once suggest themselves are accuracy, experience, and training. Their achievement is possible only through the exercise of perseverance and ambition. A natural fitness and love for the work are additional qualities which, of course, contribute greatly to the value of a man in such a position.

At first thought it might not seem that a clerk would have much chance to develop, and still less to make use of, executive ability. Coöperation, however, is the big factor in the business of to-day; it's the teamwork that gets results. Modern merchandising has resolved. itself into a battle of ideas and it is quite frequently the case that the ideas advanced by the clerks are the ones which put a store ahead of its competitor.

HOW COÖPERATION HELPS.

It is only the occasional merchant nowadays who does not hold regular conferences with his clerks, at which times ideas are exchanged for the betterment of the store's service and suggestions for increasing business are discussed.

Indeed, so far does this spirit of allowing clerks to share in the running of the store go that it quite often happens the clerk is assigned the complete charge of a certain department. Then it is up to his initiative to make

a go of the department or to show the reason why.

When these conditions exist it is fortunate both for employer and employee, for there is nothing that will do more to call forth a young man's best efforts than to make him feel that his suggestions are worth something to his employer. The responsibility starts him on a hunt for ideas. He finds himself thinking up schemes with an ingenuity he did not know he possessed.

He pores over the BULLETIN OF PHARMACY and other wide-awake journals with a live interest. Here are some ideas on stock arrangement or on the selling of cameras; there is a catchy window display. Some of these look good, and he talks to the boss about them. If any of the ideas is adopted the clerk feels that he has contributed to the store's welfare and to his own future advancement.

SEVEN QUALIFICATIONS NECESSARY.
BY STANLEY M. SORLEY.

Keen competition developed by mail-order houses, gigantic department stores, powerful chain-store corporations, and the conversion of the once professional drug store into a diversified-merchandise emporium have placed a premium on the development of those personal traits which produce the best results and give to the store well-satisfied and permanent customers to whom are sold maximum amounts of drug-store merchandise.

Every retail clerk, to meet fully the exact requirements of the modern pharmacy and to fulfil the obligations attendant upon such a position, must possess health, knowledge, character, industry, ability, tact, and honesty.

Successful salesmanship like every other activity in life demands, first of all, physical and mental energy. Right thinking, right living, and obedience to the laws of nature, together with cleanliness, fresh air, wholesome food, work and rest promote good health. Good health is the foundation upon which all other essential qualities are built; greatly handicapped is the one who does not enjoy it.

"Knowledge is power" is a bromidium that has been quoted frequently, but its application is particularly apt to the case of the retail salesman. The successful clerk must have knowl

edge, not merely a good education. He must have a knowledge of himself, of the goods and service to be sold, of the methods of his house, of the value of time, of the value of money, of general business conditions, and lastly of people. He must know human nature.

Character may be considered as the ideals and habits gradually developed from childhood which, molded together, have produced a pleasing and attractive personality, a strong sense of justice and equity, and a desire to be morally and spiritually refined and of good reputation. It is an imperative attribute for every clerk because public opinion now places much stress upon the character of the employees of retail stores.

EVERLASTINGLY KEEPING AT IT.

Industry must occupy a prominent place in the schedule of qualities. Activity, ambition, earnestness, efficiency, enthusiasm, punctuality, energy, helpfulness and obedience are traits all of which either depend upon or are closely allied with it. The time will never come when no work will need to be done, so there is no excuse for idleness or procrastination. The clerk's shoulder must ever be applied to rotating the wheel of progress.

Ability to accomplish results is directly dependent on the qualities already mentioned. In addition to the ability to do the routine work, the clerk must be able to listen as well as talk, to suggest and reason when necessary; and must possess a fund of general information, and take a genuine interest in the customer and the store.

Tact is the faculty to do or say the right thing in the right place; it is an all-embracing term which includes the affability, cheerfulness, courtesy, self-control, and sense of humor needed by the clerk in dealing with the patrons of the store.

THE ONLY POLICY.

The final, almost the supreme, quality is honesty-honesty toward self, employers, and customers. It necessitates avoiding duplicity in thought, action, and in speech, and a strict application of the Golden Rule; to-day honesty is the only policy.

