Broadway Opening

When young (34) Edward W. Carter went to work for Los Angeles' Broadway Department Store, Inc. two years ago, he intended to move cautiously; a $50,000-a-year (plus bonus) executive, he thought, ought not to seem impulsive. On his second day, he started on a leisurely tour of the company's Pasadena branch and what he saw made him jump. The floors were laid out poorly, the sales fixtures outmoded. "My God," groaned Ed Carter, "the fellows who laid out the Pasadena store are laying out the new Broadway-Crenshaw." The Crenshaw, seven miles southwest of downtown Los Angeles, was the new branch that was to boost Broadway into first place among Los Angeles department stores.

That night, Executive Vice President Carter locked himself in his room at home with a bundle of Crenshaw blueprints. For the next three days he worked over them, with only snatches of sleep. By the time he had finished he had redesigned the store, and had decided to hire Manhattan's Raymond Loewy Associates to carry out his ideas.

The changes, including a 7,000 sq. ft. roof sundeck for employees, ran Broadway's construction expenses from an estimated $3,000,000 to an actual $6,000,000. But it showed retailers some new tricks.

Opening the Doors. Last week, to celebrate the opening of the store, Ed Carter threw a picnic for the 3,000 construction workers (and families) who had built it. Cried one delighted carpenter: "You've cinched 3,000 more customers for your store." Ed Carter hardly needed them. The first day the cash registers had rung up some $250,000; by week's end the take had risen to over $600,000.

The credit was not all Carter's. He shared it with Broadway's board chairman, canny James Lamb. It was Lamb who had chosen the Crenshaw's location--a 35-acre tract in a suburban area which had no department stores, although there were 567,000 residents within 20 minutes' drive of the site. (The Prudential Life Insurance Co. plans to build 9,000 apartment and duplex units nearby.) That was reason enough to build a shopping area with a new Broadway store as its center.

Making the Deal. While completing his project, Lamb drove some shrewd real estate bargains. Ten stores--among them branches of F. W. Woolworth, Edison Brothers Shoe Shops and Owl Drug Co.--subleased some of his spare land at $2,000 a front foot. Lamb was not afraid of the competition as long as it helped to pay the cost of his store.

He figured that the competition would help Broadway-Crenshaw get customers. His plan included a 10 1/2-acre parking lot and an underground tunnel that keeps delivery trucks out of the way of customers' cars. A Los Angeles housewife who drives out to buy at Woolworth's or Owl is just as likely to drop into the Broadway store before she starts home.

Help Yourself. Ed Carter has always been customer-minded. As a part-time department store salesman while working his way through U.C.L.A., he outsold his full-time colleagues, saved enough to go to the Harvard Graduate School of Business Administration. There in his first year he copped top honors and a scholarship. He went to work for the May Co. and was making $50,000 a year as merchandising manager when he decided to join Broadway. The chief bait: a share in the profits and a stock option deal that may make him (if he succeeds in his promise to double the store's profits) a millionaire within three years.

Carter, now Broadway's president, has lured top talent away from other stores, paid salaries up to $40,000 a year. He is on the way to fulfilling his promises. Broadway's gross has already risen from $38,500,000 in 1946 to an estimated $50,000,000 this year.

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