Word: ohrbach
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...Look. The customers who followed Ohrbach's uptown found a big change from the cluttered aisles and creaky flooring of the old store. The new Ohrbach's (actually the 47-year-old James McCreery department store, remodeled) sported carpets of grey and buff, walls of pastel pinks and blues, modern display cases, more try-on rooms. But nothing was changed in the business methods that have made Ohrbach's a phenomenon of U.S. merchandising...
...operating on a cash-and-carry basis, Ohrbach's keeps its operating expenses down to 17% of sales (v. the department-store average of 35%), and holds markup down to about 20% (v. the average 40%). By eliminating sales slips. Ohrbach's saves time and trouble for clerks. And by a fast system of recording price tags, Ohrbach's can give each of its 150 buyers a detailed account of the previous day's sales; hot items can be reordered before their sales appeal cools. Twice a week buyers examine the coded sales tags, mark down...
Frocks in Paper Sacks. Although most Ohrbach's sales are under $10, coats and dresses may run as high as $300. Ohrbach's European buyers purchase $600 French and Italian originals, which are copied in the U.S. to sell for $100. In Ohrbach's Oval Room Boutique, where the higher-priced dresses are sold, customers make appointments for dressing rooms, get quick, individual service from salesgirls...
...most parts of the store, customers find their own way through the racks of merchandise, try on their selections without help, stand in line at the cashier's stand, and carry their purchases home stuffed in a paper sack. Ohrbach's flouts the retail-store tradition of making all sales final on marked-down merchandise...
...Institutional Approach. For its subway trade, Ohrbach's runs high-style carriage-trade ads. It never plugs special items but plugs the store. Each ad is built around a picture, attracts attention and also makes a point, e.g., one showed a man holding up a well-dressed woman in his hand, carried the caption: "It's easy to support a woman who shops at Ohrbach...