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John Wanamaker – Inventor of the Price Tag

peter_d_sherman 5y ago
>"Before Wanamaker invented the price tag, most buying was done by haggling." [...] >"Born in Philadelphia in 1838, John Wanamaker pioneered the concept of the department store. In 1861 Wanamaker and his brother-in-law, Nathan Brown, opened Oak Hall, a men's clothing store. In 1876, intending to open a central market like London's Royal Exchange or Paris' Les Halles, he converted an abandoned Pennsylvania Railroad depot into a multipurpose clothing and specialties store called Wanamaker's. Catering to an upscale market, he promised all-wool clothing and quality goods with a money-back-guarantee." PDS: Observation: If one lived in an age of history where haggling was predominant (that is, no fixed prices), and where one was running a store with multiple clerks who were there to accept customer returns, and one wanted to offer a money-back guarantee to one's customers -- then this process could easily be abused by the customers -- by first haggling to buy a good at a low price, then waiting a couple of days and returning it, and lying that they had paid a higher negotiated price for it when they purchased it. A known, agreed-to-by-all final selling fixed-price (that is, the Price Tag!) -- puts an end to all of that! In other words, IF John Wanamaker was the first guy in American history to offer a return policy on goods sold -- then this return policy would have necessitated the use of a price tag -- so that returns could be processed quickly and efficiently by store clerks -- who weren't there at the time of the sale! Also, the exact date in American history on which the first price tag was introduced -- would be of interest to Legal Scholars; students of the Law. Why? Because this date is probably at least 100 or so years after the Constitution is signed, and it will mark the period of time that people moved from haggling over price -- to using a fixed-price system. Haggling is another word for "Negotiating". Negotiation -- is an important aspect of Law -- because if you have two parties, and they differ in some viewpoint (all legal cases basically amount to a difference in viewpoint! <g>), then negotiations, if performed correctly, allow the two parties to "meet in the middle" (settle). This popular knowledge of negotiation -- would have been the case in all of antiquity with respect to buying and selling with no fixed price system in place; that is, with no price tags... Negotiation (when done correctly -- there are rules to it!) forms the backbone of "The Principle Of Honor", AKA "The Honor Principle", AKA "Honor". Anyway, Price Tags -- while they greatly simplify commerce -- lead to the broad societal forgetfulness of haggling, AKA, negotiation -- an important cornerstone and (human) understanding in Law...

>"Before Wanamaker invented the price tag, most buying was done by haggling." [...] >"Born in Philadelphia in 1838, John Wanamaker pioneered the concept of the department store. In 1861 Wanamaker and his brother-in-law, Nathan Brown, opened Oak Hall, a men's clothing store. In 1876, intending to open a central market like London's Royal Exchange or Paris' Les Halles, he converted an abandoned Pennsylvania Railroad depot into a multipurpose clothing and specialties store called Wanamaker's. Catering to an upscale market, he promised all-wool clothing and quality goods with a money-back-guarantee." PDS: Observation: If one lived in an age of history where haggling was predominant (that is, no fixed prices), and where one was running a store with multiple clerks who were there to accept customer returns, and one wanted to offer a money-back guarantee to one's customers -- then this process could easily be abused by the customers -- by first haggling to buy a good at a low price, then waiting a couple of days and returning it, and lying that they had paid a higher negotiated price for it when they purchased it. A known, agreed-to-by-all final selling fixed-price (that is, the Price Tag!) -- puts an end to all of that! In other words, IF John Wanamaker was the first guy in American history to offer a return policy on goods sold -- then this return policy would have necessitated the use of a price tag -- so that returns could be processed quickly and efficiently by store clerks -- who weren't there at the time of the sale! Also, the exact date in American history on which the first price tag was introduced -- would be of interest to Legal Scholars; students of the Law. Why? Because this date is probably at least 100 or so years after the Constitution is signed, and it will mark the period of time that people moved from haggling over price -- to using a fixed-price system. Haggling is another word for "Negotiating". Negotiation -- is an important aspect of Law -- because if you have two parties, and they differ in some viewpoint (all legal cases basically amount to a difference in viewpoint! <g>), then negotiations, if performed correctly, allow the two parties to "meet in the middle" (settle). This popular knowledge of negotiation -- would have been the case in all of antiquity with respect to buying and selling with no fixed price system in place; that is, with no price tags... Negotiation (when done correctly -- there are rules to it!) forms the backbone of "The Principle Of Honor", AKA "The Honor Principle", AKA "Honor". Anyway, Price Tags -- while they greatly simplify commerce -- lead to the broad societal forgetfulness of haggling, AKA, negotiation -- an important cornerstone and (human) understanding in Law...