Re: John's Bargain Store
eamartinez » I lived in Brooklyn as a young child, but I don't remember where. I do remember we lived around the corner or close to John's Bargain Store. I also remember that our Dentist lived next door to us. His practice was not in the neighborhood, but he lived there with his mother. His name was Donald Kauffman. If this name sounds familiar and you know where he lived you could help me find out my old address. Or if you could tell me where John's Bargain Store was, I will have an idea of where we lived. I lived there somewhere between 1961 and 1963. I remember being in John's Bargain Store when Kennedy was shot. I can remember it as if it were yesterday....
Here's the obit of one of the founders of John's ... interesting info. They did a lot of advertising on kiddie TV in the '60's.
June 2, 2002
David Cohen Is Dead at 80; Led Chain of Bargain Stores
By DOUGLAS MARTIN
David Cohen, who led John's Bargain Stores to the top rungs of discount retailing in the 1960's, died on Thursday at his home in Medford, N.Y. He was 80.
The cause was lung cancer, his wife, Blanche, said. He also had a home in Delray Beach, Fla.
John's Bargain Store -- with its big red sign and white lettering -- was once a nearly ubiquitous presence in the New York metropolitan area, particularly in low-income sections. It grazed the low end of retailing, relying on paying cheap rent for locations few other retailers wanted, as well as on buying merchandise that could be startlingly inexpensive, often because the manufacturer had overestimated demand.
''Give us your mistakes and we'll make them pay,'' was a company slogan. A company maxim was that the best places for stores were areas with few new automobiles but many used baby strollers.
At its peak in the mid-1960's, John's had 527 stores along the Eastern Seaboard and in Puerto Rico.
''Our plan is to blanket the United States with John's units and to ultimately have more stores in operation in this country than Woolworth's,'' Mr. Cohen said in an interview with Women's Wear Daily in 1964.
A Woolworth spokesman had said, ''We wish them luck.''
Three years later, John's was in full retreat, the victim of over-expansion, shoplifters and, most important, the yearlong absence of Mr. Cohen, who had nearly died in an automobile accident. In 1967, the company sought protection under federal bankruptcy laws. By the early 1970's, with new ownership, it had disappeared.
David Cohen, who always said his family was too poor for the luxury of middle names, was born on Sept. 2, 1921, at a hospital on Rockaway Beach. He was the fifth and totally unexpected child; his mother had thought she had a tumor. When she went to the hospital to have it treated, he was born, making him the only one in his family to be born in a hospital.
His father, Harry, began as a peddler with a horse and wagon and moved on to running games of chance on the Rockaway Beach boardwalk. In winter, he would buy the merchandise of a company going out of business and rent a store to sell the goods.
This led to his getting his own store in South Ozone Park, Queens. For some reason, he named it John's, although there was no John in the family. People began calling it Cheap John's, partly because it was competing with two neighboring stores, Cheap Sam's and Cheap Charlie's.
Young David was needed to work in both his father's endeavors, and kept transferring from school to school. As a sixth grader, he dropped out to go to work full time.
In late August 1940, he had his first date with Blanche Schwartz, bringing along a shoebox model of the discount stores he hoped to open. They were married on Dec. 31 of that year.
Working with his siblings -- Benjamin, James and Stella -- David, as chairman and president, expanded their father's concept into more and more stores. Their father died in 1963 at 75.
At first, the children bought odd lots and surplus goods from manufacturers, but as the company grew, increased bargaining power let them order new products.
The company placed larger orders for single items than any other chain in America, ordering 250,000 dozen of an item at once.
After buying more cheaply, it also tried to sell more cheaply, or at least to undercut the competition. Its markup of 32 percent was 8 percentage points below that of most other stores. John's also routinely bought things out of season: after Christmas, it filled its bins with toys; ski caps were sold in the summer and swimming suits in winter. For customers, part of the fun was never knowing what they would find.
The company also economized by using newspaper ads that covered large numbers of stores, thereby cutting the cost per store. It accepted delivered orders at warehouses, meaning distributors did not have to make drops at individual stores.
But real estate was the most important factor. Mr. Cohen sought out locations that other stores considered unprofitable and then drove a hard bargain. He learned that former supermarkets were a good size, and also that supermarket owners who had moved to larger stores nearby often offered cheap rent to prevent another supermarket from opening.
A story he loved to tell involved the lawyer for a wealthy property owner who disapproved of renting to John's because he considered it déclassé. The client overruled the lawyer, declaring that she was a faithful John's customer.
Mr. Cohen is survived by his wife; his brother, James, of Hollywood, Fla.; his sister, Stella Tobin of Lynbrook, N.Y.; his daughter, Shirley Schefter of Bellmore, N.Y.; his sons Howard of Oceanside, N.Y., and Allen of Maine; six grandchildren; and seven great-grandchildren.
* Copyright 2008 The New York Times Company
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Go to the Brooklyn Back When thread. They grew up here, somewhere.
And I sure would love to visit the '64 World's Fair again.
