Fred Lazarus Jr. was an American store executive and civic leader. He was a president of the Federated Department Stores from 1945 to 1966.
Background
Fred Lazarus Jr. was born in Columbus, Ohio, United States, the second son of Fred Lazarus, Sr. and Rose Eichberg. He was born to an established but not unusually successful merchant family. His grandfather opened a men's store in Columbus after emigrating from Prussia to escape its Jewish segregation laws. Lazarus's father and uncle, Ralph, expanded the business to include women's apparel, and incorporated the store as the F. & R. Lazarus Company.
Education
He briefly attended the Ohio State University.
Career
Young Fred entered the business in 1902, when the concurrent illnesses of his father and uncle forced him to drop out of University to help his older brother with management and day-to-day operations. Lazarus later claimed that becoming immersed in the family business so early was the most important turning point in his career.
F. & R. Lazarus prospered under the "Lazari" as the family came to be known. In 1928, the brothers expanded outside Columbus with the purchase of Shillito's, a major Cincinnati department store. In 1929, the firm was one of the founding members of Federated Department Stores. All the brothers played important parts in the expansion of the family fortune, but during these years Fred, Jr. , began to emerge as the first among equals.
He served as president of Shillito's from 1928 to 1947 and his roles as the Lazarus firm's chief representative to Federated, as well as the brother in charge of overall store operations and finance, grew in influence during this time. In that capacity he earned a reputation as a merchandising innovator and financial conservative. Lazarus's overall approach to merchandising was well suited to the era. The great department stores offered low prices, but their chief draw was the enormous variety of goods. Lazarus understood the main attraction of the department store and used it to dominate his market.
F. & R. Lazarus became the leading store in its area by carrying a greater variety of clothes, housewares, and appliances than anyone else. As one of Lazarus's competitors later described it: "They want a bigger tent than anybody else, and more monkeys and elephants. The bigger the better--that's Fred!" Lazarus also had an eye for operational details that combined showmanship with solid merchandising techniques. Believing that a successful store needed "to be a bit of three-ring circus, " Lazarus supported crowd-drawing attractions, such as auto shows, along with innovations to make shopping more convenient. One example of the latter came in the late 1920's when he introduced "size selling, " where items are grouped by size rather than by style or manufacturer.
Lazarus's search for ways to boost sales went beyond the store. In 1939 he was part of a group of instigators of a successful campaign to extend the Christmas shopping season by moving Thanksgiving from the last Thursday in November to the fourth Thursday of the month. The group hired a lobbyist to present the idea to President Franklin Roosevelt. Roosevelt finally agreed and issued a proclamation in 1939, which Congress passed into law in 1941. Lazarus helped organize the Associated Merchandising Corporation in 1921. The AMC had grown to be the nation's largest buying office by the time of his death.
Lazarus's greatest accomplishment came as president of Federated. He assumed its leadership in 1945, partly because of his proven ability, and partly because of his adamant position that Federated either be disbanded or turned into a chain with a head office capable of implementing its plans for growth. Prior to this time Federated was more a confederation of major stores than a true department store chain. Lazarus's disenchantment with this weakness of the system became all the more urgent during World War II, when he became convinced that peace would bring an enormous economic boom and that Federated would have a tremendous opportunity for expansion. In much the same way that Robert E. Wood revitalized Sears, by anticipating the postwar boom and rise of the suburbs and by positioning his company to take advantage of it, Lazarus made the downtown department store a real competitor to the new suburban shopping malls by expanding aggressively in the postwar years.
Between 1945 and 1965 Lazarus engineered Federated's growth from a chain of five major stores to one with thirteen divisions operating eighty-eight stores. During the same period, annual sales grew from $201 million to $1. 3 billion. Lazarus expanded quickly by buying the leading stores in the high-growth regions of the South and West. To keep expansion costs low, Lazarus typically acquired new companies by exchanging their stock for Federated's.
By linking Federated's interests so closely to the old central business districts (not until 1966 did suburban branch sales exceed downtown sales), Lazarus also accepted a major role for himself and his stores in civic affairs. This was in keeping with both his personal philosophy that the department store had an obligation to its city, and his conviction that it was in a store's best interests to seek solutions to urban problems. Personally, Lazarus was active in local and national philanthropic, educational, and civic institutions for most of his career. The scope of his interests can perhaps best be judged from the three honorary doctorates, in business, humanities, and law, that were bestowed upon him. Lazarus retired as chairman of Federated in late 1967, and was replaced by his son Ralph. He died at home in Cincinnati.
Achievements
Connections
Lazarus married Meta Marx on February 11, 1911. They had four children, three of whom eventually rose to prominent positions within the Lazarus and Federated chains. Marx died in 1932, and Lazarus married Celia Kahn Rosenthal on September 17, 1935.
Recipient 7th annual Tobe award for distinguished contributor to American retailing, 1949. Gold award National Conference Christians and Jews, 1951. Human Rights award Joint Defense Appeal, 1955.tempSpaceGold Medal award National Retail Merchants.
Association, 1959; Distinguished Service award Ohio State Council Retail Merchants, 1961.
Recipient 7th annual Tobe award for distinguished contributor to American retailing, 1949. Gold award National Conference Christians and Jews, 1951. Human Rights award Joint Defense Appeal, 1955.tempSpaceGold Medal award National Retail Merchants.
Association, 1959; Distinguished Service award Ohio State Council Retail Merchants, 1961.