Forging a business relationship with department store chains
Gruber describes his decision to do business with large department store chains, such as J.C. Penney's. His father had refused to sell to department stores, but Gruber explains that in 1933 when the Depression was at its zenith it seemed to be the most effective strategy for Spring City Mills. He describes his initial meeting with a J.C. Penney's representative—whom he later identifies as Ross Dillon—and the deal they made for Spring City Mills to produce ten thousand "three-packs" of underwear. Later in the interview, Gruber explains how Dillon served as a mentor of sorts in urging him to expand his business. This moment marked Spring City Mills entrance into the national market and the beginnings of their financial success during a time of economic crisis.
Citing this Excerpt
Oral History Interview with Edward L. Gruber, November 11, 1985. Interview C-0136. Southern Oral History Program Collection (#4007) in the Southern Oral History Program Collection, Southern Historical Collection, Wilson Library, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
Full Text of the Excerpt
My father had sold underwear through the jobbers. He wouldn't let me sell
to the chain stores; Penny's or Sears, or Montgomery Ward or anybody
like that because over here in Spring City at one time there was seven
cast iron stove plants. They made kitchen stoves and things like that;
then they modernized them a little bit and put a gas burner one side;
then along came the electric stoves and the cast iron stoves went out,
but in the meantime those stoves plants in Spring City and Rorey's Ford
started going broke one by one. They sold to Sears, Roebuck and Sears
would take all they could make and they could tell
them the next year what the price would be and they would go
broke - then they would go to the next one and
they'd go broke, so he forbade me to do business with any of the chain
stores. This was at the bottom of the
depression - in '33 the banks closed; there was no
business at all, but I went up to Penny's in Pottstown and got some of
their samples and I took them back and made samples and I took them up
and I showed it to the buyer. I said, "This is what I bought in
the store and here's what I can make for you and what I made is so much
better than what you have." This fellow turned blue in the
face - this was around ten o'clock in the
morning-and he says, "Young man you go out and sit down, I want
to talk to you later on." I sat there until 12 o'clock and he
took me out to lunch. He sat there and he started to tell me,
"Never, never tell a buyer that you can make something better
than what he's buying, because that'a reflecting on his
ability." He spent about 2 hours lecturing me on how to talk to
a buyer and how to sell underwear for about 2 hours. When I first walked
in his office he said, "What are you doing here?" I
said, "I got about a hundred people over there in Spring City
that have to eat and I don't have any business for them, and you sell
more underwear than anybody else in the country that I know of. I'd like
to sell you about 10,000 dozen. That will keep these people working so
they can eat." He said, "What makes you think that
everyone else that we have been buying from is not in the same
position." I said, "Well, I'm going to make it better
and cheaper too. The main thing is, I want my plant to be your
warehouse. You have little stores and you don't have room to store stuff
and when you want it I'll ship it the same day you send me the
order." Well I went home that night, after
getting a lecture, figuring I'd never get back in his place again. I
opened the mail the next moring and there was an order in the mail for
25,000 dozen at $1.6½ a dozen; I had quoted him a
$1.57½. So I called him on the telephone and told
him about the difference. He said, "I thought I told you
yesterday never to criticize a buyer. At a $1.57½
a dozen you'll go broke; at a $1.62½ you can make
some money. How fast can you make it?" I said, "Thank
you sir. I told how fast I could make it and he didn't believe me. He
said he wanted to know every day how many dozen finished goods we had in
inventory. In a couple of weeks time I had about 10,000 dozen. He didn't
believe I had them. I was counting the dozens that were going to be
finished within the next day or two. It was around 4:30 in the
afternoon, and he said, "I want you to ship 10,000
today." We had to work until about eleven o'clock that night to
get the 10,000, but we shipped it. So that's how I got in with
Penny's.