Orr.—The Retail Fish Market 113 



waste water will be quickly and thoroughly drained. If possible, 

 the cleaning of the fish should be conducted in a separate room. 

 If this is not practicable, the process should be screened from public 

 view. The floor of the cleaning apartment should be of cement, 

 as wooden floors absorb and hold fish odors, which become more 

 and more offensive from day to day. The work tables in the 

 cleaning room should be covered with zinc or some other non- 

 absorbent metal. Small pieces of board may be supplied to 

 the workmen on which to lay the fish while dressing them. These 

 should be scrubbed clean at the close of each day, and occasionally 

 scalded with boiling water. The floor of the room should be 

 sloping, with a drain pipe at the lowest point. Each night, all 

 waste should be removed from the tables, the floors thoroughly 

 scrubbed with lye water and the drain pipe well flushed. One 

 dealer spreads fresh saw dust on the floor of his market each 

 morning and sprays it lightly with oil of sassafras, which he 

 claims produces a faint but pleasing odor and is at the same time 

 an effective de-odorant. 



The dealer should make every effort to increase sales. Window 

 displays attract many new customers. It is doubtful that there 

 is any other form of merchandise with which so attractive a window 

 display may be arranged. The writer has frequently observed 

 fine window displays of fish and in every case there was always a 

 large admiring crowd of people standing in front of the window. 

 Printed or hand painted signs announcing the kinds of fish on 

 sale, and the price, should be displayed on the counters or the 

 walls of the shop. The dealer who does not employ signs is missing 

 an advertising opportunity. Advertisers pay money for space 

 on street cars. The space on the walls of a fish market is just 

 as valuable in proportion to the number of people coming into 

 the shop. 



Many customers become accustomed to buying a certain 

 kind of fish, as for example, halibut, red snapper, etc., and when 

 these are scarce, will not buy any other kind. This is a fault 

 which it lies within the power of the dealer to correct. He should 

 carry the kinds of fish which are in season and which can be sold 

 at a reasonable price and when the customer calls for a fish which 

 is not in stock, he should endeavor to sell him one that is. Tactful 

 suggestion on the part of the dealer can usually accomplish this 



