August 5

[The Story Teller]

August 5
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The Golden Rule Stores
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“Do unto others as you would have them do unto you.”
—Jesus Christ
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Today, when we enter a modern department store, we may think of how it is run by a gigantic and complex international conglomerate. Yet, every business was at one time a single person’s idea. The giant corporation is an extension of that original idea. James Cash Penney was born in Hamilton, Missouri, in 1875, the son of a Baptist minister. During his early years, he raised pigs and watermelons and ran a butcher shop. He refused to supply meat to hotels that sold liquor, and his butcher shop failed. Next, he tried retail dry goods and in 1902 bought a one-third share in a dry goods store in Kemmerer, Wyoming. From that store he launched a chain called the Golden Rule stores, so named because they were based on the concept of treating all people with the kindness we ourselves expect, that is, the Golden Rule as taught by Jesus. Every store had a giant Golden Rule sign hanging on a prominent wall.

Penney believed that every person was a “human dynamo, capable of accomplishing anything to which he aspires.” He despised debt, drinking, and smoking, and he demanded zeal, enthusiasm, and loyalty from every employee. Penney claimed that it was the application of the Golden Rule that made his stores (now named JCPenney) a success. By the time he died in 1971, Penney’s stores had annual sales of over $4 billion and were the nation’s sixth-largest merchandiser.

Consider This: Do you apply the Golden Rule to your work? Do you demand zeal and enthusiasm from yourself and your employees?

Submitted by Richard