Interviewer: “How about the changes that have taken place in the methods of doing business since you started, Mr. Dutton?”

He laughed and said: “There has been a complete revolution in the methods of doing business. In the old days we simply displayed the goods on a counter as you would at a country fair and the customer came in and looked them over and asked the price. There was very little advertising done. Some of the stores considered it beneath their dignity to advertise. Of course Boston was a much smaller city then than it is today. I think the population of Boston has doubled since 1874. In that time the whole character of our civilization has changed and the department store has had to keep pace with the changes that have taken place. There is more of refinement in the tastes of the mass of the people, due to the broadening of education. The mass of the people wouldn’t buy goods today under the conditions that prevailed in 1874. The appearance of a store today has a great deal to do with its success, but in the old days people cared very little for appearances.”

“Then there are the many little conveniences in the department store today all tending to the comfort and happiness of the customers, especially the women and children. The comfort of the customers was scarcely considered in the old days. They just came in, bought what they wanted, and marched off with the goods. You know a standing joke in the comic papers used to be the woman coming home from shopping with her arms full of bundles and her hat askew. Now, nearly everything is delivered free of charge at the home the day the purchase is made, and the woman shopper goes home in a proper frame of mind and doesn’t have to rest two or three days after her experience on a shopping tour.”

“It was the department store that first sensed these conveniences for women shoppers, so that today the fitting up of a big store like ours is of the first importance. The comfort and convenience of the customers have been studied at every point. The business of retailing has become a fine art compared with what it used to be, and I think we all feel better and happier for the change.”

“Why, if you were to speak of having rest rooms, and parlors, and restaurants, and lunch counters, and soda fountains in a store in 1874 people would regard you as insane. I remember when we opened our boot and shoe department: that created as big a furor as the millinery department, and nearly everybody predicted that it would be a failure; and it was the same when we opened the drug department and the grocery department and the furniture department.”

At this point Mr. Dutton had to answer the telephone for a few minutes, and when he was through the writer remarked that the telephone must have been of great assistance in the development of the department store.

“I don’t think we could ever have carried out the idea to its present proportions without the telephone,” was the reply. “In this building, when we will have the addition on the corner of Tremont and Beacon streets completed we will have over eight acres of floor space, and I am in touch with the people in every part of that space right here at my desk, without having to go to them or their having to come to me – all through the telephone, the elevator and the electric light have been tremendous factors in the development of the department store.”

“And, you know, I imagine I see a great change in the people since these things have come into use. The people, as a whole, are quicker and more sensitive than they used to be. I don’t think people waste so much time over trifles as they used to. On the other hand the people are probably more nervous than they were formerly.”