Parents who only a few years ago took their children to the railway
depot o see the steam locomotive, now take their grandchildren to
Third Street to see the new electric train buzz on the track over the
top of wall display cases from the pharmacy room in the back of a
local store to the check out counter in the front, a distance of about
120 feet a minute.
I didn’t have opportunity yesterday to meet the "Casey Jones" on
our visit to the store, but the attractive Callie Schaefer is
the conductor in charge of the train at the check out. The miniature
toy train carries the prescription from the front of the store back to
the pharmacist and in a few minutes the little train returns to the
cashier’s counter with a wrapped package. It is new yet it isn’t but
it is clever and is getting a lot of attention.
The idea was used in Ironton 78 years ago, according to the weekly
Register. An item in the paper September 1, 1887 read- "Mr.
Brumberg has put up a new contraption in his "One Price clothing
House" (OPCH famous since 1881) which saves many steps for the clerks.
It is a cash and carry wire apparatus in the store that makes change
for the clerks making sales without having to walk to the office. By
springing a lever, a little metal box suspended from wheels shoots on
a wire with money to the office where the bookkeeper makes correct
change and shoots back the money. Customers in the busy stores see the
little containers buzzing overhead like birds. Our town is getting
more like New York every day.
Senior citizens, especially the ladies, remember the largest
mechanical carry-cash system at the D.C. Davies store. Second
and Lawrence Streets, where overhead wires came through the walls of
the three large rooms - the dry goods department, the ready-to-wear
and the millinery departments.
The package baskets on a wire were first used in Ironton at the
H.J. Keiser & Sons Dry Goods in 1902. That store was the middle room
of the arcade building, with twin entrances on Second and Third
Streets just north of Adams and now a part of the Anderson Market and
the State Employment Center. Other stores in the big block were the
Ketter Clothing and Snyder & Belcher Hardware. Strange what memories
recalled by a visit to Revco.
