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Who's Minding the Store? For executive talent to mind his multiplying stores, Ferkauf turned to the recruiting ground he knew best: Brooklyn. Determined to keep himself free for decision making—he did not even hold a title at Korvette's until 1955 when, at his bankers' insistence, he invented for himself the job of chairman of the executive committee—Ferkauf delegated to one old friend after another all the time-nibbling detail work. A grammar school chum named Marty Agins has charge of the Westbury, Long Island, store. Joe Zwillenberg became company treasurer. Another executive job went to Abe Goldstein, a fellow Brooklynite whom Ferkauf met on K.P. duty at Camp Crowder, Mo. Recalls Ferkauf: "I was washing dishes, and Abe came over to me and said, 'Move over, I'll help you.' I've just gotten around to rewarding him. I've made him manager of the Fifth Avenue store." This crowd Ferkauf affectionately calls "The Boys." When money was needed in the early days to keep the stores stocked, Ferkauf passed the hat among The Boys.
He gave them stock in return, also handed out stock warrants in lieu of high salaries.
Even now Ferkauf himself draws a salary of only $30,000 a year (plus a $10,000 expense account), and all other Korvette salaries scale down from that. But at least ten of The Boys have become paper millionaires, and all work a frenetic 70 hours or more a week for their equity.
The Boys call one another by such Brooklyn schoolboy nicknames as "Doodie" or "Schmultzie." "This is a relaxed company," says Ferkauf, "so there is no need for formalities." At Korvette's, in fact, it is imprudent of any executive to throw his rank around. One store manager who got too highhanded with his subordinates was conspicuously omitted from a stock bonus list. Says he: "I'm nothing but a nice guy now. I learned the hard way.
It cost me $100,000." Do-It-Yourself Merchandising. For all their open-shirted informality, this band of amateurs demonstrated a remarkable knack for gauging correctly the profitable trends in retailing. Under Ferkauf's endless prodding, they began to move into the rich markets of suburbia, added to their basic stock in trade—appliances—most of the lines of merchandise that department stores carry. Korvette's also began to put out its own private labels, from Kor-Val vitamins to the booming XAM stereo hi-fi line (named in a backward way after Max, an alley cat of Ferkauf's acquaintance).