Store War

Ever since 1925, Better Business Bureau of New York has frowned upon R. H. Macy & Co.'s advertising which proclaims the fact that Macy's (biggest department store in the U. S.) undersells its competitors. In 1926 Macy's resigned from the Bureau. The frowning continued.

A famed merchants' war came into the open last year when Gimbel Bros, through large advertisements, attacked the veracity of any statement about their being undersold. Last week a similar war flared up. Macy's advertisements bore the footnote : "It is Macy's policy to endeavor to undersell, by at least 6%, the marked prices of all its competitors who do not sell exclusively for cash. We are not infallible. Others may, on occasion, sell merchandise at prices lower than we do. But only until we find it out."

In retaliation both Wanamaker's and Loeser's (Brooklyn) published full-page advertisements containing a letter from Better Business Bureau of New York City condemning advertisements which claim a store is underselling competitors. Said the B. B. B.: "They are an open attack on the integrity of advertising . . . are unsound business . . . inimical to the public interest . . . ruthless and predatory."

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