Intro/Outro (00:12):

Good morning, Scott Luton here with you on this edition of this week in business history. Welcome to today’s show on this program, which is part of the supply chain. Now family of programming. We take a look back at the upcoming week, and then we share some of the most relevant events and milestones from years past, of course, mostly business focused with a little dab global supply chain. And occasionally we might just throw in a good story outside of our primary realm. So I invite you to join me on this. Look back in history, to identify some of the most significant leaders, companies innovations, and perhaps lessons learned in our collective business journey. Now let’s dive in to this week in business history.

Kelly Barner (01:11):

In researching this episode of this week in business history, I came across a figure that has so many accomplishments to his name. It almost isn’t believable. And yet I had never heard of him. This person established the first department store in Philadelphia was the first retail store to advertise in the newspaper, the first to use price tags and the first to offer full refunds. And this person went on to serve as postmaster general from 1889 to 1893. This week we discover and remember John Wannamaker who was born on July 11th, 1838, I’m Kelly Barner. And I’m your host for this episode of this week in business history on supply chain. Now I love history. I believe that everything we do in business today is actually based on the foundation of the work done by thinkers that came before us. And every innovation that we celebrate today is based on the work of others, whether we realize it or not even the most common objects in our worlds have a history to them and revisions that have brought them to the point where we find them today. Stopping to think about the progression from the 17 hundreds, the 18 hundreds to where we find ourselves today often offers us a surprising and fascinating journey.

Kelly Barner (02:57):

If you enjoy the blend of storytelling and business history that we share on this week in business history, please take a minute to subscribe to the podcast and share a review that will help others find us. And now back to this week’s business history story, let’s start with the store. John wanna maker’s Oak hall was located adjacent to the home. George Washington lived in while he was president of the United States. He opened it in 1861 with his brother-in-law first men’s wear only, and then expanding to include ladies fashions as well. It is regarded as the first department store in Philadelphia and like many businesses. It got off to a really slow start on their first day. Sales were less than $25, which was sad even for 1861. Total sales for the first year were less than 25,000, but one a maker never gave up. He just kept at it.

Kelly Barner (04:12):

And one of the things he discovered early on that changed his business trajectory would be advertising in the early days. He wrote all of his own ad copy in 1874. However, he became the first retailer to place a half page N newspaper ad. And in 1879, he took out the first full page ad as the business grew, he hired the world’s first full time copywriter. John Emery powers powers is now considered to be the father of modern creative advertising during his time with Wannamaker the store chain doubled its revenue from 4 million to $8 million. In fact, one of the quotes that Wannamaker is most famous for supposedly having said, was written down during this time. He said half the money I spend on advertising is wasted. The trouble is, I don’t know which half as Wannamaker grew, the store needed more space. So in 1875, he purchased an abandoned railroad Depot and converted it into a store.

Kelly Barner (05:34):

It was called the grand Depot when it opened, we got another first president, William Howard Taft was there for the occasion and spoke to the crowd. It was the first time a sitting us president took part in a business dedication with his new facility. Wannamaker needed a system of organization. He arranged items into sections, which he called departments. And this makes him the originator of the term department store. Joan wanna maker’s retail philosophy was quite simple. He would say, quote, one price and goods returnable. His name was his bond and his brand was quality. You could trust until John Wannamaker pioneered the price tag. Most stores required haggling before purchase. Wannamaker held the belief that if all people were equal before God, then all people should be equal before retail prices as well. He had a completely different way of envisioning retail, something. I would say we discussed today as customer experience.

Kelly Barner (06:57):

John Wannamaker intuitively understood this. Not only did he want to spare his customers, the discomfort of negotiating for every purchase. He built stores that encouraged people to browse in most other specialty stores of the time browsing. Would’ve raised the suspicion of store owners and Wannamaker did not stop there. He filled his stores, which eventually numbered 15 across several Mid-Atlantic states with artwork. He didn’t just invest in them for the sake of ambiance. He wanted to educate people. And so he had pamphlets created to help people understand the background and significance of the pieces they were viewing. But what is art without music in 1909? He purchased the pipe organ from the 1904 world’s fair and put it in the center of his store in Philadelphia. Concerts were often hosted for customers and eventually an Oregon was installed in Wannamaker New York city location as well. I wanna break to the side to give you a quick, interesting fact about that New York location yet another seemingly unbelievable, but true story.

Kelly Barner (08:22):

Wanna maker store in New York had its own radio station and it was the first station to pick up and broadcast. The distress signals from the Titanic. The message was we’ve struck an iceberg sinking fast president Taft ordered all other radio stations to go off the air so that there would be no interference with the store. Being able to broadcast every detail about the tragedy as it unfolded that broadcaster who just happened to be on the air that day was David Sarov. And he would go on to eventually become the chairman of the board at NBC. It’s just one more crossroads of history that Wannamaker amazingly found themselves at. Now. You can’t create an exceptional customer experience without having happy employees. And Wannamaker went to great length to take care of the people who worked for him. He provided them with free medical care education, recreational facilities, pensions, and even profit sharing plans before most other retail owners thought to do any of that now, to be fair and provide both sides of this labor activists accused him of opposing unionization in his stores, but given how well he treated his employees, it seems fair to say that they made out okay in a practice most commonly associated now with Chick-fil-A John Wannamaker closed his stores every Sunday, even though it cost him money.

