Yes, you can check as mentioned by Mehdi (provided the shop keeper allows that). Normally I ground the VEE (pin 3) and all the segments will turn dark. Using a resistor is a good idea. Most of the time the pins arrangement are the same. But very rarely I have noticed a reversed pin arrangement. In that case, trace the GND pin by checking for the continuity with the body (metal) shield. Mostly the pin next to it will be VCC and the pin after that is the VEE (aka VO) used for adjusting the contrast. This testing applies to smaller character type displays as the larger displays need higher -VE voltages for contrast adjustment.