Word: ferkauf
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: all
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...Foot Race. While department stores throughout the land work on an average price markup of 36%, Korvette's prospers at 21%. How does Ferkauf do it? Self-service makes for fewer employees and lower wage costs: each Korvette employee accounts for an average $38,000 in business a year, nearly twice the average for big conventional stores. Employee markdowns are rare, and executive expense accounts (except for Ferkauf's $10,000) are painfully austere. If customers want alterations or home delivery of portable goods, they pay for it. (Credit is free because it more than pays...
...Favor." Though the low-markup, high-volume formula seems simple, it requires an artful balance of costs, prices and presentation. Ferkauf believes that "a store is like a theatrical production. The setting is vital in soft goods. We had to learn the hard way." Presiding over the presentation, and pursuing his goals of neatness and taste in a volume operation, Ferkauf spends most of his working days in an endless trek from one store to another, sparking The Boys to do just a little bit better...
...cases. In two weeks it's not worth a nickel. So why don't you have it all out now? You don't want we should get stuck with it, do you. Irving?" Initial Offer. In his private life as in his business, Ferkauf operates with uncluttered simplicity and directness. He proposed to his wife, blonde Estelle Silverstein Ferkauf, on their second date by presenting her with a small suitcase engraved E.S.F. "because that's what your initials will be because you're going to marry me.'' They live in a ten-room...
Workdays, Ferkauf gets up before 7 a.m. without an alarm clock, prepares his own breakfast, then washes the dishes, using rubber gloves. No matter how far he must travel to inspect one of his stores, whether to Hartford or Harrisburg, he is always home before the children bed down. Only six nights during the past 14 years has Ferkauf spent away from home-and four of them were on a recent business jaunt to Italy...
Ringing the Bells. The determined rush and dedication of Gene Ferkauf and his boys have not gone unnoticed on Wall Street. Investors who bought Korvette common at its 1960 high have more than tripled their money, and Ferkauf has benefited most of all because he owns 28% of the outstanding shares. From a 1960 peak of 121, Korvette soared to 57 earlier this year, slumped to 32! in the general market plunge, then recovered to last week's close of 38!, where it was selling at 26 times expected 1962 earnings...