U.S.A. An elegant theater in the new building would welcome African Americans. 4) five photographs and a drawing of Madam Walker, Walker Manufacturing buildings, and J.C. Penney's early stores. The name of our store is "The Golden Rule Stores." The woman, named Berta, consented to marry him. As a result, the church dismissed him. The young couple lived above the store, using shoe boxes for chairs and packing cases for tables. In the early 21st century the company operated more than 800 stores in the United States and Puerto Rico. Both Walker and Penney overcame great odds, and both combined a desire to serve others with great financial success. Therefore, be sure to refer to those guidelines when editing your bibliography or works cited list. The following links are of particular interest: Chain Stores With many observers not believing in the future of the company, the stock in recent months hit an all-time low of under $3 per share, valuing the company at less than one billion dollars. At the age of twenty-nine, J. C. Penney was well on to his way to becoming a wealthy man. This lesson is one in a series that brings the important stories of historic places into the classrooms across the country. Employ, American Stores Company Later, the entrepreneurial young man sold watermelons outside the gates of the local fair. Walker (1867-1919) developed, manufactured, and sold formulas for hair care and other beauty products for African-American women. He underwrote Christian causes like theChristian Heraldmagazine. I am a woman that came from the cotton fields of the South; I was promoted from there to the wash-tub (laughter); then I was promoted to the cook kitchen, and from there I promoted myself into the business of manufacturing hair goods and preparations. Privately, he mentioned his desire to be baptized and to join a church, but he put off those commitments until 1942 and 1950. It is the result of an adopted policy of giving more for the money than can be had elsewhere. Encyclopedia.com. He finished high school and worked mostly in store clerk positions. Most of the quotes in the article come from a compilation of his writings entitledLines of A Layman: The Golden Rule in Everyday Living. A contemporary of Madame Walker. Corrections? Perfumed delightfully. Standard E - The student describes the role of specialization and exchange in the economic process. The young man worked hard as a clerk and learned all he could about the business. We are at home here. Someone read a Scripture passage: "Come unto me all you that are heavy laden, and I will give you rest." 1. In 1959 alone, at the age of eighty-four, he attended fifty-nine store openings, made a hundred speeches, spent two hundred days on the road travelling sixty thousand miles, and appeared on twenty-seven radio and television programs. "Suddenly needing to be heard, I cried inwardly, 'Lord, will you take care of me? Walker and James Cash Penney. ", Over the next twelve hours, he experienced a kind of conversion. For the next 17 years, Sarah supported herself and her daughter as a washerwoman. Not only did this contribute to company morale, it allowed for the steady expansion of a chain of stores that held to Penney's original principles. Why or why not? 1. What did he mean when he wrote, "You are invited to become a member of our large Golden Rule family." A thousand miles to the west, in the small town of Kemmerer in western Wyoming, stands a small building that represents the early days of another successful career. Despite Callahans hesitation at hiring a butcher, Jim Penney got hired at the Longmont Golden Rule as a part-time sales clerk when a senior clerk was ill. If we follow the admonition to love God, and our neighbors as ourselves, it will lead us to understand that, first of all, success is a matter of the spirit. Vegetable Oil--Antiseptic Soap--A popular-priced household soap of purest vegetable oils. Today under former Home Depot executive Marvin Ellison, the J. C. Penney Company is making some progress, but the road has been hard. "1 Many in Kemmerer thought Penney's business would fail. Give me a man with no goals and I'll give you a stock clerk. The cities marked in all capital letters indicate places where Madam Walker established or headquartered her business. C. Penney under The Golden Rule. By 1919 it was determined that all stores should go by the new common name of J. C. Penney. The company was like the retail version of the Marines: tough to get in, brothers for life. . He wrote in his autobiography that all of his business success was based "in adherence to the Golden Rule, faith in God and the country.". Why did Walker move to Denver? Public Company In that light, some might question our decision to spotlight J. C. Penney. How did the company change to meet competitive challenges that arose in the 1950s and 1960s? Neither Walker nor Penney ever eased up on the prodigious amounts of work they performed. Students can establish their own categories or you might suggest grouping together advertisements with an emphasis on price, quality, style, convenience, or importance to specific ethnic or age groups. 