The Romance of a Great Store

e cameling into town at more or less frequent intervals, did business, not with a machine, not with a system, but with men. Which, being freely translated, meant bargaining. They not merely bargaine

fixed. This is so generally understood and accepted a rule today that it would be a mere waste of time to discuss it at further length, save possibly to recall o

have not taken from man his God-given power to make or break the best of systems. And Macy's, with its own business system organized, carefully developed and upbuilded through sixty-three long years, is

uickly to seven thousand or over. Then it is that the Macy family takes its most impressive dimensions. Seven thousand souls! It is the population of a

-is an impressive array. It is a human force which only gains impressiveness when one finds that all but three hundre

ngs, is a responsibility. For, as we shall presently see, there are any number of problems in addition to those of buying and selling; problems in the solving of which unceasing demands are made upon the store's time, money and heart. It is, in the last analysis a matter of

its parts, the success of Macy's must mean that the rank and file of its employees maintain a high average of intelligence, initiative and loyalty. That these qu

e on the wall of the passageway at the head of th

ate to try for a prize, even if your suggestion does not appear important. We need your ideas and like to have as many as possible presented each mon

ome of them result in the saving of time-and consequently money-and others in the improvement of working conditions. For example: ten dollars was awarded to the man who suggested that the doors of fitting-rooms be equipped with signals to show whether or not they are occupied; five dollars went to the one who made the suggestion that the fire-axe and hook standing in the corner of t

ds. The workers are advised to apply for any position which they may feel they are competent to fill. Ambition is not curbed in Macy's. On the contrary, it is stimulated to every possible extent. The employee is restricted only by his own limitations, if he has them. It is a firmly-fixed house policy to promote, wherever it

very much on the job when it hired this m

miss does not figure at any time or place in its varied functionings-and nowhere less than in its employment department. The hiring of new workers for the store is indeed a branch of the bu

gencies, by circular appeals generally to educational institutions, and, best of all, through the solicitation of its regular employees. There is no appeal for a wo

big, upstanding man, who in his Harvard days was a famous football player. The r

some of the old and most loyal employees. It has been our experience that such applicants enter more readily into the spirit of their work and develop more rapidly than those obtained from other sources.

r was in the same boat as we. Never before have the newspapers carried so much classified advertising. Yet when all

placing, following up and promotion of employees and so bringing about a condition that will result in their rendering as nearly as possible one hundred per cent. service to the store. That is the real reason why employment departments such as this first came into existence. Business some years ago awo

f the World War period the first set of conditions prevailed. It was difficult for any department-store, ranked by the Washington authorities in war days as a non-essential industry, always to maintain its full working force, to say nothing of its morale. Recently the pendulum has swung in the other direction. America is not exempt from the labor conditions which are prevailing in the other great nations of the wor

were scrutinized with great care to make sure as to their desirability as additions to the organization. And before they finally were accepted and turned over to the

pective member of the Macy family has more than one arrow to his or her quiver. Alternate capabilities are assets not to be scorned. And there is an ob

only to that of engaging its workers. I am referring to that moment when they may leave its employ, either from choice or other

in. "Do unto others as you would have them do unto you. And remember that there is never a time w

ower to dismiss one of his workers. He may recommend the "lay-off" but only the general manager himself may actually accomplis

's does not intend that either of these causes shall obtain beneath its roof. So the retiring employee, before she may leave its pay-roll, is carefully examined as to her reasons for going. The last impressions of the store must be quite as good as the earliest ones-even upon the

d the employment of the store. She was a college woman-a good many of the store people are these days. The mass of young women who come trooping out of our colleges each June are apt to find their employment bents trending more or less to a common course and in great cycles. Yesterday the cycle was teaching; the day before, literature or the sciences; today it is merchandising. The great department-stores of our metropolitan cities in America are, as we already

OF MODERN

saleswoman of today a

y sch

ype. And here is how she came

ow that 'Welcome' is not always written on the door-mat that receives you. But it is at Macy's-and a woman, who made me feel that she was my friend by the warmth of her smile, talked with me and af

the employment office, where there is a good sign reading 'Say "we" not "I" and "ours" not "my",' to our locker room (which, by the way, is the best of any of the places I have ever worked in) and then up to the training department for a little first

armingly Irish-and time to note the people busy about that department. Nice efficient-looking people they were-and of course we labeled a

o, we later found out how many, many other 'we's' like each of us could make a deal of trouble for it, should we fail to carry on our work correctly. A talk we had from the store manager, a little later on, made me feel directly responsi

es. That was the first counter I had ever sold from. In other stores I have sold from what are known as 'open departments'; the counter trade was a revelation to me. Did you ever

tomers are always so plentiful in Macy's that a new girl hardly has time to have the old girls tell her about the stock. Moreover, our counter was very near the store's main en

gloves which must be a certain color combined with a certain size, plus a certain style and so on. Some people must stay up nights figuring along the lines of permutations and combinations, so as to work out some unheard of ones for the things they ask for in Macy's. The other girls were mighty nice to me, though, and as helpful as could be. And our having to almost walk upon one another and squeezing past

ounter, and carry the whole thing through-all that was lacking being the real customer. It gave us confidence and showed us things that we thought we knew, but that, when it came right down to it, we didn't know at all. The training department also gave us pamphlets and notices about how to use the telephones and telling us to do certain th

feel that there surely must be a chance for every one of us-that a firm that is worth staying with that long must be pretty fine indeed-and that it was just up to us individually, whether or not we would go ahead. As for our section manager, he was always so nice in the way he handled any transaction with us-giving us an extended lunch-hour or si

la club. All I had to do one day when it began unexpectedly to rain was to go up to the training department, deposit fifty cents and receive an umbrella. If I left Macy's within t

day long-I always found lots of friends there, no matter at what time I took my relief periods. And you go back to your work refreshed and 'full of pep' once again. Another place where you have a chance to see your friends is the employees' lunchroom-and it certainly is a popular place. Despite the clatter and rush, the Macy folks have a g

e roundabout it, and we sang songs about smiling; and other optimistic things. Then, after good addresses by Mr. Straus and Mr. Spillman, we all sang again and, in response t

ony, indeed.

