Cash & Credit

Oldest department store in Philadelphia is Strawbridge & Clothier, established in 1862 by Quaker Justus C. Strawbridge who was joined by Quaker Isaac H. Clothier. The founders did a rushing business in Quaker shawls & bonnets which Strawbridge & Clothier still sells today. Only once in 73 years has it ever lost money. That was the year (1932) it opened its 14-story Market Street skyscraper, Philadelphia's most modern store. More conservative than Gimbel's, second only to Wanamaker's in total sales, Strawbridge & Clothier prides itself on a long list of innovations. It sent out the first typewritten bills in 1900. It dared to stop giving discounts to clergymen in 1919. It was Philadelphia's first store to install airconditioning, first to establish branches in the city's rich & regal suburbs where the Strawbridges and the Clothiers have long been socialites. It was first to adopt an efficiency filing system by which its 125,000 charge accounts are photographed with a motion picture camera and the films stored in a single cabinet. And last week Strawbridge & Clothier made national news with another innovation.

In a series of full-page newspaper advertisements the store announced that as of May 31 it was giving a 2% discount on cash sales, a 1% discount on bills paid within 30 days. "It costs a store money to carry charge accounts," said President Herbert James Tily, "and somebody has to pay it. ... We are happy to extend credit and we shall continue to do that. But we feel that it is a discrimination against the cash customer and the customer who meets his obligations promptly to assess them part of the cost of maintaining the credit structure. ... It is time someone undertook this much-needed reform."

The response of loyal customers last week warmed the heart of President Tily. He beamed when he read that his plan had been roundly approved by Manhattan's Macy's. Sitting at his desk in shirtsleeves, President Tily confided to a newshawk that the scheme pleased him because it was "ethically and morally right." Pious and high-minded son of a poverty-stricken English gentleman, he is a stanch believer in the ethics of NRA, once advocated a 3-hour working day. Doubtless he had in mind his early years at Strawbridge & Clothier where, at 14, he went to work as a messenger boy at $2 a week. After hours he stayed awake only long enough to study his music lessons. When he rose from messenger boy to vice president and finally (in 1927) to president, music was the most conspicuous of his bewildering variety of civic activities. He organized the Strawbridge & Clothier chorus, still rehearses it Monday nights and conducts its winter and summer concerts. He has been guest conductor of the Philadelphia Orchestra, the Chicago Orchestra, the Philadelphia County Prison Band. Composer of hundreds of choral works and organ numbers, the president of Strawbridge & Clothier is often seen jotting down melodies on sheets of ruled paper he carries in his pocket. He insists that the elevator girls in the store take elocution lessons so that they may sing out "Third Floor, Ladies' & Misses' Underwear!" in the proper way. (He also insists that the girls be young and demure, with busts no larger than 36 in.) A shrewd and canny businessman, he lifted Strawbridge & Clothier's gross revenue from $20,000,000 in 1933 to $23,000,000 last year, reported earnings of $331,000, best since 1931. Active in forming the American Retail Federation for binding retailers into a national organization (TIME, April 29), he is regarded in Philadelphia as a pillar of the Chamber of Commerce and Republican Party, was boomed last year as GOP candidate for Governor.

Last week's discount plan was not solely the idea of President Tily. It had been worked over and approved by the Clothiers and the Strawbridges who, as sons of the founders, own most of the stock, carry on family traditions. Morris Lewis Clothier is chairman of the board, a benefactor of the Quaker colleges Swarthmore and Haverford. His brother, Isaac H. Clothier, vice president, is famed as a sportsman and horse fancier. (Their cousin, Robert C. Clothier, who did not go into the store, is president of Rutgers University.) Of the three living sons of Founder Strawbridge only one, Robert, is active as vice president. His brother Francis, a director, retired from active business some years ago as did jovial, sandy-haired Frederic H. Strawbridge who, resplendent in a tan bowler and greatcoat, cheeks pink as pippins, is often seen riding at Chestnut Hill high on the seat of his tallyho.

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