2. Today the building houses commercial businesses as well as the Madame Walker Theatre Center, which provides arts and cultural programs and education for children and adults. (501) 376-5200 Sams had been recommended by a Denver employment agency. Salt Lake City, Utah 84102-1205 In March of 1899, Jim Penney arrived in Evanston, population 2,000, and began as a junior salesman, at a salary of $50 per month. His faith would remain a personal thing most of his life. Kemmerer was a mining town with about 1,000 residents and a company store that operated on credit. 7. These two historic buildings--one large and imposing, the other modest--provide insight into the characters of two of America's most famous businesspeople. The facts herein stated can not be disputed. He died on February 12, 1971, at the age of 95, as the founder of the nation's second-largest department store behind Sears. This lesson is based on the National Historic Landmark files, "Madam C.J. Penney, Fifty Years with the Golden Rule (New York: Harper & Brothers, Publishers, 1950) 55. The Madam C.J. But again, fate befell him: she died suddenly in 1923. Massive efforts were required to find the right men for the chain as it grew through one hundred stores. The city had become the country's largest inland manufacturing center because of its access to eight major railway systems. Students will have noted that advertisements for the Walker products and the Golden Rule Store are quite different from those that are run in newspapers and magazines today. Each preparation's wide use and higher merit were always proved. His name lives on on over eight hundred stores across the United States. Portland, Oregon 97202 In the years following his epiphany in that hospital chapel, Penney spoke often of that experience. Six decades later, Penney's vision is still alive at the working farm. On the same property, he opened retirement apartments made available to retired preachers and missionaries free of charge. But things would turn out all right, he was told, if he just followed the Golden Rule, treating others with fairness and respect. Standard 3B- The student understands how a modern capitalist economy emerged in the 1920s. He finally felt secure enough to ask his longtime girlfriend, Berta Hess, to marry him. When the day of modern shopping centers arrived in the late 1950s, Penney's chain was so strong financially that it succeeded in suburbia too. He bought a mansion near Miami Beach, on Biscayne Bay, replete with the icon of wealth of the day, a pipe organ. Each store became a mother store to others. In addition to the headquarters of the Madam C. J. Walker Manufacturing Company, the building also housed the Walker Theater, Walker Drug Store, Walker Casino, Walker Beauty Shop, a ballroom, and a coffee shop. Penney decided to return to the dry goods business, taking temporary employment as a clerk in Callahan and Johnson's store in Longmont. Penney himself was not so fortunate. After she had been in Indianapolis for some time and was already a wealthy woman, she went one afternoon to the Isis Movie Theater and gave the ticket seller a dime, standard admission at the time. Madam C.J. Have each group explain their ideas to the full class. He was off and running. U.S.A. But Earl Sams not only earned Jims confidence, but later went on to follow Penney as president of the company and head of day-to-day operations for almost thirty years. Detroit: The Gale Group, 1998, s.v. This arrangement allowed for rapid expansion in the early years of the business. Make sure to address the following questions: What did each person do? If so, how? Reverend Penney worked hard to instill ethics in his son. A man of strong Christian beliefs and upright morals, Reverend Penney later repeatedly ran for office on Populist tickets: he never won. He was soon promoted to first manthe top sales clerk. They added two daughters to the family. National Park Service J. C. Penney personally interviewed five thousand men in one year. 4. In 1913, Penney and his many partners incorporated the firm in Utah as J. C. Penney and Company, Inc. Each manager could own part of the next store, if he trained a good manager for it or for his own store so he could move on to the new one. The Seattle store manager made as much as $125,000 per year in the late 1940sor $1.3 million in todays dollars. But he was told to run an ad welcoming the competition to the community. U.S.A. He lived and served until he was 95, frequently sharing a Bible verse he had memorized as a child and claimed as his favorite: "I have trusted in the Lord without wavering. He developed one of the nations top herds of Guernsey dairy cattle in Florida and at Emmandine Farm in Dutchess County, New York. The manager was responsible for investing one-third the amount necessary and Penney provided the remaining two-thirds. He bought