The Ely miner. [volume] (Ely, Minn.) 1895-1986, 1940-04-11
IS 61ST unit
IN MINNESOTA
Fixtures and Interior of Most
Modern Design; Managed
by L. II. Larson.

Formal opening of the Ely store OF
the j. C. Penney ompany will be con-
Quoted today, according to l.. H. Larson,
manager. Located in the Johnson
building on East Chapman street, it is
Penney's 61st store in Minnesota.
Mr.. Larson, who came here from
Manitowoc, Wis, after spending II
years with the company in Manitowoc
and Marquette, Mich, will be assisted
in the operation of the store by Joe
Debevek. who comes here from Eveleth,
after four years in the Penney store
there. Others working in the local
store are all from this city.
The design of the interior is along
modernistic lines. On the right as one
enters is the mems luggage, hats, and
furnishings, and on the left, home fur
nishings and piece goods. In the rear
of the ground floor are the shoe de-
partment and complete line of work
clothing. A moderniStic drapery dis
play is a feature. On the balcony, 10
Gated at the back of the building, are
the infants department, ready-to-w wear
coats, dresses and millinery bar.
Header treatment of the display
shelves on the ground floor permits
unit displays of merchandise over the
shelves. On the front balcony are the
Office and the cashiers department.
From one little store in small
mining town, 38 years ago, to 1862 stores
located in every state in the Union
today, is a growth that testifies to the
soundneSs of the policies of the j. G.
Penney company, Larson points out.
James c. Penney, the founder of
Penney'S, opened his first store under
the name of the Golden Rule" in
Kemmerer, Wyoming, in 1902. He had
very little capital but definite idea
of square dealing and, from the very
beginning, his venture was a success,
He sold for cash only and always
treated his customers as neighborS and
friends. The very next year, 1908, the
second J. G. Penney store was opened
and with very few exceptions, every
year since then has seen the addition
Of more stores to the company.
Mr.. Penney, himself, has become
famous as the man with a thousand
partners" because of the system he
developed of giving to the manager of
each store full control of the mer-
chandiSe in his store and share of the
profits of his store. Central offices are
maintained in order to make it possible
for each local manager to purchase
merchandise in the most economical
way and to receive the benefit of COL
lective thinking on every problem of
store management.
Observers of department store oper-
ations in this country attribute much
of the Penney company's success to its
rigid adherence to this original plan
of Mr.. Penney's of placing full mer-
chandiSing control of each store with
the local manager who knows the wants
and needs of the people of his own
community. He is in position to keep
his customers in touch with popular
style trends, new manufacturing pro-
cesses, wearing quality tests and other
features that make for successful de-
partment store service Then, too, this
plan gives the up-and-coming man ir
the organization a chance to demon
Strate his capacities for greater re-
Sponsibilities, and enables him to move
forward much more rapidly than he
possibly could under a cut-and-drieo
system.
Almost to a man, the officials of the
Penney company got their start in
business behind the counter. Although
the company is now the largest organ
ization of its kind in the country, its
stores carry the old-time traditions that
made store relationships of yesterday
more pleasant than they are apt to be
today.
When a customer takes the time
and trouble to write to the Penney
company and say that the Penney sales
people always treat me the same,
whether spend few pennies or a few
dollars" it means that the people in
that store are giving their customers
friendly service. Letters of a similar
nature come to the Penney company
from all quarters of the United States,
some of them barely readable scraWls,