A MODEL SHOP

Ashburton Guardian, Volume VII, Issue 1735, 9 January 1888, Page 3

A MODEL SHOP

One of the best organised places of boslneM m Enrope, says the Paris correspondent of the " Daily Telegraph," it the well-known drapery establishment In the Faubourg 8t Germain, called the Bon M&rche. Its proprietors are distinguished pot only for (heir tucceps m trade, bat also for their continual en* deavora to make the numerous hands both comfortable and prosperous, and pertont who m England finanoo establish* ments of the same kind, could not do better than take a few leaves out of the book of Madame Veuve Boucicanlt and her par'nerg. Tfce Bon Marche is opened At ft quarter to eight m the morning, and business proper begins at eight. No fines «re isfl oted, but absence without cause or unpunctaallty, is not tolerated. The home closes at five mioutes to eight m the .evening: There are as meals a collation of coffee or ohooolate and bread la the morning, breakfsst a la JourcJiettc bttween half-past nine aod half-past eleven, dinners between five and seven, *nd m eammer refreshments froaa two to foar. The staff has everything needful whether for amusement or instruction m the houte. There are courses of Eogllsb, uaaid/and fenolng, readiDg routns, piauo lootaii, and games. A doctor is attached to the hodse, whose fees are paid by the fism, and all persons incapacitated from work through illness are carefully looked after. But the most important drganiiaMon of all is the pebilon fund, whioh| has tieen endowed by the liberality of the gonoicault family, Twenty yews' service totltles the assistants to a pennon, Provided 'they have attained, if men, the cige of fifty, and, If wbmun, to that of foftj-five. In these olrcunmanoos it is ao wonder that the young men and women who tre' lucky enough to set placet m the Bon Mirghi *hlo]p twlco l«rtn^ tt.