The Romance of a Great Store

ve used time and time again. To feel that some single achievement of industry-of manufacturing or of merchandising-is as well organized and as well balanced as the many mechanism

with an army. Not alone in numbers can this parallel be made, but quite as quickly in organization. While, to return to our first simile, it, too, is a big machine-humanized. Its parts are carefully co-ordinated so that the whole will function with the least possible friction. Like an army it is officered with its generalissimo, its under generals, its colonels, its captains, its lieuten

his graphic charts, quite as carefully as the army general keeps track of the movement of his forces upon the maps which his topographists send him. He gathers his officers roundabout him and plans the strategy of business with the same shrewd for

is, it ends in so far as Macy's is concerned. For the army at Broadway and Thirty-fourth Street is

hey acquired Nathan Straus' interest by purchase. These men, Jesse Isidor, the president, Percy S., the vice-president, and Herbert N., the secretary and treasurer, are its triple head and front. While each has trained himself to be a merchandise specialist of the highest orde

there and everywhere from the box which holds the triple-head, branching and rebranching here and there and again, it looks not unlike a giant map; a chart, if you pre

ome detail how a great steel manufacturing plant of the Middle West attempted to accomplish its huge job, economically

l this while, I sh

s successful as Macy's, operated without a ca

where else. The real trick of executive direction seems to be to know when to follow these lines and when more or less to completely disregard them. Rule-of-thumb can never again overcome the rules

ise council, are four large branches of store activity more or less inter-related: the handling of Macy's own merchandise (meaning particularly that which is either made in the store's own factories or at lea

To help him in them, he has, under his direction, the chief cashier, the salary office, the auditing departme

actor in the modern department-store and particularly so in the case of Macy's-a display manager. It is the job of the first of these men to tell t

re's general manager, and his advisory council. For the G. M., big as he is always, has need of much advice. Upon his broad and efficient shoulders are placed such a tremendous array of responsibilities that on

fficient, there really would be no need either of me or of my job. It is because no machine that is built of human cogs and cams and levers and pulleys may ever work at one

. And to assist him he has five assistant engineers-assistant general managers, in reality. The habit of simile leads one into odd designations of title. Each of these five assistant general managers-we shall stand by the nomen

hether or not merchandise is returnable, for refund, exchange or credit. He also is the authority who adjusts all claims or controversies with customers. And he is the one to whom employees may appeal if they feel they are being treated unfairly by their superiors. A man-sized job truly!

DY OF MANH

f Macy's is, in itself,

va

is the selling. To this great force and to the countless problems that must arise in its day-by-day direction there is added the oversight of the personal shoppers' service. Which means in turn the furnishing of guides throughout the departments to sh

y, the merchandise checkers, the collectors, the stock clerks, the cashiers and the interior mail and messenger service. The other non-selling assistant general manager supervises the receiving department, the department of money orders and adjustments

chapters we shall describe what the great delivery department is supposed to accomplish, and actually does accomplish, the scope and plan and reach of the departments of training and of

and selling all these things and many, many more. And as you read in the earlier part of this book, the huge mechanism did not spring into its be

nos. In this particular case, at least, the reason is not hard to discover. Remember, all the while, that Macy's sells for cash and for cash alone-always and forever; and then consider that in ninety-nine cases out of a hundred, pianos are sold upon the installment plan. The installment plan is entirely outside of the Macy scheme of salesmanship. It may or may not be a good plan. But to adopt it Macy's would either have to

es to sausages, and from petticoats to ukeleles, the list of the store's wares is almost without limit. Other furniture is not hedged about by the same merchandising traditions and restrictions as are pianos; there are in

that upon its main floor-where its space, square foot by square foot, is by far at its highest value, and where there is a maximum of accessibility-should be displayed the items that sell the most quickly and the most readily. This follows the very reasonable theory that goods for which there is the most popular demand should at all times be the most accessible. Varying slightly in specific cases and cond

department-store. Retail merchandising tradition in New York suffered a body blow some years ago when Macy's sent them upstairs. Even the men who worked in the department

aid one of the veterans, just

ained. And the following year saw the department reac

re's unusual and fairly marvelous system of escalators, well-placed, smooth running, always available, and to be safely used by even a rheumatic or a cripple, bring these self-same upper floors at all times within easy reach of

we have just seen, shoes are upon the second floor. On the third is the women's wearing apparel, with special dressing-room fa

e qualities, only somewhat emphasized, apply to furniture, which is shown and sold upon the sixth. That the restaurant is relegated to the eighth floor is due in large part to the necessity for having cooking o

but necessary to change the location or the relative space of any or all the departments. At Christmas-time the unusual pressure upon some of them, accompanied by a slacking in others-unfortunately (or fortunately?) shoppers cannot be everywhere and at the same moment-me

