For the Hamiltonians, it was
a new way to attract customers to a downtown clothing store.
On December 19, 1883, the
Spectator carried a detailed description of the Oak promotion :
“The inducements held out to
purchasers now-a-days are absolutely wonderful. It can hardly be said that if
one buys a set of furniture, a house and lot will be thrown in.; but it is a
literal fact that in Hamilton and Toronto, one may buy a suit of clothes and
have a watch thrown in. This is done at the stores known in each city as Oak
Hall. Whosoever at either of these places of business buys a suit of clothes,
valued at $12, will be presented with a very neat silver-plated, stem-winding
watch. The watches are really very nice articles, and keep excellent time. They
are made by the Waterbury, Conn. Watch company, which turns out a thousand
watches every working day in the year, so great is the demand. The cases are
made of nickel, silver-plated; and when the plating wears away, as it will in
time, the cases still look white and clean. Every watch is carefully tested
before leaving the factory, and run for six days in varying positions.
“Business has been so brisk
at the two houses named, and sales have been so satisfactory that the
enterprising proprietors have decided to make a Christmas present of one of
these really beautiful watches to each purchaser during the holidays. Of
course, it is purely a business speculation on their part; for, although, they
cannot afford to make so valuable a present out of the narrow margin of profit
realized on a suit of clothes, they hope that the standing advertisement which
each watch will prove to be, will in time repay them for the present outlay by
bringing many new and permanent customers to them, till the name Oak Hall
becomes a household word throughout the country. The proprietors of the two Oak
Halls have been liberal advertisers in the past; their advertising has
attracted hosts of customers to them, and those customers have been retained by
reasonableness of price and excellence of goods. The belief is that each new
customer secured by the present of a watch will more than repay the donors
through future business. In that expectation, the first consignment of watches
to Oak Hall in this city was received on Monday, each neatly set in a
satin-lined box. They are known as the Waterbury watches, series C. A complete
collection of the various parts is sold by the company, so that there will be
no difficulty in having repairs made at a trifling cost.
“If, during the holidays, a
tremendous crowd should be observed on James street, in this city, it will not
be a meeting of electors listening to the pleadings of civic statesmen; it will
be a throng seeking admission to Oak Hall, intending to buy a suit of clothes
and to receive a present of a nickel-cased, silver-plated, stem-winder watch.”1
1 “Giving
Away Watches : Time is an Element in this Contract”
Hamilton Spectator. December 19, 1883.
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