MovieChat Forums > The Devil and Miss Jones (1941) Discussion > The economics of running a department st...

The economics of running a department store

posted 15 years ago by parillamilt
26 replies | jump to latest

Ok, I'm stumped. Back then, you have literally hundreds of employees working in this department store. Almost one clerk per counter plus dozens more in support behind the scenes. How on earth does the store not go under from the cost of labor? Now days, it's maybe half a dozen people per floor if that.

What am I missing here? Was the labor is so cheap back then that they could afford hundreds of people? Were the prices set high enough to support such a staff? Little to no competition maybe? Even the boss was filthy rich.

Why does model this work back then, but would be considered a huge waste of resources today?

[–] Noir-It-All 8 years ago

There were only "flagship" stores in center city. Customers traveled to the downtown business district, shopped and had their purchases delivered to their homes.

[–] TOASTnJAM 8 years ago

It's much more expensive for employers today as compared to then. I'm not talking about base salary but the added cost that wasn't around back then. Social Security, Medicare, State unemployment insurance etc. That's a average of 20% to 26% over base salary.

I thought P.E.T.A. meant People Eating Tasty Animals