Bottles of sugar sticks, tablets, mixed hard candies, can be placed on the mats. In hot weather if the chocolates get a white appearance just wipe them over with a damp cloth. Hard candies go all to pieces in damp weather. They need watching. Tin pails or cans are the best things to keep the surplus stock in. Salted nuts get punky and lose their crispiness if put in the window on a rainy day. To keep moths away from them, drop a few drops of choloroform into the glass jars that you keep them in. That keeps the worms away. You can lose a lot of money in bulk candies if you don't take good care of the stock. Cut down your chocolate stock in hot weather and run salt water taffy, kisses, marshmallows, caramels, cocoanut goods. Something light is what people want in the hot weather. You can have a special line of chocolates made for you, give them a trade-mark and push them under the trade-mark. You should own the trademark yourself.

The sole agency of a good line of packages is a good thing to secure if the provisions of the agency doesn't prohibit you from handling competitive lines. You can get special quarterpound boxes of chocolates put up by a manufacturer. Give these away with every fifty-cent purchase on a certain day. If the chocolates cost you thirteen cents and the article sold thirty-three cents, you are making four cents on the deal besides advertising your confectionery department. Candy given away is a big attraction. In arranging highly colored candies it is better to separate the colors. Don't keep the white candies all together and the red ones all together. A tray of white peppermints will brighten up the dark corner of a show-case.

Opinions differ widely as to the value of children's trade. To the writer, waiting on children at the candy counter figures among his most cherished recollections and the happy faces on the youngsters when they get an extra piece of candy makes one's heart glad. There are times when you'll feel like kicking them out, but the better they are treated the better you will stand in the eyes of their fond parents; the children

themselves, as they grow up, always remember the store where they spent their pennies and got good measure.

Easter and Christmas are the big candy seasons. Cream eggs and novelties are good sellers at Easter. At Christmas some candy novelty like cream figures, barley figures, chocolate doughnuts, are good sellers. Don't forget your mailing list of candy buyers at Easter and Christmas. Send them a list of all the candy specialties you expect to have on those two occasions.

It is an excellent idea to enclose a guaranty slip with every box of candy you send out. Offer to exchange the candy if not perfectly satisfactory. Some customers never hesitate to complain if it isn't satisfactory, while others don't like to bother. With a guaranty slip you invite them to complain, and that is just what you want them to do if the candy is not in perfect condition. One box of stale candy will drive a customer away and you will never know why he left you. You have no way of knowing the condition of the candy you buy in boxes. Any customer that tells you is your friend.

To sum up, the best way for building up the soda, cigar, and candy departments, is to keep the goods in proper condition, the displays immaculate, and the service of the very best. Soda, cigars, and candy are three articles that people put in their mouths and the more immaculate your display of these articles the more attractive they are to your customers. The demands of the times call for absolute cleanliness in these three departments. An immaculate soda fountain, polished and shining, with flowers tastily arranged, would invite a customer to drink a glass of soda or have a dish of ice cream whether they wanted it or not. It is almost impossible for a customer to pass by a spotless candy case without feeling a strong inclination to buy some of the delicious sweets. A man will notice a well-kept cigar case and be influenced to buy. Upon these three departments the average pharmacy depends for a large portion of its sales, and great care should be given them to see that they are properly kept up and pay their proportionate share of the store's profits.

CHAPTER XLIV.

BUILDING UP SUBORDINATE DEPARTMENTS.

BUILDING UP A STATIONERY DEPARTMENT.-This is a department that pays well, requires only a small investment, and turns the capital frequently. There is always present, however, the danger of stocking too heavily on novelty papers and new shades. Some of the new papers don't make a decided hit and in such cases it is hard to get rid of them at any price. The extreme designs in envelopes should be sparingly bought. Stationery that sells for twenty-five, forty, fifty, and seventyfive cents, are the best sellers in a pharmacy. You can educate many of the buyers of twenty-five cent stationery to buy the forty and fifty cent stationery, by telling them of the difference in the manufacture of the two papers, the higher grade and finish, the smooth writing surface, etc. Have a fountain pen handy and some sample sheets of the fifty-cent stationery and let them test the writing surface themselves.

Occasionally you can buy a hundred boxes of a thirty-five or forty cent paper and run it as a special for twenty-five or twenty-nine cents, that will bring a lot of stationery buyers to your store and give you a good chance to talk up your highpriced goods when you sell them the special. Have a nice blotter with a good stationery ad. on it, and be sure that every box that leaves your store has one of these blotters. Mourning papers do not sell very well, but there is a big demand for the note size. A campaign of education is necessary to build up a demand for quality stationery. Send to your mailing list full-sized sheets of the letter paper that you are pushing. Have a little statement like this printed on it, "How does this color strike you? Looks as fresh as morning glories. It is called the 'Celestial.' Isn't it a delicate shade?" etc. That kind of a notice will attract people's attention. The price of the paper should be given, also that you have it in stock and would be pleased to have them call and learn more about it.