The Omaha guide., 1933-09-23
Chicago & C~hicssosns
By Clifford G. Mitchell


interviewing a busy Executive!
Some weeks ago | commented in
this column on the reception tender
ed me by Richard L. Jones, superin-
tendent of the South Center Depart
ment Store, 47th and South Parkway,
here in Chicago, when he so kindly
escorted me to all parts Of the store.
This week a letter arrived from o.
s. Williams, Of New York City. in
which he says:
... l was rather interested in
your description of the South
Center Department Store and tie
reception accorded you there.
was interested Immediately in
where do they obtain their exc
cutlves? Do they maintain a
school of training? How many
employees do they carry? Do they
carry nationally known mer-
chandise? Are their merchandise
ing methods up to date? And a
host of other questions too num-
erous to mention. | think there's
a great story there and you're
the one to give it to the general
reading public. 49,"
Always willing to accommodate
my readers, especially one a thou
sand miles away who takes such an
interest in my articles, | again called
complete letter from which I have
quoted. AS the result of the ensuing
on Mr. Jones, letting him read the
conversation and from my own OBJ
s~ervations but using my own language
| shall attempt to answer the cues
tions asked by my reader correspond
ent.
Frankly, there is but one colored
executive at the South Center and
that is "Dick" Jones. And he has
been a fixture at the store since its
inception in 1928. At the time he was
connected with the business depart
ment of the Chicago Defender and
because of his friendship with the
founders of the store they offered
him a job or the opening Of their
store. Mr. Jones, at that time, was
unfamiliar with store retailing or
merchandising but he possessed an
alert mind, a willingness to learn,
and a pleasing personality that has
made for him friends who are legion
throughout America. Through his own
wide connections and those of the
store founders he was made welcome
at all the retail and wholesale estab-
lishments in Chicago's Loop and
through these contacts he secured his
schooling in retail merchandising and
then applied as much of his learning
as possible to conditions at the South
Center.
From this start the South Center
then developed its own sales force,
recruiting workers Of both races and
trained them in their own training
school at the store, which incidental
ly is a continuous process for all m
ployees attend these training lessons
at least twice a week. No distinction
whatever is made between the races
and from the humble beginning Of
about fourteen colored employees we
find that sixty per cent Of the one
hundred and eighty regular employees
are colored.
The merchandise carried conforms
to the requirement Of their comm
unity trade as they have learned by
experience that if they cannot supply
an equal grade Of merchandise at
similar prices as the stores in the
Loop that their trade will obviously
be lost to the Loop stores. It was
estimated that about seventy per cent
of the stores customers were colored
customers the greater majority Of the
business m from the middle class
working people. Incidentally there il
not a bank within a mile of the store
and the workingmen all cash their
pay roll checks at the South Center
to the tune of from forty-five to fifty
thousand dollars a week.
One really has to walk through this
enterprising establishment, noting its
busy corps of workers and seeing
both races working in harmony, to
really appreciate what the precedent
means, not only to Chicago and Chi
cagoans but to all America, for what
the South Center has and is doing is
definite proof of what car be accom-
plished elsewhere. And although the
South Center is a commercial estab-
lishment it is also a show place for
all visitors to inspect and who are al
ways welcome.