Word: ferkauf
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TIME Correspondent Murray Gart, who did most of the reporting on this week's cover story, wound up convinced that discounting is here to stay, and that Eugene Ferkauf of Korvette's is the most artful practitioner. He followed Ferkauf around for days, on his quick marches through his stores, with breaks only at stand-up lunch counters for a hot dog or a quick cup of coffee. Ferkauf was determined to give him an intense course in the theory and practice of discounting; and because of Ferkauf's relaxed way of operating, Gart soon found himself...
...waste my time?"). He shuns credit cards; he regards them as a temptation to spend company money. He never goes to cocktail parties or conventions; they cost time. Though he is worth $40 million, his only luxuries are homely middle-class comforts. His name is Eugene Ferkauf, he is 41 years old, and he is the founder, controlling stockholder and audacious boss of E. J. Korvette, Inc., the nation's most successful and most unusual chain of discount department stores...
Wiry, crew-cut Gene Ferkauf (the name is pronounced Fur-cowf and means "sell" in Yiddish) started out in a Manhattan loft 14 years ago with a total capital of $4.000. Today he rules a fast-growing retailing empire that consists of 17 stores in the Northeastern area between Hartford, Conn., and Harrisburg, Pa. In the past nine months alone, Korvette's profits have risen 81% to $4,268,000, and the company's sales in fiscal 1962 will amount to $230 million. All this Ferkauf has accomplished by pursuing a business philosophy that...
From Concrete to Carpets. To tempt the consumer in an economy that is becoming increasingly sophisticated, Gene Ferkauf has decided that the discounter's low prices are not enough and must be accompanied by at least a minimum of atmosphere and service. By so doing, he, more than any other discounter, has brought respectability to a business in which the clerks all too often seem to be taking 10% off for rudeness. At Korvette's, the discounter's original pipe racks and cold concrete floors have given way to piped-in music and wall-to-wall carpeting...
...weeks ago, Ferkauf brought discounting to the royal row of American retailing. On Manhattan's Fifth Avenue he opened a seven-story, crystal-chandeliered store in the quarters formerly occupied by W. & J. Sloane, Manhattan's best-known carriage trade furniture store...