Читать книгу One Thousand Ways to Make a Living; or, An Encyclopædia of Plans to Make Money - Harold Morse Dunphy - Страница 163

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Women’s exchanges, as usually conducted, consist of a number of women who form a sort of syndicate, have a board of managers, rent a suitable building, employ the necessary help to carry on the work, and pay annual dues of a stated amount each.

But an Omaha woman, who had only a very few dollars, and had a taste for that kind of work, concluded to start one all her own, and she made it a success.

Lacking the capital with which to rent a store room she used her parlor for that purpose, and succeeded so well that in a short time she was able to move to larger quarters, more centrally located.

She issued some neat circulars, inviting the women of her own and other neighborhoods to bring any articles they had for sale, and she would make an effort to dispose of them, or exchange them for other articles they desired, on the basis of a 10 per cent commission on all sales or exchanges made. As nearly every woman has certain belongings which she wishes to sell, or exchange for something else, there was a hearty response to the invitation, and her parlor was soon filled with a motley array of miscellaneous merchandise.

Every article was labeled with the name, address and telephone number of the owner, the price asked for it, or the goods for which it would be exchanged, and the parlor was thronged every day and evening with women patrons, who nearly always found something they were glad to buy at the marked price, so that the lady’s commissions began almost at once to assume very good proportions. Later she served lunches in her dining room, and these also were liberally patronized, so that she made a very good living from her exchange idea, and finally became the owner of a regular store.