Kelly Barner (10:12):

And he regularly used his extensive resources to fund philanthropic efforts. Just a few of his credits include serving eight years as president of the Y M C a funding, the Presbyterian hospital and building them a children’s ward, making archeological donations to the museum at the university of Pennsylvania, and finally aiding Irish famine, sufferers, Russian famine, sufferers, Belgian famine, sufferers, and victims of yellow fever. And then John Wannamaker suddenly moved on to a completely unexpected second career president Benjamin Harrison nominated him as postmaster general and he accepted the nomination. It was the first time he had held public office. And what do you think he did during his four years in that position? You got it. He ushered in more firsts. For instance, the first commemorative postage stamps, the post office released a 15 stamps series commemorating Columbus’s voyage just in time for the world. Columbian exposition of 1893 stamp collecting was very popular in the United States and abroad at the time.

Kelly Barner (11:44):

And these stamps were an instant success. During the exposition 2 billion Columbian stamps were sold for a total of 40 million, which pretty much put an end to his critics in Congress that said he was wasting money since then the post office has issued over 3000 different commemorative stamps. Now he did seriously miss the mark about one significant thing at that same world’s fair. He predicted that mail would be delivered by stage coach and horseback first century, which would’ve brought us to 1993. Automobiles brought that era to an end in the early 19 hundreds. So John Wannamaker was way off there, but he had always been suspicious of automobiles. He actually sold STUA bakers and Fords in his stores, but it wasn’t until Ford’s model a that he extended his personal quality guarantee to the vehicles that he sold. Now he did pioneer rural free delivery while working as postmaster general.

Kelly Barner (13:02):

It seems that last mile logistics challenges existed in the late 19th century, just like they do today. Although people living in cities had their mail delivered to them, rural families did not. They had to make trips to a local post office to pick up their mail, even though they were paying the same postage rates as urban customers. In some cases, the journey was so long and so difficult and time was so scarce that some families only picked up their mail every few weeks against the odds. Wannamaker managed to secure the funds for a pilot program in West Virginia. Now he had asked for $6 million to fund the program was initially warded $100,000 and later was handed about 10,000 to start with. So he took it and ran. And although the program didn’t kick off until after his term was done, it was an immediate success and was expanded nationwide over the next 20 years after leaving his role as postmaster general, he ran unsuccessfully for two elected positions, the us Senate in 1896 and governor of Pennsylvania in 1898 on January 6th, 1922 news broke that John Wannamaker had been killed.

Kelly Barner (14:38):

He reportedly smiled when he was presented with the newspaper article reporting. So while working at his desk inside the department store, the identity of the deceased had been confused in September of that same year. He came down with a severe cold one that he never truly recovered from. He died for real on December 12th, 1922, and was buried in Philadelphia. His loss was felt very deeply in the city so much so that on the day of his funeral, most businesses in the area closed their doors. 15,000 people are reported to have paid their final respects, a fitting tribute to a man who had spent much of his life giving to others. The mayor of Philadelphia ordered the city’s flags lowered in respect and the governor of Pennsylvania and mayors from Philadelphia and New York were honorary Paul bears at his funeral. So what happened to those wonderful Wannamaker stores?

Kelly Barner (15:46):

A family trust owned the Wannamaker store chain, and it was run by trustees appointed by John’s son Rodman’s will in 1978, the business was sold to Carter Holly Hale, then to Woodward and Laro in 1986. And the downtown Philadelphia store was renamed as Lord and Taylor Woodward and law through declared bankruptcy in the early 1990s and the Wannamaker stores were sold to may department stores company in 1995 in August of 2006, that flagship Philadelphia location was converted from a Lord and Taylor to a Macy’s. Now, when I look back at the successes John Wannamaker had during his life, I see three common themes. Number one, he absolutely never gave up, not when his store opened on the Eve of the civil war, not when his brother-in-law and business partner died unexpectedly and not when sales were bad. He didn’t even give up in the face of criticism from Congress theme.

Kelly Barner (17:03):

Number two is that he was willing to try new things. So what if no one had ever organized a store into departments or called them departments or advertised their store in the newspaper or offered rural mail delivery that may have actually presented him with a reason to do them with so many firsts to his name. It had to be a core part of his makeup. And finally, he was able to understand and feel connections with other people around him. He was a master of experience, not having to haggle, being encouraged to browse, being treated with world class artwork and music. He advocated for those rural families that resented the struggle they had to go through simply to pick up their mail. He didn’t have a lot in common with them, but he managed to understand their point of view and he was willing to fight the system to advocate for them.

Kelly Barner (18:11):

Remembering John Wannamaker born on July 11th, 1838 suggests that despite the fact that many of us have never heard his name, he really does deserve the nickname he was given during his lifetime, the merchant prince of Philadelphia. On that note, it’s time to wrap up this edition of this week in business history. Thank you so much for tuning into the show each week. Don’t forget to check out the wide variety of industry thought leadership available@supplychainnow.com. As a friendly reminder, you can find this week in business history, wherever you get your podcast from and be sure to tell us what you think we would love to earn your review. And we encourage you to subscribe so that you never miss an episode on behalf of the entire team here at this week in business history and supply chain. Now this is Kelly Barner wishing you all, nothing bought the best. We’ll see you here next time on this week in business history.