his first in the small mining community of Kemmerer, Wyoming, in 1902. Today, it houses the Madam Walker Theatre Center and various commercial businesses. Document 2 was provided courtesy of the J.C. Penney Archives, Dallas, TX. When James Cash Penney moved his dry goods business here in 1904, the building also housed a saloon, offices, and apartments. Standard F - The student explains and illustrates how values and beliefs influence different economic decisions. He finished high school and worked mostly in store clerk positions. Walker Web page, owned and maintained by the great-great-granddaughter and biographer of Madam C.J. Christian principles will not necessarily make you rich. He met a man who got him back into the dry goods business, and he met a woman who stole his heart. Jim's "big chance" was a store 25-feet wide and 45-feet deep. ", The Daily Digest for Entrepreneurs and Business Leaders. "It is given," he said, "to few persons to transform a people in a generation. Questions for Reading 1 And above all else, cooperatingwith headquarters, with the other Golden Rule Stores, and within their own communities. It didnt work. Jim wasnt happy, but went along with his fathers wishes. "J.C. He brought in good men willing to work from all over the United States, and funded everything. My talk to you this evening is to be very brief and very much to the point. They closed each day just before midnight. He decided that his success potential could only come true if he delegated responsibility to others and if he put his faith in the people he hired. Ultimately, Penney was characterized by the faith he put in his own hard work and in the potential in his employees. It is a fitting tribute to a woman who once proclaimed, "Perseverance is my motto!" . Below is a timeline that outlines most of the peaks and valleys, mostly peaks, of this great American retail institution. Both Madam Walker and J.C. Penney established a base of operation in New York City and ultimately made it their permanent home. But life was not easy on J. C. Penneyin 1910, his beloved Berta contracted pneumonia and died suddenly, leaving him with two small boys, a broken man. Offers information on this organization, which was founded by Booker T. Washington in 1900 "to promote the commercial and financial development of the Negro" and to bring African Americans into the middle-class mainstream. He had never been much of a book reader, preferring practical experience, but in 1915 he discovered the bookYouth and Opportunityby Dr. Thomas Tapper. . 2. That business hit hard times when he refused to give free liquor to his biggest client. His rise to fame and fortune crashed with the stock market crash of 1929at age 56 he was $7 million in debt. 5. At nineteen, Jim took a job at the J. M. Hale dry goods store for $25for eleven months workjust $2.27 per month. He even helped many of his store managers become part owners of new stores. Penney launched the first chain of department stores in the United State, commonly known as "Penney's" Today Americans visit over 1,000 J.C Penney or persue the mail order and online categalogs to purchase various household goods and clothing. The possibility of opportunity lit his fires. Often managers said, God help this company if it ever falls into the hands of a mastermind.. He cut off the whiskey, lost the customer, and the butcher shop failed, Jim losing all his savings in the process. James Cash Penney (yes, that was his full name) learned about faith and business from his father, who served as the pastor of a small Primitive Baptist church in Hamilton, Missouri, and struggled to make a living off the family farm. The agent pushed the coin back across the counter, saying that the price had gone up to 25 cents, but only for "colored persons." Though his faith was individualistic, Penney had a strong commitment to Christian principles, and he tried to incorporate these principles in his business. 1. After much debate, Jim convinced them to open the next store, his store, in Kemmerer, Wyoming, in the heart of a growing coal district. Under pressure from major Wall Street investor William Ackman, the company appointed former Target executive and Apple Store leader Ron Johnson as CEO. Golden Rule prices were often 2550% below those of other merchants, but the stores always offered good, dependable quality merchandise and the latest fashions. There are reasons for everything. Still, each manager decided what was carried in his store because he knew his customers and decided how to price each item for his market and his competition. Report of the Thirteenth Annual Convention of the National Negro Business League, Chicago, IL, August 21-23, 1912, William H. Davis, Official Stenographer, Washington, D.C., 154-55. Buff-colored terra cotta is used for decorative details, and each doorway is embellished with brightly colored African masks. Penney was born in 1875 on a farm near Hamilton, Missouri. 