The particular manager in the drug store of the present carefully studies the qualities exhibited by the clerks under him. He appreciates the clerk who can see things to do and

who then does them, who waits upon the customers promptly with skill and dexterity, who is obliging and accommodating to the store's patrons, who is truthful, honest, cheerful and courteous to all, who takes pride in his personal appearance, displays the stock to best advantage, keeps the store clean and in firstclass condition, and is obedient to the desires of those in authority.

In the handling of drugs and compounding prescriptions, carefulness is the watchword. Through an earnest desire to be indispensable, with an effort to develop his latent ability by observation and study, if aided by the confidential and appreciative attitude of the management, a clerk will be able to develop into a salesman of the first water: a real factor in the progressive development of the store's service in that community.

CLERKS VS. AUTOMOBILES.
BY EUGENE RIMMER.

Eugenists to the contrary, the perfect man does not exist. Therefore, it is safe to assert. that a clerk, being a man, cannot attain perfection by any means. But there are many desirable qualities that different men have, and those that to me show up best in a clerk are tact, affability, enthusiasm, honesty, and aggressiveness.

I put tact first, because it seems to me the most important. First impressions go a long way. Many clerks do not seem to know how to approach a customer. They either intimidate him into repressing his desires or else they put him so much on the defensive that they cannot regain his confidence. A tactful clerk, though, by a proper approach wins confidence for himself and for the merchandise at his disposal.

If a misunderstanding arises the clerk with tact can almost invariably not only appease an irate customer, but can even send him away pleased. The tactless clerk, on the contrary, only increases the breach between the customer and the store and sends the customer away to tell his or her grievances to whoever will lend

an ear.

Affability is also a to-be-attained quality. No one loves a grouch. The affable clerk need not be a hail-fellow-well-met; just a little human interest is all that is required. To be able

to show customers that the store and its clerks are concerned in their interest pans out well in dollars and cents.

Enthusiasm is the fuel that runs a business. It is the white heat of belief. If a clerk does not believe in his boss or in the merchandise that he is handling, he cannot instil belief in the mind of his customer.

ENTHUSIASM DRAWS DOLLARS.

When a clerk really acquires enthusiasm then he does not believe in the business but rather that he is the business. He can state and with conviction not "They say this is" but "I know this is." He stakes his personal reputation because he wants to justify his belief. Honesty needs no commendation. That quality is supposed to be present, for an em

ployer who does not trust his clerk cannot expect customers to place confidence in the clerk either.

The final qualification is that of aggressiveness, or, to lapse into the vernacular, "pep." It's the man who has the ways of a fighter, who, when a customer has blocked his sale with one line of argument, sticks to his guns and calls on tact for reënforcement. A hard combination to beat-tact and aggressiveness.

To indulge in simile, let us compare these five desirable qualities to an automobile. Tact will be our steering gear, enthusiasm the gasoline, affability the cylinder oil, aggressiveness the magneto, and then with honesty for the driver our car will have a good show in the race of Business toward the prize of Success.

GETTING AT FACTS IN

THE RETAIL DRUG BUSINESS*

The Harvard Bureau of Business Research has a distinctly confidential position. It collects and receives from the books of businesses figures of sales, profit, and expense. No name appears on this material, not even the name of the city in which the business is located. No information is furnished either in the School (Harvard College), or in its publications as to what it costs John Doe to sell shoes, or Richard Roe to sell groceries.

But the Bureau does state that based on several hundred sets of figures of stores located in at least twenty-eight States, the expense of operating a retail shoe store ranges from 18. to 35 per cent of the net sales; that the expense of operating a retail grocery store varies from 10.4 to 25.2 per cent of net sales; and that in the retail shoe business the number of stock

turns per year ranges from 1 to 3.6, 1.8 being normal, with a standard entirely possible of being realized of 2.5 stock-turns per year while in the retail grocery business the figures corresponding are from 3.5 to 26.4, centering

Extracts from an address delivered at the Massachusetts College of Pharmacy in Boston.

.

By SELDEN O. MARTIN,

Director of the Harvard Bureau of Business Research

about 7 to 9, and with a possibilty of reaching 12 to 14 turns per year.

THE ANNUAL SALES.

It states, also, that the average annual sale per salesperson (one of the first tests of efficiency of a retail business) ranges from $5000 to $16,500 in shoes, and from $5000 to $20,000 in groceries, and centers about $10,1000 in both.

