The astonishing success of the low-price chain store companies has led S. S. Kresge, President of the S. S. Kresge Co., to organize the Kresge Department Stores, Inc., with a capital of $25,000,000 cumulative preferred 7% stock, and 200,000 common shares of no-par value. This Company will take over the L. S. Plaut Co. department store in Newark, as the first of a chain of such stores across the country.
The Plaut store, established in 1870, is the second largest depart- ment store in Newark, and occupies one-quarter of a block admirably located with respect to the Pennsylvania Railroad, Public Service Terminal, Hudson Tubes and prospective subway developments. The new management, consisting of Messrs. Kresge and Plaut, and the banking firm of Merrill, Lynch & Co., expect to build up the balance of the ground floor space in the near future.
The policy of the new corporation will be to acquire new department stores in the 25¢. to $1.00 field, employing in them the same principles of mass purchasing and wholesale distribution which have been developed in the 10¢. to 25¢. stores. The new Company will be completely distinct from the old Kresge Co., but will be largely administered by its officers.
Merrill, Lynch & Co. have been foremost in financing seven large chain store systems—S. S. Kresge & Co., the McCrory Stores Company, the Acme Tea Company, Jones Brothers Tea Company, J. C. Penney Company, G. R. Kinney & Company, the Melville Shoe Company. These companies operate about 2,000 stores, whose total sales in 1922 exceeded $200,000,000.
Mr. Kresge initiated the new department store chain on his 56th birthday. He began his career as a school-teacher at $22 a month, and after having been successively insurance agent, furnishings salesman, department store bookkeeper, tin-plate salesman, he went into business for himself with a capital of $8,000 with J. G. McCrory—now head of another large store system. From a single store in Detroit, the Kresge stores have expanded to a system of 223 stores throughout the country, which last year handled $65,000,000 of goods.
ncG1vNJzZmismaKyb6%2FOpmaaqpOdtrexjm9tbm9mZX1wt9GeqqCdo2K7psOMnJ%2BaoZ5k