creation of morale, not merely the retention of a good industrial relationship between a store and its workers but a constant bettering of it, has come to be as importa

re's reception committee is upon her heels and steering her straight through all the maze of fresh experiences that necessarily must await the novitiate. She is told all about her time disc of brass-the individual coin that bears her distinctive number (built up of her department number plus her own serial one) which she must drop into its allotted slot at the employees' entrance when she comes to it in the morning and

they are really not complications at all, but cogs in the grinding wheels of a great and systematic machine, are easily explained. The new girl catches on. The simple but accurate psychological tests through which she was put bef

girl cat

andum book. It is the work of a girl who has yet to round out her first year in Macy's a

manual of salesmanship. Under a heading, "Steps in an Ideal Sale," these are not only enumerated but are given relative values in percentages. Thus we see that "attracting attention" is twenty per cent.; "arousing interest," twenty; "creating desire," fifteen; "closing sale," twenty; "int

ical, suited to customer." Truly the science of salesmanship goes to far lengths these days. From time to time the store has engaged a professional teacher of elocution to take up and carry forward this last function of its work. Here is this saleswoman being taught that "swell" is a word forever to be avoided over the counter, "smart," "stylish," "fashiona

s, the second half is the result of the special training that was given her in the department of training along the lines of her own merchandise. Not only did she spend long hours of the firm's time in its classroom upon the third floor of the store and surr

ams, pointing out the difference between the different textures and weavings. "Warp" and "weft" and "twill" have come to be more than mere words to her. They are a part of her business capital, which she can-and does-turn to the go

would read it that way. Education, of a truth, has become the handmaiden of m

things that they have learned. The educational work consists of individual instruction, informal classes and practical demonstrations. And the result of it all is not merely to

g from the first day of her employment. She was no exception to an inflexible rule. The training is given invariably. It does not matter whether the applicant has had experience in other large department-store

o solve it, with the direct result that some two or three years ago retail store training became a practical factor in the city's educational system. Under the enthusiastic aid of Doctor Lee Galloway, its head, the successful and rapidly expanding business division of New York University created the school of retail sellin

l selling through education in the following ways: To train teachers in retail selling for public high schools and for retail stores, t

n the lower west side of Manhattan-the Haaren High School at Hubert and Collister Streets-has been designated as training center for this work. Girls are there being taught retail se

ael H. Lucey, principal of the Julia Richman High School-in West Thirteenth Street, just back of Macy's original store-who has devoted great energies to its launching. Convinced,

y mind, the feeling in the average high school girl's head that less education having been required in past years for the girl behind the counter than for the girl behind the typewriter, she lost a certain definite sort of caste, if she followed the first of these callings. Of course, that is utt

tor shakes his he

es, but rather as a bridge between schooling and matrimony-a bridge of but four, or five, or six years. And when they are frank with me-and they often are-and tell me of this bridge tha

ation, each goes to school every other week. In the week that one is in the classroom, her partner is in one of the city stores studying retail selling at first hand. When, at the end of six days, she returns to

al of these. Four evenings a week, for two hours each evening, a huge class is being taught-in an even more detailed way than is possible under a department-store roof-the principles and manufacture of textiles. In thes

on has become the hand

the store's workers and then follow up to make sure that these are putting into practice the principles in which they have just been instructed. Except for the training of the future executives the school time is take

s of the store to its selling divisions; a senior salesmanship class-including the study of textiles and non-textiles, and covering three busy months; the instruction of special groups of salesclerks to be transferred for special sales; "demonstration sales," in which teacher and pupil "p

o show it more clearly to your eyes than any elaborate presentments of schedules and curriculums. The result's the thing. And Macy's has the results. It has already achieved them. Not only has it lifted retail selling from the ha

tance, the system of bonuses for punctuality, which takes the final form of extra holidays in the summertime. A week's holiday with pay is given without fail to each and every employee of eight months' standing. But a record

ta for his or her week's work. On sales that reach above this figure he or she is paid a percentage commission. And, lest you may be tempted to dismiss this statement with a mere shrug of

ing: this "special squad" which has become so distinctive a feature of the big red-brick selling enterprise in Herald Square. Concretely, it is a group of college graduates-the heads of the firm are themselves college men and have

f these young grads come in here with the rattle of their brand-new diplomas

spent the two months of his vacation in the special squad, studying the store from a variety of intimate and personal angles. On his first day in it, the distinguished educator sold clothing-men's clothing-and he so

ousers sweep the fl

d his first taste o

em. And it is not very long before they begin to observe that, after all, there are still a

t. An Englishman who came into Macy's special squad last year

ted, "I can't think of it

he store executive who first handled this bit of human raw material possesse

don't have to tell your King that you had

nt to work. In six months he was an executive, himself. It's

rm and then a good stiff session in the marking-room. The college boy follows the merchandise along a little further. He proceeds for a while to sell it-then does the work of a section manager. After which there come, in logical sequence, the delivery department, the bureau of inve

sex. I might cite a hundred instances from within the store where she has shown both-and initiative as well. But I shall give only one-where initiative played the largest part. Some few months ago a young woman who has climbed high in the store organization, to the important post of buyer of a most important line of muslin wearing apparel, found herself in France, but a few hours before the steamer upon which she was booked

training department that really trains, a system which really systematizes. And all under the title of a family group