Have a Shirt

RETAIL TRADE Have a Shirt

The familiar gold-and-black "A. Schulte" cigar-store signs on 186 busy streetcorners in the East and Midwest will be coming down soon. Up in their places will go flashy new signs reading: "D. A. Schulte, Inc., Fashion Haberdashery for Men & Women.'' Instead of cigar stores that dabbled in men's ties, shirts and socks, this week Schulte's was turning itself into clothing stores that dabbled in tobacco.

Schulte has been flirting with the haberdashery business for nearly ten years, ever since the company went through bankruptcy reorganization in 1940. The new management figured that those who came in for cigarettes and tobacco might also walk out with a shirt or tie. Many did. But since men who knew tobacco best were running things, the haberdashery business was not pushed very hard. It failed to halt a decline in sales, and profits shriveled to a paltry $30,276 in 1948.

When Schulte turned in a $93,091 loss for the first six months of 1949, the directors eased President Louis Goldvogel up to chairman of the board and brought in 50-year-old H. Cornell Smith, onetime merchandising manager of Manhattan's Gimbel Bros, department store. Smith has tackled some big jobs in his time. As a World War II colonel on General Somervell's staff, he helped organize the billion-dollar Wartime Post Exchange system, and the Pacific supply centers for the never-launched invasion of Japan.

Smith studied store traffic, found that 50% of cigarette customers were women, and announced the new policy. To catch the feminine eye, Smith will stock nylons, purses, costume jewelry and cosmetics. If the new-type store catches on, he hopes to make Schulte the "fastest-growing chain in America."

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