1. Ransom, her attorney and general manager, and Alice Kelly, the factory forewoman. Although his first year's salary was only $25, by 1897, he was making $300 a year, and his future appeared bright. Penney's childhood and early adult life appeared quite ordinary. In the partnership agreement, Jim Penney received a salary but also got one-third of the stores profits, if any. J. C. Penney, as he was now more often called than Jim, had no limits on his ambitions. He bought his first in the small mining community of Kemmerer, Wyoming, in 1902. I have made it possible for many colored women to abandon the wash-tub for more pleasant and profitable occupation. Main Street Merchant: The Story of the J.C. Penney Company. It seems to me so. James Cash Penney (1875-1971) believed that working people in isolated regions in the West deserved to have dry goods stores nearby that would offer quality products at reasonable prices. Minneapolis, MN: TS Dennison, 1963. the ethical means by which my business associates and i have made money is more important than the fact that we have achieved business success. Between 1920 and 1930, more than 1,250 new stores opened, most of them on Main Streets in small towns across America. What factors do you think helped Walker's business be so successful? Businessman James Cash Penney points to a picture of his first store in Kemmerer, Wyoming. In such a climate, the Biblical outlook and principles of J. C. Penney are a breath of fresh air. Pick a style below, and copy the text for your bibliography. The company filed for bankruptcy in 2020 and after an acquisition, continues to operate in a limited capacity. The Center also includes a small museum with Walker memorabilia and is host to the annual Madame Walker Spirit Awards for Entrepreneurs. There were more than 30 within that first decade. After graduating from high school, Penney worked as a sales clerk in Hamilton's general store. Even in 1927, when the company ceased operating as a partnership and sold its stock publicly, managers were given stock in the company, and eventually all employees were included in profit-sharing plans. 1. In 1907, looking for a man (they were all men back in those days) to work in the Cumberland store, Penney had an interesting and extensive correspondence with Earl Sams from Kansas. The maps and images appear twice: in a low-resolution version with associated questions and alone in a larger, high-resolution version. As he once wrote, isn't serving people "part and parcel of business? Madam Walker "I was at the end of my rope," he said later. You will get BIG VALUES for your money at this store. But he did not test his ideas in any region or store first. But this was just the beginning. But I made it! --J. C. Penney. Callahan, the owner of the Golden Rule Mercantile Company Chaina company Penney would later buy-out and make into his own. As an example of this philosophy, Penney initially called his stores the Golden Rule Stores, and made that rule part of company culture. Shortly after his son's birth, the elder Penney, who combined occupations of stock farmer, Primitive Baptist preacher, and politician, moved his family to town so that his children could attend school. Following is a copy of "The Penney Idea," a declaration of ethics and purpose adopted by the J.C. Penney Company in 1913. Encyclopaedia Britannica's editors oversee subject areas in which they have extensive knowledge, whether from years of experience gained by working on that content or via study for an advanced degree. She recruited and trained a national sales force that included schoolteachers, housewives, cooks, and washerwomen. 3. Penneys first job was clerking in a general store for a salary of $2.27 per month. Today they are unsurpassed. We offer you the benefit of their wide experience in selecting Fall Clothes. He was also one of the first entrepreneurs to use corporate profit sharing to encourage employees to have a stake in the company's success. Legends about him abound: that he would not hire someone who salted his food before trying it, because that meant he was pessimistic; that his executives had to leave tips when they lunched together, as he did not believe in tipping. I can do nothing for myself!' 6. In his second job there, as a dry goods clerk, he discovered the merchant had a dual pricing system: high prices for those who could afford them, half price for those who could not. A bargain at 10 cents a bar. This would be a major asset for a mail-order business. We have a good future for a man who is capable and not afraid of work.. Several things made Penney's success possible. James Cash Penney Began as a store clerk after graduating high school. When Madam Walker and her associates started to develop her beauty preparations, which are now used all over the world, they perfected their toiletries step by step. Madam Walker, an enthusiastic moviegoer, immediately asked her attorney to sue the theater and hired an architect to draw up plans for a new building to house the Walker business. Working together is