Background
Percy was born on June 27, 1876 in New York City, New York, United Statets. He was the second son and second of seven children of Isidor Straus and Ida (Blun) Straus.
Percy was born on June 27, 1876 in New York City, New York, United Statets. He was the second son and second of seven children of Isidor Straus and Ida (Blun) Straus.
Like his older brother, Jesse Isidor Straus, Percy was educated at the Collegiate Institute of Dr. Julius Sachs in New York City and at Harvard (A. B. 1897).
Having inherited his father's scholarly interests and analytical mind, he thoroughly enjoyed academic life and would have preferred to devote himself to teaching and scholarship. His father, however, had other ideas. Isidor and Nathan Straus had in 1896 acquired complete ownership of the R. H. Macy department store in New York. Isidor had already planned to bring his two older sons into the business and intended them to work as a team.
Jesse was to learn "soft goods, " sales promotion, and the financial aspects of the business; Percy was to familiarize himself with furniture, furnishings, groceries, and other "hard" merchandise and to specialize in systems and operations, including personnel, maintenance and delivery.
Like his brother, Percy Straus accepted the paternal plan with good grace; he began work in Macy's in September 1897, and almost from the outset his role was a major one. He and Jesse persuaded their father and uncle to move the store from its original location on 14th Street to 34th Street; they were thus in the vanguard of the uptown movement of retail trade. In turn, the two sons were given responsibility for carrying out the complex move, from the acquisition of the real estate to the completion of the new store facilities. Because Jesse fell ill during the early stages, Percy had to bear a disproportionate share of the task, which was finally completed in November 1902.
After the death of Isidor Straus, along with his wife, in the Titanic disaster of 1912, his share of the store was inherited by his three surviving sons (Herbert had entered the business in 1903); and at the end of 1913, as a result of differences between them and their uncle, they became the sole owners. During World War I he served on the staff of the Council of National Defense.
With the incorporation of R. H. Macy & Company in 1919, Percy Straus became vice-president of what was by then the world's largest department store; he subsequently also held offices in the department stores in Toledo, Atlanta, and Newark which Macy's acquired between 1923 and 1929.
Although for many years Jesse was the recognized leader of the team, devising most of the firm's policies on merchandising, advertising, and finance, Percy took the lead in implementing management plans. After Jesse, an ardent supporter of Franklin D. Roosevelt, was appointed ambassador to France in 1933, Percy succeeded him as president; and the death of his brother Herbert shortly thereafter left him with the heavy task of leading the organization alone, a role he filled until 1939.
During Straus's half-century career, Macy's experienced several major transitions, including the establishment of a management hierarchy in place of direct supervision by the partners, an expansion in business volume and an upgrading of Macy's line of merchandise, and intensified competition in the retail trade.
Straus matured in the era of scientific management; it appealed to his way of thinking. Likewise, he was one of the first to push for standardization of systems and procedures and the use of labor-saving and automatic devices in retail operations.
A member of the council of New York University, he organized the drive to raise $47, 750, 000 for its Centennial Fund in 1926, himself giving an unrestricted endowment of $1, 000, 000.
He suffered a heart attack in 1939, after which he filled the position of chairman and elder statesman in the Macy firm. He died in New York City in 1944, at the age of sixty-seven.
He was a member of the National Retail Foundation and a member of the National Dry Goods Association. He was a member of the Committee of Fourteen formed in New York City in 1918 to investigate organized prostitution, and of the mayor's committee on city planning (1934 - 38).
Tall, slender, somewhat formal and reserved in his manner, he was a calm, patient, and courteous man, who reportedly never lost his temper.
He had a wife, Edith (Abraham) Straus, whom he had married on November 27, 1902. They had three sons, Ralph Isidor, Percy Selden, and Donald Blun.