The Basement Store - from Butler Brothers
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Charles and Edward Butler - the "Butler Brothers" are best known by Carnival collectors for their "Our Drummer" wholesale catalogues which were a significant outlet for Carnival in its heyday. In 1914, Butler Brothers also published an intriguing booklet that set out advice on how to design, stock and promote a "Bargain Basement Store". It was dubbed “a marketing manual for increased sales”, describing the Basement Store as “part of a store’s selling machine”. It gave the astute store owners sound advice, such as that shown on the left, on how to make their basements successful sales floors. The advice shown on the left, is typical of their approach. There was advice on price, profit margins and product lines ... even on how to dress a store's windows. The target audience was the thrifty housewife and the less-well paid, but naturally, the booklet also encouraged store owners to buy their wholesale stock from Charles and Edward Butler. To our knowledge, the booklet has not been seen online before and publishing these extracts is a "first" for Carnival Glass Worldwide. |
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