success." Henry Ford. The business ultimately helped thousands of African-American women achieve financial success. . Within two years, his pay increased twelve-fold. Madam Walker's business was carried on by her daughter and is still in operation, although no one in the Walker family is currently associated with the firm. But Sams decided to go with Jim Penney. Our aim is to sell you Reliable, Staple, Dependable Merchandise at a less price than any other house in the country. With support from headquarters, each manager put together his own advertisingeventually in over two thousand newspapers across the West. Make sure to address the following questions: What did each person do? In the second place, the girls and women of our race must not be afraid to take hold of business endeavor and, by patient industry, close economy, determined effort, and close application to business, wring success out of a number of business opportunities that lie at their doors. Glimpses generally focus on historical figures who have changed the church or affected the world in some overtly Christian way. A comparison of values is all we ask. Prove me, O Lord, and try me. Curry, Mary E. Creating an American Institution: The Merchandising Genius of J.C. Penney. We will have no expensive fixtures for which we would have to go in debt; we will pay cash for all our merchandise so we can take advantage of all discounts and not have to pay interest. . They Know How to Buy. It diversified broadly into drug stores, discount stores, a mail-order catalog, and European retailing. By age eight James Penney was forced to earn money to buy his own clothes. 1100 North Market Street A contemporary of Madame Walker, Penney launched the first chain of department stores in the United States, commonly known as "Penney's." Today Americans visit over 1,000 "Penney's" or peruse the mail order and online catalogs to purchase various household goods and clothing. April 14, 1902: James Cash Penney, along with two partners, opens the 25 . It has been a monument to one of the great merchants of American history, and may continue to be so. The house contained living quarters, a beauty salon, and a school for training salon operators. The business incorporated in 1913 as J. C. Penney and Company, Inc. (unscrupulous competitors had begun to use the Golden Rule name), adopting seven business principles of fair pricing and good service. It was lined with cafes, offices, and other thriving businesses. Includes a speech delivered to the second annual convention of the National Chain Store Association (1929) by Earl C. Sams, president of the J.C. Penney Company. in 1913? Penney, James Cash. Fifty Years With The Golden Rule. The workplaces described in this lesson reveal a good deal about the philosophies and interests of two successful early 20th-century businesspeople who stuck by their principles as they pursued their dreams: Madam C.J. Locate and circle the area around the intersection of Indiana Avenue and West Street, which was the heart of Indianapolis's African-American community. In 1925 when the company's 674 stores generated sales of $91 million, Penney was again giving some of his good fortune back, this time by establishing the J.C. Penney Foundation to fund a myriad of family-related agencies. Encyclopedia.com gives you the ability to cite reference entries and articles according to common styles from the Modern Language Association (MLA), The Chicago Manual of Style, and the American Psychological Association (APA). James Cash Penney, the founder of the once giant retailer, based his business philosophy on one simple personal mission statement: "Do unto others as you would have others do unto you" the Golden Rule. Find the location of Madam Walker's original manufacturing building (built in 1910) on the east side of West Street between North and Walnut streets. Do the various places each person established businesses show any pattern? They know they must give us the Right Price or they cannot expect our business. By the 1960s, the company abandoned its cash-only policy by adopting its own credit cards and updating its merchandise (much of it manufactured under the Penney label). This mission statement permeated every aspect of how Mr. Penney ran his business. In your answer, compare and contrast their achievements. J.C. Penney: Merchant Prince. Berta waited on customers while their baby boy slept under the counter. As that happened, he renewed his support of various charities, putting millions of dollars into the Penney Retirement Community in Penney Farms, Florida, Christian Herald magazine, and more than 100 other organizations ministering in the United States and around the world. We have grownAre growing, like no other store in the country. Why do you think she might have eventually moved to New York, although her products continued to be manufactured in Indianapolis? To serve the public, as nearly as we can, to its complete satisfaction.
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