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Philadelphia, March 6, 1920
Gtmbel ttxihtts
MARKET : CHESTNUTEIGHTH : NINTH
MondayPhiladelphia's very commanding exhibit
of French and American clothes fdr women and girls.
Shown on living models.
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PHILADELPHIA'S GREATEST
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'$1 Store Hours 9 to 5:30
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R vfl i , One store can specialize in many lines because each
whw group of goods is in charge of a specialist.
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PURE FOOD STORE
Nearly eighteen years ago Gimbel Brothers,
having greatly enlarged their building, decided
to add the selling of foods to their activities.
We thought we knew nearly all about the
grocery business; that all we needed were pretty
fixtures and a skilled buyer.
We secured both paid nearly a hundred
thousand dollars for the fixtures and in six
months we grew to almost hate ourselves. The
business was not of a sort that chimed in with
the great business we were building.
What was wrong?
Not our store, but the whole so-called "pure
food" business was in the chaotic state that fore
runs a real creation.
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It was of the character of the store-in-the-corner-of-a-house,
wherein the proprietor
stuck his head in the door and called: "John, have
you put the chickory in the coffee?" "Yes, sir."
"And the sand in the sugar?" "Yes, sir." "Then
come in to prayers." v
That grocer was of his timesas was the
Continental town that raised money by a lottery
to build a church it all looked un-evil in its set
ting: Foods had no basis of quality Dr. Wiley was
in his early campaign.
Nor were weights and content of packages
"standard" and by some stroke of fate the
non-standard hard-luck always hit the house
wife. Her five-pound can of lard was that only:
in price. It ran short often as much as half a
pound in lard.
We found "pure strained honey" with no
honey at all in the substance made up and
one bottle in every dozen or two had a dead bee
floating in it.
s
There was "naphtha soap" with no naphtha
in it and there was "diabetic flour" that led to
death, not to the preservation of life.
We found candy so highly and ruinously colored-
that a wisp of white yarn was dyed pink
with the coloring from a handful.
And we were selling that sort of goods!
And so were thousands who felt themselves
helpless to tackle the mess:
Please bear in mind that we are telling of con
ditionsand that we assume no superior virtue
over any producer or seller who personally
offended no law.
But we decided on one thing
We must" clean up the business we were con
ducting or quit it;
And we cleaned it up.
That is a very proper word for so many
things had to be preserved with benzoate of soda
whereas, if a foodstuff is clean and unspoiled
it doesn't require embalming.
We won't sell anything with benzoate of soda
or other drug preservative in it.
Conditions nationally are not yet ideal, but
all conditions are bettered. When a manufac
turer was cited to Dr. Harvey W. Wiley the
doctor showed him how to "clean up" but said: .
"Your label lies, too. Go back home clean up
your product and get Gimbels to help you make
a true label and your troubles end."
You read at times of the "Westfield standard"
Westfield being the pure-food town of New
England. Its work has been wonderful no
crooked foods are sold there. Gimbel standards
were in the making as Westfield standards grew
and are every whit as strict:
Now, then:
Pure foods have an economic value that
would make them really cheapest if they cost
more money. But the Gimbel system makes
pure foods and full weights cost as little as other
foods even "seem" to cost.
Many thousand homes depend on Gimbels
exclusively and to their own real advantage
and economy;
Will you?
The Pure Food Store maintains an efficient
telephone order system and mail orders are
carefully attended to.
The Gimbel system of monthly charge
accounts adds to the convenience of our service";
Yours to enjoy:
The Chestnut-Street Annex is, by the way, the Cleanest
Grocery Store in the World
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