Sacramento County
Biographies
WEINSTOCK, LUBIN & COMPANY
WEINSTOCK, LUBIN & COMPANY.--It will be of interest to
record in this history an account of the early history and policy of one of the
oldest and most favorably known retail business in northern California, dating
back as it does over a period of fifty years in the capital city.
On October 8, 1874, Harris Weinstock and David Lubin
established a retail store on the corner of Fourth and K streets, doing
business under the name of “Mechanics’ Store, Weinstock
and Lubin, Proprietors.” The space occupied was about 10 by 12 feet.
Within two years, this space was enlarged to about 700 square feet, while the
present space is over 150,000 square feet.
In 1888, the firm was incorporated under
the name of Weinstock, Lubin
& Company. At the time the business
was originally established, trade practices in Sacramento were not unlike those
prevalent throughout the country. The
morals of trade measured by our standards of today were at a
low ebb. The rule of the game was
to grab all that the traffic would bear.
Prices were marked in code. The
salesman was not permitted to go below the marked price unless in exceptional
instances, but he was permitted to take from his customer all that he could
get. Art of his compensation came out of
the amount that he could take over and above the code price. This led to constant haggling, the cleverest
salesman getting the highest price and the cleverest customer getting the lowest. Favoritism and skill were dominant features
in determining the selling price.
Of course, misrepresentation went hand in
hand with this practice. Necessarily a
salesman had to overstate the value of his wares in order to justify a price
higher than the justifiable price.
From the day when their business was
opened to the public, Weinstock and Lubin resolved that in their establishment there should be
only one price to all on each article, and that that price should be clearly
marked. They also established the policy
that under no consideration should there be any misrepresentation in any form
whatsoever. It is a curious thing to
note how their early competitors combated these two policies openly in their
advertisements. But it is also
interesting to note that most of the competitors first gave way by at least
alleging that they, too, had adopted these practices and then by politely going
of out of business.
In the matter of higher trade morals, Weinstock and Lubin were pioneers
on the Pacific Coast, and there were but few who had preceded them in this
matter anywhere in America. One of the
boasts of the present management is that in no instance has it departed from
the principles and policies laid down by the founders.
Louise Shoemaker,
transcriber, October 03, 2007.
Source: Reed, G. Walter, History of Sacramento County, California With Biographical Sketches,
Pages 327-328.
Historic Record Company, Los Angeles, CA. 1923.
© 2007 Louise E. Shoemaker.