Retailing: Romance at Korvette

To Eugene Ferkauf, founder, controlling stockholder and audacious boss of E. J. Korvette Inc. (TIME cover, July 6, 1962), success as the hero of U.S. discount selling is no bargain. It gives him less and less time to do what he really wants to do. He likes to play hooky from the office, go out to mind his stores. Dressed in his $32.50 Korvette suit, he fusses, fixes problems, scolds and cajoles salespeople. He fondles marked-down books and basketballs as if they were emeralds; in the art galleries of his stores, he browses proudly around the Picassos, Chagalls and...

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