n's furnishing goods in these emporiums should generally be displayed upon the main floor, and just as close to a street entrance as is possible. Macy's has been no exception to this rule. A man, even when he is in a mood for spending, wants

them are trying to find a new method of appealing to the man-in-a-hurry. And so there has come to be a distinct trend toward putting men's goods upo

actor looming larger before our very noses. We can not dodge it. We have no desire to dodge it. In fact, we find it at all times the most fascinating feature of our study. It is no part of this narrative to decide which part of the whole corps of workers in the store is the most important to it-it would be similar and quite as e

of a young woman who recently was a

who are most appreciative of your services. It was interesting to me, when first I went behind the counter, to see how many of my customers would say 'thank you.' I found that nearly all of them will, if only you make a real effort to please them. And the

help you

s merely trying to adjust her veil, she explaine

insisted, and straightway proceeded to do so.

regate very real and very important, that make for a store its lifelong customers. Let the young woman continue. Like a

ety-pin to a toy submarine. As she conned it, she said that she had shopped in Macy's for years, and nowhere else. In fact, I remember that she said that she would be completely lost

us moments for her change, or at not being able to find the same glove that her friend purchased the week before-the chances being quite good that her

to me to get some of our children's woolen gloves. He was a robust old man-about fifty-five, I'd have said-but he told me he was sixty-nine. He said he had just bought the same gloves elsewhere for over twice as much. (I said I didn't doubt that in the least.) And then he went on to say his wife and daughters shopped in stores where the nam

ptain, whose precise title is floor superintendent. He has an understudy-or, as he is known in the pa

Upon his floor he is the direct representative of the management and so looks out for its interests. From his desk upon the floor headquarters he directs and supervises, yet he constantly circulates throughout his various departments and sees to it himself that the matters for which he is responsible

e Macy's of today something considerably different is meant from the superannuated and somewhat pompous gentleman who used to condescend, when we asked for the location of

system. Parts of this constantly are being changed, so that in addition to all of these other qualities, the successful section manager must possess an alert mind. The importance of his work may be visualized to some slight extent at least by the manual which is prepared for his guidance. This is a loose-leaf book of some fifty closely printed pages; the number varying according to the changes in the store system which are made from time to time. Just to give you a slight idea of what this ca

ry backbone of their organization. In another place it is related how, in the department of training, employees are taught to sell, and in another something of

em to become familiar and even expert with the things that they sell. In many of the departments special booklets have been prepared as aids in selling the particular line of merchandise carried. That for the stationery department, for instance, covers: Paper, with its history from the earliest times, its manufacture, sizes and characteristics; eng

classed as at least fairly direct. Take that big and comfortable restaurant up on the eighth flo

gures this means that there is an average of twenty-five hundred lunches bought by customers each day that the store is open; with a maximum on extremely busy days reachi

this restaurant is not of itself a real business and one to be reckoned with, consider that in the course of an average year its patrons consume-among other things-two thousand barrels of flour, fifty-two tons of sugar, seven hundred and fifty thousand egg

holesome food at a cost that makes it entirely possible to eat to repletion for twenty cents or less. Soups, for instance, are three

men's club nearly a thousand more of the Macy family eat their midday meal each day; and eat very w

uring unit-which supplies everything for its consumption, from coal to string; the manufacturing departments in which are produced glass, mattresses, printing, engraving, custom-made shirts, millinery, picture fra

which little lights twinkle on and off and at which at a single relay sit nine competent operators in addition to a corps of inspectors and supervisors. The big board, from which run fifty-nine trunk-wi

face value-and not one cent beyond, not even the usual moderate fifty-cent advance of the hotel agencies-where astute and marvelously informed young men and women, with a miniature library of reference books at their imm

beginning along this line because of a sheer lack of room in which to handle it-the store each year actually receives thousands of orders for its goods by mail, from folk who, for one reason or another, find it inconvenient to visit it. These are received and systemati

er-writing and handling to a fine science, there is an infinite amount of detail in these two departments alone-d

is the time and place to focus our attention upon one of the small, but extremely important, departments that works unseen-but not unfelt-behind the scenes. It is known as the comparison depar

hed at a time when the recent reaction from the extremely high prices of the war period already had begun to set in; and yet this was the big store's sole acknowledgment of the deflation sentiment-to say nothing of hysteria-which was sweeping the town. Its competitors had been offering th

fought some royal battles in its behalf-yet not so much because it was a policy as because

ce. It no longer became the mere question of whether Macy's or any other store would have the right to undersell its competitors; it became the fundamental question of whether the great centuries-old open market of the world could continue to remain an open market, in

ciation, one prime purpose of which was to fix the prices at which their books would sell at retail, the store quickly saw that if this trust agreement was permitted to stand unchallenged, its cardinal principl

t the thing frankly and without equivocation before his client. He said that it would be a hard legal fight, no doubt of that, but that a gr