In concrete form this means that in retail shoe stores and grocery stores positively, and probably in other retail stores, the amount of annual sales should at least equal the number of salespersons multiplied by $10,000, with drugs perhaps running a little less. We regard this as one of the most important contributions that the Bureau of Business Research has

made to the business of retailing.

The question might now be asked, What is the good of all this? This is all very interesting from a scientific point of view, it might be said, but what is the practical advantage of it. to any individual retailer?

The answer is that a standard is given to a.

retailer to gauge his business by. His accounting system may have been excellent, so that he always knew where he stood, but he now has a basis of more exact knowledge of where he ought to stand.

THE DRUG BUSINESS.

As you are doubtless aware, along with the movements for better methods in other business has come such a movement in the drug business. Especially notable has been the work of Mr. Harry B. Mason, Editor of the BULLETIN OF PHARMACY, who has done pioneer work in obtaining actual records of operation for retail druggists, and drawing conclusions therefrom. His recent book, "The Druggist and His Profits," will improve the business of any retail druggist who studies it carefully.

In the line of this movement, in the spring of 1914, in the Harvard Business School a very cursory inspection was made of the retail drug business along the lines of the Bureau's shoe study, and in the fall and winter of 191415 this work was somewhat more extended. Two students in one of the courses aided in obtaining information in Boston and vicinity, and, with the help of a member of the Bureau, a typed schedule for retail druggists was devised. However, these figures are of an entirely local and peculiarly tentative character, not to be compared in authoritativeness with the results of the Bureau's nation-wide studies of shoes and groceries.

We communicated by mail and personal interview with about 89 drug stores in Boston and outlying cities. Usable information was obtained from thirty stores whose annual sales range from $10,000 to $120,000, the typical sales being between $15,000 and $20,000. From such a narrow basis of data, and not fully comparable data, it would be a mistake to try to set any standards, and none will be attempted. Furthermore, the range and normal figures are only approximate, though probably they are not far from the facts.

THE BULLETIN'S WORK COMMENDED. Mr. Mason of the BULLETIN OF PHARMACY has published some figures collected by mail from as many as 216 drug stores, and others from as many as 50, in various parts of the United States.* His figures have been studied

BULLETIN OF PHARMACY, March, 1914, p. 117; and Harry B. Mason, "The Druggist and His Profits," pp. 82, 125-1 7.

in connection with the figures collected by graduate students in this vicinity, and both sets are practically harmonious.

This agreement has corroborative value, but it should be clear that neither Mr. Mason's figures, collected by mail, nor those collected by students (both from concerns with accounting systems that are different and often defective or lacking) can be classed with the figures of the Harvard Bureau of Business Research actually taken off the books of shoe retailers and retail grocers by agents of the Bureau.

Gross profit on total business ranges from 25 per cent to 50 per cent, with a normal gross profit of about 35 per cent of the net sales. On some lines or departments the range is different, tobacco, for example, running low, and in accord with the best business practice all drugs high. It might well be stated here that percentages are based on the selling price, and not on the cost. Net sales is the 100 per cent on which cost, profit, and expense is calculated.

THE COST OF DOING BUSINESS.

Total expense, or "cost of doing business," ranges from 20 per cent to 35 per cent, with a normal expense of about 25 per cent. One store claimed an expense of 14.6 per cent, but we were not permitted to verify the accuracy of that percentage.

Mr. Mason has a total expense as low as 15 per cent. It is probable that for total expense percentages under 20 in the retail drug business, an especially careful inspection is warranted to make certain that an adequate charge is made for the proprietor's time and for rent, if the store is owned.

Salesforce expense is probably even less accurate than the figures already given, because of the variety of charges made to it. The range I have here is from 6 to 17 per cent, with a normal percentage of from 8 to 10. Probably 8 to 9 as a normal percentage would be found not far wrong.

Rent varied from a low of 2.1 to a high of 7.5 per cent, centering about 5 per cent, as in shoes.

The number of stock-turns a year ranged, in the figures collected, from 1.5 to 4.8, centering at about 3. The variation is great of course for the different lines or departments, running as high as 50 on soda fountain supplies, and as low as 1 on drugs, with confectionery running high and toilet articles low.

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