About the Book
This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated.1917 Excerpt: ... FRANK W. WOOLWORTH A BAREFOOTED American farm lad made up his mind that he would rather work behind a counter than behind the plow. He was so green and gawky and awkward, so palpably a "hayseed," that, try as he might, no merchant would engage him at any wage. But the boy had such determination and doggedness that he agreed to serve for nothing, living meanwhile on his painfully earned capital of $50. So complete a failure did he prove at selling goods that in his next job his small pay was reduced instead of increased. But, though he agreed with his boss that he was a misfit as a salesman, he did not give in. He stuck. To-day he is the largest retail merchant in the world. Here are some of his 1916 sales: 50,000,000 pairs of hosiery, 89,000,000 pounds of candy, 20,000,000 sheets of music, 12,000,000 pounds of salted peanuts, 6,250,000 neckties, 42,000,000 boxes of safety matches; 9,000,000 domestic toys; 21,000,000 sticks of chewing gum; 1,700,000 nursing bottles; 15,000,000 cakes of soap; 5,000,000 phonograph records; 5,000,000 papers of hairpins; 5,500,000 rolls of wax paper--enough to wrap sufficient sandwiches to feed 170,000,000 people; 5,000,000 papers of common pins; 2,250,000 boxes of crochet and embroidery cottons. Also: His customers exceeded 700,000,000, a daily average of over 2,250,000. Sales--all over the counter; no orders are filled by mail--exceeded $87,000,000 and in 1917 are running at the rate of $100,000,000, representing about 1,500,000,000 distinct and separate transactions. He owns a store in every town in the United States of 8,000 population or more. His stores in the United States and Canada aggregated 920 on January 1, 1917. He controls seventy-five stores in Great Britain and plans to establish hundreds throughout Europe. He em...
