Word: hodgkinson
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Dates: during 1960-1969
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...half century with Boston's Filene's, courtly Harold D. Hodgkinson, 73, has climbed from basement stock boy to board chairman. But Hodgkinson still likes to start his day in the basement, where he hangs his coat and hat in a cubicle before proceeding to his seventh-floor executive suite. He makes sure to get out of the basement before 9:30-for that is a dangerous hour at Filene's. As soon as the opening gong rings, a stampede of waiting shoppers surges through the doors and overruns the basement with a fervor that has often...
...basement is a small, hot, smelly, crowded, racky place," admits Hodgkinson, "but it's also a happy hunting ground." A three-level, block-long area pocked with gaspipe racks and dingy wooden counters, the basement sells more goods per square foot of space than any other store in the world, accounts for a quarter of Filene's annual volume of $100 million, and is so important to the company that it is run as a completely separate store. On a normal day, up to 100,000 bargain hunters roll through its 16 entrances, and during special sales...
...Avenue, will pay more for merchandise if the manufacturer or store will let it leave on the original labels. Just before Paris fell to the Germans, Filene's buyers shipped 400 Schiaparelli and Lelong dresses home through Spain; the dresses disappeared from the racks in 15 minutes. Chairman Hodgkinson managed to buy out the Queen Mary's fancy haberdashery shop when the liner became a World War II troopship, still travels around the globe in search of bargains for the basement...
...anything that is left. But 90% disappears within the first twelve days, and last year only one-tenth of 1% reached charities. Filene's describes any faults of its items on a dated tag, refunds the customer's money whenever damage or irregularity is too great. Says Hodgkinson: "It doesn't pay to gild the lily to the point where it dies...