Robb & Smart
Messrs. Robb & Smart, Wholesale and Retail Warehousemen, 10, 12, 14, and 16, Jamaica Street.
Among the vast mass of business houses in Glasgow, the firm of Messrs. Robb & Smart, Wholesale and Retail Warehousemen, 10, 12, 14, and 16, Jamaica Street, deserves special mention. The firm does not appear to have been very materially affected by the changes which, ever and anon, are taking place in the world of commerce. It was established over twenty years ago, as a general drapery establishment, by the gentlemen who at present constitute the firm, Messrs. Charles Robb and John Smart being then, as now, the sole partners. The premises consist of five flats, and an area of about 15,000 square feet.
The firm does a most successful business in silks, dress goods, mantles and furs, millinery, costumes, underclothing, boots and shoes, hosiery and gloves, ribbons and laces, haberdashery, foreign fancy goods, household drapery, carpets, bedsteads, bedding and general upholstery, and employ about a hundred hands. The premises are situated in an enviable proximity to the means of transit by either river or rail a matter most conducive at all times to the prompt furtherance of business.
A noticeable feature in the modus operandi of this firms business ought to be here adverted to, if for nothing more than its novelty. The partners eschew most rigidly that objectionable form of trade enterprise which too frequently is to be found in the avenues of carefully gilded puff. Confident in their ability to buy from the best procurable sources, and to sell at a price commensurate with a profit in every sense reasonable, Messrs. Robb & Smart act on the principle of allowing each article of their merchandise to carry its own certificate. They sell a vast stock at a price which commends itself to the public, and they leave the public to the unaided instincts of its owns judgment, with the inevitable result that the crowd will evermore return, to claim a service fairly wrought. And thus it is that the firm secures success without sacrifice, and maintains principle without parade.
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