The Bamberg herald. (Bamberg, S.C.) 1891-1972, June 19, 1919, Page 6, Image 6
WOOLWORTH, THE
MERCHANT PRINCE
CLUNG FAITHFULLY TO GREAT
IDEA.
Millions From Dimes
Had the Longest Chain of Stores.
Erected the Tallest Building:-?Was
Once a Laborer on a Farm.
(Richard Spillane in Commerce and
Finance.)
It has been printed that Frank W.
Woolworth left a fortune of $65,000,000.
To have amassed such a sum
as the result of retail in articles selling
for 5 or 1 0 cents is the most ex
traordinary achievement in merchandising
history.
Stewart Marshal Field, Altman,
Wannamaker and others we term our
merchant princes followed the beaten
lines and broadened them. Woolworth
did something new. He made
little things big, small profits im'
. mense. He glorified the cent. His
career, his fortune, his buildings, the
most majestic in America, if not in
the world, typify the power of the
smallest coin the country knows. His
success illustrates better than does
that of any other man in America the
opportunities there are in things considered
small when touched by the
!"Attiinof
alchemy of genius, wmcu id uiriiw*.-, |
but having the right idea and keeping
at it until you work it out.
Wool worth was a genius and yet 1
what was his idea?
Simply if a store specialized in j
selling at 5 cents all the goods it I
handled the time saved in making
sales and in making change would (
be sufficient to reduce the overhead
charge greatly, and that people 1
would buy more of what seemed like '
bargains than they would ordinarily.
It was not his idea in the sense 1
that he originated it. The idea was
that of another person, but it took
hold of him and he kept it before :
him always. He was only a poor '
country boy. He had labored on a '
farm, and when he sought a job in a }
country store, he had to work several 4
months for nothing for the privilege j
of getting employed. He was a grown J
man when he embarked on his first :
store enterprise. It was a failure. 1
That did not daunt him. He tried 1
again. This time he succeeded. But '
he found the 5 cent store idea was (
not wholly sound. Not until he 1
changed to 5 and 10 cent trading
did he make real headway. Later (
he sold some articles for more than *
10 cents, but 95 per cent, or, possibly,
98 per cent, of his trade was in 5 *
***** i o pent items. 1
OUU ? V .
In the light of the huge success he 1
made of his business it is odd to c
learn that in various instances, par- *
ticularly in the earlier stages of his 1
enterprise, Woolworth stores failed 1
to succeed. It was not until he had I
trials enough to test his patience to
the limit that he began to get full *
reward. When profit came big it s
came extraordinarily big. t
Mr. Woolworth wasn't a man of c
particularly fine sensibilities, and he s
was asked one day how it happened 1
that he got the ambition to build
such a structure, and particularly t
such a beautiful structure. s
"I built that magnificent affair
when I was a boy," he said. "My 1
folks were poor and we lived in a t
very small house. Back of our house t
there were stone piles and I started r
to build a house of my own. After 1
I was making a lot of money as a t
merchant I wanted to build some- t
thing bigger than any other mer- c
chant had. The Woolworth building 1
is the result." i
A story that is little known about
Woolworth has to do with his first j
day as a merchant in Pennsylvania, j
had in the I j
'He put every aunai
world, and he didn't have many, into (
his stock, his fixtures and his rent. }
His opening day was circus day. The <
streets were crowded, but nobody <
came into the store. The parade was i
a bigger attraction. But along in 1
the late afternoon there was a sudden <
change. After the circus the people i
seemed to find particular attraction s
in the new store that had just open- 1
ed. When he counted his cash that
night he found his total sales exceedN
ed his early forecast. Later i.i life <
he said that first day was the most i
trying of his life.
One thing the death of Mr. Woolworth
may clear up is the mystery of
the City Park of Watertown, N. Y. ;
buiit and year after <
"1 lit; jyai n. ?. ?..
year the bills for its maintenance
have gone to a banking house in New
York. There always has been more
than a suspicion that Frank Woolworth
was the man who paid.
Mr. Woolworth had one great passion
aside from business. That was
music. In his home at Glen Cove he
had one of the most remarkable organs
in the world. It was fitted up
with all sorts of mechanical appliances
for reproducing storm effects?
lightning, thunder and such. He did
not play particularly well and appreciated
this fact. When he got a
talented organist to visit his home he
was delighted. He was rather sensitive
about his own limitations as a
player, and when he naa guests he
could not be induced to go to the organ.
But he would, if he was pressed,
play the piano, on which he was a
fair sort of performer.
There are a lot of stories illustrative
of Woolworth's business methods.
Once he went to Germany to
visit a man from whom he had been
buying penknives for years. Going
into this man's office one day, he
said:
' 1 1?- ----- ? 1-A Tf "o
''Here's a knire mat \uu mai\c. *?. o
a pretty good knife. It's higher
priced than the goods I handle. How
much does it cost you to manufacture
it?"
The German told him. "If I gave
you a big order," and .Mr. Woolworth I
named a considerable total, "at what
price would you sell it to me?"
"Sixteen cents," said the knife
man.
"If I give you an order sufficient to
keep your factory busy night and
day, 24 hours, for a year, what
then?"
The German figured a long time.
Then he said, "Eight cents."
"Done," said Woolworth.
There was no pretense to Woolworth;
he was big, bluff and hearty.
He didn't pay his employees particularly
large wages and he held them
to strict accountability. He insisted
upon courtesy. "The customer is always
right." was one of his doctrines.
"Never forget that. He or
she is right whether she is or not."
