siness brought in thirty-eight dollars. John
Wanamaker himself delivered the goods in a wheel barrow. Then he
hurried to a newspaper office and spent the entire thirty-eight
dollars for advertising. After reading of the wonderful goods on sale
there, customers poured into Oak Hall. They bought, too, for again
John Wanamaker had spent his money wisely. He had hired the highest
paid clerk in Philadelphia to manage the sales room, which meant that
each customer was waited upon well and went away pleased, ready to
tell his friends about the new store.

What do you suppose was told the oftenest? Probably you would not
guess, because today all business houses have followed the plan that
was used first in Oak Hall.

You will be surprised when you hear that it was the custom of having
one price for a garment and sticking to it that caused the most talk.
This price was marked plainly on a tag attached to the article to be
sold, and any one could see it. Before this, clothing merchants had
not marked their goods, but tried to get as much as possible from a
customer. Often one suit of clothes had a dozen prices on the same
day. So you can see what a change the energetic young man made. He did
more than this. Because he wanted to please the public, he said if any
customer was not satisfied he could return his purchase and receive
his money back. This was a startling idea, but it worked, and made
many friends for the young firm.

Their store waked up Philadelphia. Every week some new advertising
appeared. Once great balloons were sent up from the roof. Stamped on
each one was the statement that any one who found the balloon and
returned it to Oak Hall would receive a suit of clothes. You can
imagine how the people hunted for those balloons. One was found five
months afterward in a cranberry swamp. The frightened farmer who saw
it swaying to and fro thought at first that some strange animal was
hiding there. You may be sure he was glad to hurry to Oak Hall with
his prize and get the promised suit of clothes.

John Wanamaker kept on economizing and saving, for he wanted a bigger
business. Then the idea came to him of selling many kinds of goods
under one roof, and the modern department store was born. The store,
though small at first, gradually grew until it finally became the
largest in Philadelphia. Then it was that he decided to build an even
larger one in New York City.

Today there are department stores throughout our count