OCR Text |
Show I 6 II The Salt Lake Tribune, Sunday, April 17. 1977 75 years ago this week James Cash Penney opened his first store in Kemmerer; Wyoming. Today everything has changed except whats important. On April 14, 1902, James Cash Penney unlocked the door of his new store and started the business. He was 27. Hed been in dry goods since he was nineteen. went to work in Hales store (J.M. Hale & Brother, Hamilton, Missouri) at the age of nineteen. The sum of $2.27 a month was certainly modest I pay. But felt strangely contented. knew if could get into something connected with dry goods, could sell. At least I'd found my work in life. Penney had to leave Hales store and Hamilton because of his health. A doctor sent him off to Colorado (which must have been good advice; he lived to be 95). how we stood, there was an astonishing to us wealth in pennies, nickels, dimes, quarters, and half dollars. Our first day's sales amounted to $466.59. The we and our in Mr. Penneys quotes refer to Mrs. Penney. l I I I I Seccnd Kemmerer store In 1904 Penney moved his store to a "better location The but he took the mud puddle with him store ' Mother Store " This pretty storybook store is an artist's conception, drawn from the only existing, very fuzzy photograph of Penney's first In the rea1 world of 1902 Kemmerer, nothing was very "pretty". Penney describes "a permanent mud ouddle in front of the store " Hegota jobin Longmont, the wages would get or bothered by long hours. was looking for opportunity." He found it. The firm senthim to work in their Evanston, Wyoming store, then gave him a shot at his own store, in Kemmerer. Opening day was April 14, 1902. At dawn. When we locked the store at midnight and went upstairs to our attic room after the first days business to figure out in had saved enough to buy out his partners and the company took off. In 1913, 36 Golden Rule stores were incorporated as the J.C. Penney Company. This was the year The Penney Idea (at right) was I I d' on F rom a r. in' , I ir on that famous opening day of April 14, 1902. Thank you for reading all these words. We probably wont run another ad like this till April, 2002. Watch for it. adopted. 1924 the company acquired its 500th store, J.M. Hale & Brother in Hamilton, !n Part of the James Cash Penney legend Testing samples of fabric with soap and water in his hotel Missouri. Remember? In 1 941 , the company opened store Painting el Mr Penney against backdrop of Kemmerer Wyoming My wife worked in the f tant to us and to you today as they were to James Cash Penney and his customers At the end of the first year, the store had done $29,000 worth of business. By 1907, Mr. Penney near Denver, with a retail chain of several stores. "I wasnt interested so much;,, store side by side with me as much of the time as she could, wrapping the baby in a blanket and putting him down for naps under the counter while she waited on customers." Opening day was no fluke. The store continued to do well "We were soon so busy that we had to hire help. Whereas the company stores of the mining company treated their customers rather callously, in our store the people were quick to notice a different atmosphere, which made them feel welcome and appreciated. They realized that we sold goods at just one price and gave good values. These were people who took the saving of so much as a penny seriously To save pennies for them we had to save them for ourselves We threw away no wrapping paper, no short ends of string, no empty boxes, no nails, even though they were bent, because we could straighten them out and use them over again." number 1600. The number of stores was no longer a meaningful measure of company growth. Bigger stores replaced smaller stores. The company moved into more types of merchandise, went into the catalog business, acquired other businesses. In 1 971 James Cash Penney died. The only ambition he had that he didnt achieve was to live to be a hundred. He only missed by 5 years. The company he founded is 75 years old this week. Generally we look ahead and focus on the changes in the Penney Company. Thereve been plenty of them. But on a birthday and a 75th birthday to boot it seems appropriate to talk about the things that never change, because theyre grounded in the basic needs and wants and expectations of human beings. There are things you expect from your Penney store that havent changed at all like getting good value for your money, like being treated as the welcome guest you are, like getting complete satisfaction if ever anything goes wrong. All these things are as impor Td- - ptr-- j 3 19 1 To serve the public ns near'y ns we can to its complete satisfaction , t 4? Fas- - 'i F' ,r ,i curn-n- t v Penney ad To expect for service we reader a fair rem deration and n d a1! the p rf, t the traft c will bt J' tn-.- .- O tno. -rf j r--q To do all m our power to pack the customer s dolin'- full of vn'je quality and satisfaction CO-- a - 1H ; 1 'u t Jin r '"0 So e m re a, J - 0 n To lo e imp-or- --TV "uj y, In the year Mall Orem-Universi- ty 7 Cottonwood Mall Sugar House Valley Fair-Grang- er Provo our organization the P'OO'jr es 7 1. oliuy nr thod and act in it s ;uare vwth wh ; is riqht Gui j rsl" ';! making JCPenney. Everything has changed except whats important. Downtown Salt Lake our 10 3 the Perm, f partners approved pr them 'The l' Idea "'e- a an j -, today a moral as - q.-b sine', , Isa , ,,or. Ode Penney well as in ; Pi 1 this - factor in what business To lest our in n parti-ipatio- 'i ;e- d hi, man b jsiness thrjjj1' Jlir j e ,ve ' cDnsnnhy he id men and women r(j w .. - ' Bountiful Midvale |