The weekly times-record. (Valley City, N.D.) 1912-1922, 1916-08-24
&orv Of Golden Rule Stores
Tells Of a Wonderful Growth

authorized interview by Charles
w. Hurd with J. c. Penney, president
OF J. C. Penney Company, Salt Lake
City and New York;
There is an important chain of re
tail dry-goods and clothing houses iI
the west which is beginning to attract
the attention of thoughtful merchants
and manufacturers the country over
II fS owned by the J. c. Penney com
7any and popularity known at the
Eolden Rule stores. These stores mum
Ser 1926. Practically all are doing
BUSINESS in the small-town field, which
as we know, has been otherwise vir
slally immune from syndicate atten
sinns. There is suggestion in the new
development, but it is not that alone
which gives the stores special import
ance. Neither is it that their number
represents an increase of 5 per cent
during the past year. The gross sales
show a sharp, almost perpendicular
upfurve from $4,000 in 1902 to &c..
100000 thus far in 1916, but the
significance does not lie in that. Nor
even, lastly, in the rapid expansion of
the system from Utah to the Pacific
coast, as far as Canada on the north,
Mexico on the south, and on the east
Minnesota and Iowa-18 states in all.
These facts are all naturally i'm
preazive, since they make the Golden
Rule chain the largest Of its kind in
the world, but the vital point is really
ahis, that the chain represents an orig
inal principle in syndicate financing,
organization and management, namely,
Intensive cooperation in an endless
chain. 1t is this which makes the
rapid growth of the stores of con-
sequence. With retailing conditions in
q ferment of readjustment, business
Men must have an eye on every devel
Opment. What part is this new fac
Tor playing in that reimbursement, they
ask: how will trade-marked and ma
tionally advertised good eventually
fare at it's hands?
And then, bound up in it is the al
ways absorbing question of the hand
Nng of men: what light on the man.
ufacturer's own man-handling prob
lens does this Penny cooperation
throw?
Started In Wyoming in 1902.
It is remarkable story viewed from
any angle. Fourteen years ago young
man of rs years, who had grown up in
the clothing business of the west, was
taken into retail partnership and put
in charge Of store at Kemmerer,
Wyo. The store was one of small
syndicate of what were already called
Goden Rule stores. There were three
Or four of them in small communities,
each carrying a stock Of not more
than $4,000 or $4,000. The ex-
perlance of the owners and their COM
blned buying power had afforded
hlsm an advantage over individual
stores Of the same kind, but they were
not SO faF different at that.
The young man was J. C. Penny,
Dp to that time he had made no par
ucular mark in the world, had saved
no capital to speak Of But he had the
ability to work and keep his eyes open.
Within five years he had bought his
partners out and became sole owner of
the store.
: .pJAag these five years the young
manager had been thinking. He!
reached some conclusions in respect
to syndicate practice that anticipated
much that has been since found out by
others. He perceived the great gains
secured by a consolidation Of owner
ship and Capitalization of manage
nlent, but he also saw, more clearly
Ilar most others have done, the trem-
endous wastes and loss of power that
generally attend the operation Of the
human coeflicient and nullify much of
those gains.
All the successful growing chains in
The cigar, grocery, drug, five and ten
cent and other fields have needed men
above everything else. Under ordi-
nary conditions, however, the old type
of chain can not pay enough to hold
the best men long. The men use it as
a training school of business, pick up
all the experience and ideas they can
and then graduate at the end OF that
time into enterprises Of their own. The
more efficient the chain of the "absen-
Tee ownership" class, the more eff
ciently it provides and assures compe-
tition for itself. Even the fve-and
ien-cent chains which have been shin