At No. 8200 South Chicago Avenue, ten miles from Chicago's swank Loop shopping district, stands a big, three-story brick building that used to be a bag factory. Today it houses a typical supermarket, Depression's great contribution to U. S. retailing. This supermarket, Trading Post, Inc., was founded in 1934 by Roy O. Dawson with the backing of the Bristol brothers, Lee, Henry and William (of Bristol-Myers ).
Originally known as Dawson's Trading Post, the supermarket developed a $2,500,000 annual business but brought no returns to the Brothers Bristol. Founder Dawson was ousted last year, some $800 was spent obliterating his name from the market, and a young merchandising expert from Marshall Field & Co. named Harper Sowles was installed as president.
In the opinion of President Sowles, Trading Post was sound so far as it went; trouble was, it did not go far enough. It was selling $1,500,000 worth of groceries a year, mostly canned goods, and concessionaires were selling another $1,000,000 worth of fruits, vegetables, refrigerators, tobacco, liquor, house furnishings, men's wear. What the supermarket needed, said President Sowles. was a women's apparel department. Last week in one section of the supermarket blossomed "Fashion Avenue." a row of five separate shops which are expected to develop a $500,000 annual volume. The shop windows have no glass, so that customers can grab what they want.
Primarily a grocery store like all supermarkets. Trading Post makes only one appeal: price. It undersells even chain stores 8% to 10%. Located in the centre of a 500,000 laboring and white-collar population, it often attracts a Saturday crowd of 10,000 avid bargain-hunters. Six neighboring lots provide free parking for 1,000 cars. In the last two and a half years two people have been killed, 19 injured in the traffic snarls that the supermarket generates.
Handed baskets as they enter the building, customers help themselves, carry the goods to a row of counters where clerks tally the purchases, take in the money. Then the baskets are placed on conveyor belts, which carry them to the entrance. There the goods are sacked, carried to the customers' cars by red-capped attendants —Trading Post's only concession to service. President Sowles's "Fashion Avenue'' is strategically located in the area between the cash registers and the entrance, so that the customers have to stroll by the five little shops to get out—change in their pockets and their hands freed of previous purchases by the conveyor belt.
As in other supermarkets, little money is wasted on fixtures and decorations. Operating with a high turnover, Trading Post is supplied by Western Grocer, an Iowa wholesaler with Chicago offices and warehouse on the third floor of the Trading Post building. Whenever stocks get low, a telephone call will bring fresh goods tumbling down within three minutes.