Fun on Herald Square

Few neighbors quarrel more than two on Manhattan’s Herald Square, Macy’s and Gimbels. Last week, with a buyers’ market on the horizon, they were at it again, harder than ever.

This time Gimbels started it. At Macy’s annual stockholders’ meeting, somebody asked president Jack Isidor Straus a $64 embarrasser: was there any truth in stories that Gimbels was capturing “leadership” from Macy’s? Straus replied weakly, “I hope there isn’t.”

When Gimbels’ big, sleepy-eyed managing director Frederick A. Gimbel heard about this, he promptly set out to make the most of it. Off he lumbered to Manhattan newspapers with full-page ads proclaiming that “NOBODY BUT NOBODY HAS EVER BEATEN GIMBELS AT … KEEPING PRICES DOWN.” Gimbels’ case: on $41,861,000 worth of goods sold between Feb. 1 and Sept. 30 (a rise of 50% over the same period in 1945), Gimbels, said he, had consistently undersold Macy’s; Gimbels’ overall average markup was only 31.47%, about 1½% under Macy’s.

But the newspapers wouldn’t take the Gimbels ad. Reason: they could not bear the thought of one big client hurting another big client’s feelings. Undaunted,

Fred Gimbel sent Macy’s Straus a direct challenge. He offered to bet $25,000, $50,000 “or any amount you care to name” (with the winnings to go to charity) that Macy’s could not disprove his claim to the underselling championship of Herald Square. At Macy’s, where they have a policy against opening books and telling Gimbals, there were no takers.