Looking Backward, 2000 to 1887

een able to understand it from all I have read on the subject. For example, when you had such a vast number of shops, each with its different assortment,

that was the only way sh

I should soon be a very fatigued one if I had t

y complained of," I said; "but as for the ladies of the idle class, though they compla

hundreds, perhaps, of the same sort, how could

es of the shops, and bought at advantage, always getting the most and best for the least money. It required, however, long experience to acquire this knowledge. Those who were too busy, or bought too little t

ingly inconvenient arrangement when you s

lied. "You can see their faults scarcely more pl

which was a female ideal of Plenty, with her cornucopia. Judging from the composition of the throng passing in and out, about the same proportion of the sexes among shoppers obtained as in the nineteenth century. As we entered, Edith said that there was one of these great distributing establishments in each ward of the city, so that no residence was more than five or ten minutes' walk from one of them. It was the first interior of a twentieth-century public building that I had ever beheld, and the spectacle naturally impressed me deeply. I was in a vast hall full of light, received not alone from the windows on all sides, but from the dome, the point of

was no one behind the counter, and no one

rk yet," said Edith; "I ha

clerks to help people to make thei

l people what

induce them to buy wh

ith asked, wonderingly. "What concern could it poss

he purpose of getting rid of the goods, and were expected to do

on's. They are here for those who want them, and it is the business of the clerks to wait on people and take their orders; but it is not the interest of the clerk or the nation to dispose of a yard or a po

f useful in giving you information about the goods, t

se printed cards, for which the government authorities are re

t form a complete statement of the make and materials of the goods and all its

othing to say about the

or profess to know anything about them. Courtesy and ac

of lying that simple arran

erks misrepresented their go

one's livelihood and that of his wife and babies depended on the amount of goods he could dispose of, the temptation to deceive th

peared. He took down her order on a tablet with a pencil which made two copies, of which he gave on

lerk had punched the value of her purchase out of the credit card she gave him, "is given

ew that you might not have found something to suit you better in some of t

visiting other stores. The assortment in all is exactly the same, representing as it does in each case samples of all the

tore? I see no clerks cutting

reat central warehouse of the city, to which they are shipped directly from the producers. We order from the sample and the p

void one handling of the goods, and eliminate the retailer altogether, with his big profit and the army of clerks it goes to support. Why, Miss Leete, this store is merely the order department of a wholesale house, with no more

ansmitters to him. His assistants sort them and enclose each class in a carrier-box by itself. The dispatching clerk has a dozen pneumatic transmitters before him answering to the general classes of goods, each communicating with the corresponding department at the warehouse. He drops the box of orders into the tube it calls for, and in a few moments later it drops on the proper desk in the warehouse, together with all the orders of the same sort from the other sample stores. The orders are read off, recorded, and sent to be filled, like lightning. The fill

the thinly settled rur

s so swift, though, that the time lost on the way is trifling. But, to save expense, in many counties one set of tubes connect several villages with the warehouse, and then there is ti

no doubt, in which the country stores are

llest village, just like this one, gives you your choice of all the varieties of goods

cost of the houses. "How is it," I asked, "that this difference i

houses vary, according to size, elegance, and location, so that everybody can find something to suit. The larger houses are usually occupied by large families, in which there are several to contribute to the rent; while small families, like ours, find smaller houses more conven

o admit that it

everybody's income is known, and it is known th

on in the distributing service of some of the country districts is to b