Macy’s vs Gimbels - Wartime Wagers | 5

Business Wars

Wondery

History, Business, David Brown, Management

4.6 • 13.2K Ratings

🗓️ 16 December 2019

⏱️ 25 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

In the late 1930s Gimbels makes a risky bet by stockpiling goods likely to be scarce in wartime. They also snap up their rival’s star copywriter, who does the best work of her career at their shop. Their savvy planning and advertising strength position them well for the post-war period, when Americans open their wallets wide. But the lifting of Depression era regulations governing retail leads to a series of price wars between all the department stores. null is as extreme as the one between Macy’s and Gimbels, which ends in mayhem, and sometimes, violence. The price wars force Macy’s to choose between honoring a sacred, century-old discount policy, or risk ending the year in the red for the first time in company history.

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Transcript

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0:00.0	Hey, prime members, you can listen to business wars at free on Amazon Music.
0:04.6	Download the app today.
0:07.0	It's a muggy summer day in 1939 on the porch of the Gimbal family's New Jersey beach house.
0:24.2	Bernie Gimbal, the president of Gimbal Brothers, idly tosses a tennis ball from one hand to the other.
0:30.2	His younger brother Fred is talking about a woman he chatted up at a nightclub in Greenwich
0:34.1	Village.
0:35.6	Bernie, she's a thoughtful, Cuban beauty.
0:38.4	We talked about what it would be like if the US got involved in the war in Europe.
0:42.6	She talked about what it was like as a kid during the violent uprisings in her country.
0:46.9	She remembers the shortages.
0:49.4	Bernie is only half listening.
0:51.2	Fred's always talking about women.
0:53.8	That got me thinking, maybe we should plan ahead for that sort of thing, you know, just
0:58.0	in case we get into this war.
1:00.4	Bernie takes his feet off the wicker ottoman and sits up straight.
1:03.9	The mention of preparing for war has caught his interest.
1:06.6	OK, what are you thinking?
1:08.8	We should get ahead of this with our suppliers?
1:11.0	I'm not sure that's necessary.
1:12.9	This war is not going to last that long.
1:14.7	I mean, come on.
1:16.2	Our boys would make quick work of those Nazis.
	...

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