Once or twice or thrice a year he
would shoot a telegram to everyone
uio lmndrpd or more stores in
Ill lllO ^
America and have the same thing
done in his 50 or 60 or more stores
in Canada, England or elsewhere,
and this is about the way the messages
would read:
Good morning. Did you say "Good
morning" to each customer this
morning?
Mr. Woolworth had an admiration
for Napoleon that was little short of
a passion. His office was furnished in
axact duplication of one of Bonaparte's
favorite rooms. He purchased
Napoleonic relics wherever he could
?et them and he read and reread the
life of the Little Corporal with more
interest than any other volumes in
his library. His friends said he liked
to believe he had some of the characteristics
of the great Corsican. He
?ertainly had the gift for organization
that was Napoleon's, but Woolsvorth
was at times a merchant and
)nly a merchant, while Napoleon had
;ranscendent ability in many lines.
It is said Woolworth was one of
he first merchants of (America to
nake a study of traffic density. Fornerly
it was the custom for a mer:hant
to depend on his judgment as
o the choice of location for his store.
good many years ago Woolworth
>egan "measuring" the volume of the
luman tide and the character of its
dements before he decided upon leasng
or buying a store. He endeavored
ilso to keep track accurately of the
raffic charges in all cities of conseluence.
An excellent location meant
luccess. A fair location meant fail'
' ? Tn pv
ire. He warned nu lanui . w. .
>ry'branch of his business he tried
o be as exact, as certain of good results
as humanly possible.
He and all great purchasers like
lim came in for bitter criticism at
imes. No doubt, by taking the enire
output of factories for a year or .
nore. they were able, by reason of
laving shunted off the manufacurers'
former customers, to dictate
o the manufacturer as to production
'osts and. not infrequently, reduce
lim to subserviency in them. That
.vas a vicious practice.
There was criticism, too, of the injustice
to small town merchants of
such competition as that of the chain
store. Mr. Wool worth felt this criticism
keenly. He had been a strug- '
;ling storekeeper and knew the trials
if the man of small capital, but he
said there was no escape from ecoaomic
law and the small merchant
who could not stand against the force
of competition had to succumb. If
it was not Woolworth it would be
some one else he would have to combat.
There was amazement when Woolworth
opened a 5 and 10 cent store
on Fifth avenue, New York, opposite
the library. Some of his friends
asked him if he was not making a
mistake; if he was not paying too
high a rent; if he could get patronage
sufficient in such a neighborhood,
etc.
He smiled. "I've been studying
that location for five years," he said.
"It is one of the cheapest sites I ever
have obtained. The business will be
immense. The site will improve year
by year. Fifth avenue is changing.
It is going to be more and more a
thoroughfare of business. Its traffic
density will increase steadily."
So far his prediction has been verified.
The 5 and 10 cent store in the
(Continued on page 7, column 2.)
DELICIOUS DESERT MADE FROM
Stoned Cake
? - " ?? i rt.i
Two slices of stone's spanisn uaKe
with caramel filling between the slices.
Make the caramel filling as follows: 1
cup of brown sugar, 1 cup of granulated
sugar, 1 cup of water, 1 tablespoon of
butter. Let this boil a few minutes, then
add 7 heaping teaspoons of corn starch,
4 tablespoons of vinegar, and 1-4 teaspoon
of salt.
WE HAVE IT THIS WEEK.
PHONE 15
TOM DUCKER
BAMBERG, S. C. I
LADIES: I
We can furnish you and all the I
family with all those beautiful and I
I useful things you wear from the time
you dress in the morning until you I
retire at night.
So whenever you want anything to I
wear, come to us for it and you will fl
find it, and you will find the quality I
you desire at a price you can afford
to pay. I
WE MAKE LIFE-LONG CUSTOMERS 8
OF THOSE WHO DEAL I
WITH US ONCE. I
H. C Folk Co.
Just I
Arrived
We have Just received three carloads
of mules and hirses from the
Western markets. These animals
were personally selected by our Mr.
W. P. Jones, and they are in the
1 I pink of condition. They are now to
be seen at our stables. Don't fail to
see them before you buy.
Jones Bros.
RAILROAD AVENUE BAMBERG, S. C. I
' ''
* Wanted, A Farm r
T T
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V T
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f WILLIAM H. PATRICK GARAGE' I
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*
VVVVVVVVVV>^A^rrfY v v v v v v v v v v
WM\ Who Sell 'Green Flag' Motor Oil in This County I
"? ? "" 1IATAO All I Lum Kepn lltinff "GREEN
r lav> iyiv^ i vi\ via^* * u?w ?? ??v
Kj^^^fcVFLAG" MOTOR OIL for more than a year, and H
nothing else, and more than that, Fll H
K V drive ten miles out of my way if it's ?
H necessary, to get it. I found their ad- Hj
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^3 Now I'm doing some "honest advertising" for "GREEN FLAG" jjj
tj myself, by telling you boys where you can "get it"? ? ~
| Ayer's Garage, Qlar,S- O. M^
|'' 11|!| l^1' ^'
? - ^^ ^
~ ^ mm
@||si
j' l|j|ii |i| JHE wax-wrapped IS
Ijiil'l -<x sealed package j
rlj igim with WRiGLEV'S I |
11 upon it is a guar- J
JsSBr antee of quality. |j|
The ,ar2cst c'iew'ns'
J\jX wiim in fho n
feu iii iqwivi iw iu uiw m
world 7the largest 1
selling gum in the 7
world: that is what
WRIGLEVS means. (l
SEflLEO^TlGHT j:
| IIS I The Flavor Lastsl ..IB ?j
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