John Wanamaker - Merchant

Merchant

John Wanamaker opened his first New York store in New York City in 1896, continuing a mercantile business originally started by Alexander Turney Stewart, and continued to expand his business abroad with the European Houses of Wanamaker in London and Paris.

A larger store in Philadelphia was then designed by famous Chicago architect Daniel H. Burnham, and this 12-story granite "Wanamaker Building" was completed in 1910 on the site of "The Grand Depot", encompassing an entire block at the corner of Thirteenth and Market Streets across from Philadelphia's City Hall. The new store, which still stands today, was dedicated by US President William Howard Taft, and houses a large pipe organ, the Wanamaker Grand Court Organ, and the 2,500-pound bronze "Wanamaker Eagle" in the store's Grand Court, which became a famous meeting place for Philadelphians. "Meet me at the Eagle" is a Philadelphia byword. The Wanamaker Building with its Grand Court became Philadelphia institutions.

Wanamaker was an innovator, creative in his work, and a merchandising and advertising genius, though modest and with an enduring reputation for honesty. Although he did not invent the fixed price system, he popularized it into what became the industry standard, and did create the money-back guarantee that is now standard business practice. He gave his employees free medical care, education, recreational facilities, pensions and profit-sharing plans before such benefits were considered standard. Labor activists, however, knew him as a fierce opponent of unionization. During an 1887 organizing drive by the Knights of Labor, Wanamaker simply fired the first twelve union members who were discovered by his detectives. The stores did make noted early efforts to advance the welfare of African-Americans and Native Americans. Wanamaker was the first retailer to place a half-page newspaper ad (1874) and the first full-page ad (1879). He initially wrote his own ad copy, but later hired the world's first full-time copywriter John Emory Powers. During Powers tenue, the Wanamaker's revenues doubled from $4 million to $8 million.

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