ht the fight, to the last ditch. No expense was to be spared. The case woul

sprudence in this country. Three times it went up to the Court of Appeals of the State of New York; finally, after nine years of legal batt

than a dozen years past in getting stock for its book department. Ofttimes it was necessary to follow devious paths indeed to gain this end-and still hold fast to the fundamental underselling policy of the store. Sometimes the store had to go so far as to send to

ction in the United States courts to compel Macy's adherence to the rules for resale at a certain price. Again there was a royal battle and again Macy's triumphed signally, for on final appeal, the United States Supreme Court again decided in favor of the store in Herald Square, on every one of its contentions. Macy's then retaliated and brought suit against the Victor Company, under the Sherma

he Interstate Commerce Committee of the House one of the Macy partners, accompanied by Mr. Wise, the store's counsel, and Mr. E. A. Filene, the well-known Boston merchant, came before it in opposition. Up almost to that hour, Macy's had gone it alone. Now the a

d at sixty-five cents, going so far as to take the two watches apart so as to show conclusively that the one was quite as good as the other. Certain other commodities went under similarly critical analyses. When the hearing was completed, the committee laughed the bill out of court. Since then the

to make good. It must be so covered and protected at every possible point that if challenged it can give a good account of itself. In fact, challenges come in every day-they have been coming in every day for a good many years now-and the house continues to make good its statement willingl

en, is

swer i

Jones are selling, if it is to compete on an exact basis. Nothing simpler. One of the Macy staff of shoppers is hurried forthwith to the scene of the bargain and, purchasing one of the garments, brings it back post-haste to the Macy comparison department. Furthermore, it is in this department by ten o'clock of the morning of the sale. It is then matched as closely as possible with a Mother Hubbard from the Macy stock, and the two garments compared,

it is far broader than you may have imagined. Here, again, is proof of the pudding. It is

er 12,

Macy

York

r S

r $11.25. Now, inasmuch as you claim that you sell goods at the very lowest figure, I think that is too much difference in price to overlook. I tru

very

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have seen the clock for less money. The shopper reported that the claim was correct, and a check was immediately forwarded to the customer for the difference between the price which she paid for the clock

y are not dissatisfied, cannot believe that the low-price policy can

er 15,

acy & C

y & 34t

Yo

tle

me say in the first place that I merely want to see to what extent you will make g

o learn frugality better than I did.) On November 14th my wife saw the same toy at Hahne's in Newark, N. J.,

me I would have needed to pay for that bank ther

hance, but I'm

ur

--

plaint was prompt and

MACY

Square,

ber 4

--

--

--

r S

ur complaint and find, as you state, Hahne & Co. in Newark are selling this article at the same price at which you purchased it from u

ntion and also for the opportunity to demonstrate the upholdin

very

R. H. M

---

il Order and

made no difference. The matter was adjusted; even though the process of adjustment involved a shopper's trip to Newark and considerable clerical work-in all several times th

omparison department pretty busy. Women frequently will stop a

aw the same thing today at Jin

cy's prices are at once readjusted to the six per cent. below the competitor's charges. It has been found, however, that nearly ninety per cent. of this sort of complaints are incorrect. Two articles, in separate stores, may look so nearly alike that a casual inspection will not reveal any difference, and, therefore, competing goods must often be subjected to expert ex

difference, this, and one which is constantly being checked by members of the shopping staff of the comparison department-going through its floors and inquiring in the various departments for goods for which there is little ordinary demand, and so a considerable likelihood of their

store's honest effort to keep its efficiency at the highest notch. Naturally the shoppers of its comparison department are not known as such to its salesforce-for this reason the personnel of the corps must be under constant change-and it is equally evident that their anonymit

the city, including Macy's. These are all ordered sent to the same address and a record is made of the length of time it takes each to arrive. In the report that is finally made of t

the sweetish fluid in order that they might show under laboratory examination that the machine was functioning at its highest point. And so are the tiny phials of Macy service drawn from the machine. If t

going well," says its general manager, "I only want to know when thi

etch of the organization of a great merchandising ins

h business only. For there always has been a desirable class of trade represented by customers who, for one reason or another, find it most inconvenient to pay their bills monthly-people whose means and credit are un

oth for the customer and for the store. The very thought was revolutionary! What, ask a customer to pay in advance; to have money on deposit with R. H. Macy & Company, private bankers, to pay for normal purchases for a whole thirty days to come! It couldn't be done. New York would never, never stand for it. Every one outside of the store was sure that it never could

time, and without previous notice being given. Further than this, it has been a custom-not, however, to be considered invariable-to pay a bonus of two per cent. on net sales

these accounts are promptly collectible-or collectible at all-the expense of the machinery of their collection becomes no small item in store management cost. This item Macy's saves-entirely and completely. And so, to no s