Lawson and Co.
R. LAWSON & CO., The Trades’ Clothing House, 32, Stockwell Street, Glasgow; also at Aberdeen, Airdrie, Dundee, Edinburgh, Stirling, &c.
The great prevalence of the cash system in all departments of modern commerce only tends more rapidly to distinguish those firms who have adhered to the conventional method of providing goods on credit, and those prosperity has been largely, if not wholly, acquired by the steadfast recognition of all the essential rules necessary to render that class of trade profitable and satisfactory to buyer and seller. The evident disfavour in which credit trade is now-a-days held cannot be attributed to any fault in the system itself, but must be due to its abuse by unprincipled traders, whose exorbitant charges and other unfavourable forms of procedure have tended to detract, in no small degree, from the popularity of a principle of transacting business that was clearly inaugurated for the direct interest and benefit of the poorer classes. It is thus gratifying to observe that there are in existence several eminent houses who have proved beyond doubt the value and merit of the system by the honourable observance of its sound features ; and in Scotland there is nowhere to be found a more perfect illustration of the success of a concern established and controlled from first to last on a distinctly credit basis than that which forms the subject of this brief sketch.
The Trades’ Clothing and General Furnishing House is probably one of the largest undertakings of its kind operating in this country, and having been founded as far back as in 1856, its earlier work and trade was found a source of incalculable benefit in periods when wages were small and the means of living precarious. Having its foundation in the hearty support which an appreciative public are always willing to accord to any organisation designed for the genuine benefit, the business progressed far beyond its original limits, and its successive extensions during a period of thirty-five years may be estimated from its magnitude at the present time and the length and breadth of its commercial ramifications.
Messrs. Lawson have now active agencies in every town of importance throughout Scotland. They have also correspondents in England, and the establishments in Aberdeen, Airdrie, Dundee, Edinburgh, Stirling, and Glasgow all form large and important undertakings in themselves. The Trades’ Clothing House at Stirling being that from which the business originally emanated is still a great centre of the firm’s trade, while in that town no name is more respected or better known than that of the eminent founder, Mr. Robert Lawson — long a magistrate of Stirling, and known in all business circles in Glasgow and elsewhere. The Glasgow business is conducted by the founder, Mr. Robert Lawson in conjunction with Mr. H. M. Dunn, and notwithstanding its more recent establishment in 1877, it now constitutes, as it has always done, a great pioneer in the City’s credit trade. The Trades’ Clothing House might well be said to rank as one of the commercial “lions” of Glasgow, in respect alike of its magnificent proportions and the familiar landmark it forms among the City’s genuine and first-class business institutions.
The premises comprehend four capacious flats : two towards the front in Stockwell Street and two at the rear, connected by an iron bridge. The back flats are devoted to the manufacture of clothing for ladies and also for gentlemen, while the first flat in front is made available for the display of mantles, dress goods, and jewellery ; the watches, trinkets, and general bijoutene being submitted under the most brilliant and effective conditions. The heavier draperies, along with tweeds, boots, and shoes, are arranged upon the second flat, where also is the firm’s counting house. The whole stock contained is enormous in variety and quantity. It is altogether impossible for any one surveying the resources of this large warehouse to afford adequate treatment of its many departmental details within the limits of one sketch. In household drapery, furniture, ironmongery, hardwares, cutlery, electroplate, watches, clocks, jewellery, bicycles, mangles, and in every possible section of domestic furnishing the quantities disposed of are immense. The great desideratum of a complete system of universal providing could in no instance be better characterised than in this mammoth stock with its aggregate of many trade departments, while everything in the shape of practical facilities, such as manufacturing, tailoring, dress and mantle making, is here organised on systems tending to accelerate the establishment’s busy routine ; and in no one place of business in the Metropolis can the public be more readily suited with such diversity of choice and assortment than in the Trades’ Clothing House. There is practically no end to the enormity of the various stocks here comprehended, and the most leisure survey thereof reveals a labrynth of novel and moderately priced attractions, the fresh and well-selected aspect of which might be difficult to understand, were it not for the great knowledge that prevails concerning Messrs. Lawson’s methods of business and the magnificent turnover that is represented in any one week of trade.
The installment system, upon which Messrs. Lawson have so long based their operations, is found to work smoothly and profitably in the interest of their customers. Purchasing directly for cash, they are enabled to sell for cash prices, and the genuineness of this principle will be apparent to any one who takes the trouble to compare their terms with any others ruling in the markets. They have naturally found that this liberality inspires confidence in their patrons, and they accordingly adhere thereto in the full assurance that their many thousands of constituents are more than adequately satisfied.
The whole business, conducted under the direct personal oversight of the partners, calls into operation the services of no fewer than seventy travellers and a splendid working and general staff of 400 hands. To regulate and maintain the discipline of the Glasgow house alone must needs form an arduous task for those upon whom its control is imposed, and in Mr. Lawson and his able coadjutor, Mr. Dunn, the firm of Messrs. Lawson and Co. have two of their most vigilant representatives, and gentlemen to whose assiduous personal efforts may be worthily traced the undiminished and always flourishing success of the Trades’ Clothing House at Glasgow.
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