Department Stores Chained

Three Manhattan stores were busy as beavers last week catching up with a prime long-term retailing trend. The trend: independent retailers are losing ground to chains. The stores: R. H. Macy & Co., No. 1 U. S. department store; elegant Saks Fifth Avenue, No. 1 U. S. retailer of costly clothes and accessories; smaller style-at-a-price-merchants Best & Co. All three opened (or planned) chainlike extensions of themselves.

On its way to the hinterland for the first time was the name of Macy, whose three present branches operate under their former owners' names. Announced for two or three months hence was the debut of "Macy's of Syracuse," N.Y., a streamlined, semi-self-service, all-merchandise-on-the-counter downtown shop. Located between a Woolworth's and a Kresge's, it will offer for cash only "soft goods" (clothing, accessories, linen, etc.)--fast-selling items already tested in the New York store.

Macy's in Syracuse may well serve as an inexpensive guinea pig for Macy's in Manhattan. If successful, it may breed a flock of "Macy's of Middletowns," help bolster Macy's hard-won earnings--3% last year on sales of $130,433,687. It is the foster child and will be the personal care of Macy's untitled new executive, Richard Godfrey Roth, who went to the store last January from Cleveland's Wm. Taylor Son & Co. Small, kinky-haired Retailer Roth will supervise the Syracuse venture from Manhattan.

No stranger to the hinterland is the name of Saks Fifth Avenue. It is the crown jewel of Macy's Herald Square competitor, Gimbel Bros., which last week opened its eighth U. S. shop. The place: Detrot. There for the event with a coterie of 25 top Saks officials was suave Adam Gimbel, who combines polo and business with more than average success. Retailer Gimbel sounded off to the local press on the ability of the U. S. to get on without Paris (TIME, Aug. 19) and of Saks to bring the mode-in-volume to Detroit. Sample sound-off: "We want to be an intimate part of a community which posses such dynamic vigor."

Vigorous Detroiters swarmed to the opening past windows showing mannequins modeled after Detroit socialites, saw live Saks mannequins parade samples of the new shop's $1,000,000 stock of top-notch gowns, furs, jewels. They bought $30,000 worth --a fine day's business. Mindful of his Hollywood debut two years ago when police had to hold back the crowds and resuscitate fainting women, Adam Gimbel used no initial advertising. Nonetheless, the Detroit papers were kind to him. One reason for that may have been that he had made a deal with the Fisher brothers. His shop is in their New Center Building, close to the General Motors and Fisher office buildings, an area which Banker-Sportsman Charles T. Fisher hopes to develop " into the Rockefeller Center of Detrot" To get Saks, Landlord Fisher made a rental deal contingent on the volume of business done. His gamble may turn out to be a prime investment. With 2,500 Detroit charge customers already on his Manhattan books, and with defense orders flooding the town, Adam Gimbel ought to find plenty of shopping money.

Meanwhile, unobtrusive Best & Co. kept an eye on its eleventh suburban branch, which opened fortnight ago in the Chicago suburb of Winnetka--one of the richest communities per capita in the U. S. Now a chain itself, Best's has no fear of chains, confidently expects to top last year's net sales of $15,607,340--second highest in the firm's 61-year history.

This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so reader's discretion is required.