Word: traube
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...past dozen years, the prime mover behind Bloomingdale's has been Marvin Traub, 50, co-leader with Chairman Lawrence Lachman of what has become known throughout U.S. retailing as "the Bloomingdale's gang." Traub, the son of a corsetmaker, was wounded in World War II and came back with one leg shorter than the other; he wears a built-up shoe yet walks briskly and jogs ten minutes daily before leaving his Tudor-style home in Scarsdale. After graduating from Harvard Business School in 1949, he went to work briefly for Alexander's at $100 a week as an assistant...
Until after the end of World War II, Bloomingdale's was a fairly conventional store. Then I.E. Davidson, the store's boss from 1947 to 1967, began the big move. He dropped major appliances. Later Traub dropped other items that most competing stores carried: drugs, cameras, records. They sold well but did not earn much profit. In their place went goods aimed at people who had money to spend on more than boring necessities. The result in microcosm: Bloomingdale's sells no men's razors, but it does sell bloc of duck liver with green pepper...
...line with Bloomingdale's theme that the store is a "neverending party," Traub has played host to some genuine after-or before-hours parties. This month alone he has presided over a wine-tasting held to mark publication of a book, The Joys of Wine, which Bloomingdale's will sell for $45, and a breakfast at which a mime helped celebrate the store's introduction of French-made watches...
...Traub has been especially aggressive in dispatching Bloomingdale's officials?first himself, later subordinates?to visit foreign manufacturers and persuade them to design goods specifically for Bloomingdale's. The store was the first to feature merchandise from Communist China (see box previous page). Bloomingdale's two years ago persuaded Philippine craftsmen to design rattan furniture to its specifications, but other retailers began selling copies. So this year the store requested a cinnabar finish or a glass-rattan combination...
...Gumport, head of the Delicacies Shop, to the Roquefort caves in France to see what could be done. Nothing could be; an official of one of the leading producers asked, "Why should we change the taste for Bloomingdale's?" By 1965, though, Bloomingdale's muscle was being felt. Traub wanted the colors changed on Droste's chocolate packaging, and he sent the redoubtable Gumport to Holland to get it done. Droste officials balked at first, then yielded...