Store Employees

Gerson Fox's motto of Honesty, Courtesy, Service defined the ideal of how store employees, from the president down, interacted with both customers and co-workers. The innovative employment practices initiated by Moses Fox - and later embraced by Beatrice Fox Auerbach - resulted in a very loyal and dedicated workforce, which in turn fostered the success of the store. Some four decades after the store's merger with the May Co., former employees recalled G. Fox & Co. as an enjoyable place to work, where employees felt they were valued members of the team, working together for the success of the enterprise.

Despite employing 3,000 to 5,000 people, Beatrice Fox Auerbach introduced practices to maintain a familial atmosphere. Family Circle luncheons, held daily Tuesdays through Fridays, encouraged camaraderie by bringing together top managers and workers from different departments. Employee benefits were often ahead of their time, including a five-day work week, retirement and pension plans, at-cost meals in the employee cafeteria, paid vacations, generous yearly bonuses, and an in-house hospital and pharmacy with a nursing staff that visited employees at home. Mrs. Auerbach also instituted the Theresa Stern Fox Fund, named for her mother, to provide no-interest loans to employees in financial need.

Mrs. Auerbach was especially progressive in her hiring practices. While women sales clerks were the norm in department stores after World War I, executive positions were almost exclusively held by men. At G. Fox & Co., however, women found ample opportunities for advancement, even promotion to the highest levels of management. The store was also the first in the country to hire minorities for sales and supervisory positions, long before other department stores began to liberalize their hiring practices in the early 1960s.

Shortly after assuming the presidency in 1938, Beatrice Fox Auerbach established the Moses Fox Club to honor employees who had demonstrated loyalty and support for the store through twenty-five or more years of service. The Club gathered once a year, beginning in 1939, for an event that included a cocktail hour, singing, dancing, an elaborate meal, and a special gift for each Club member. Because the formal affair was so highly anticipated, Mrs. Auerbach even dispatched limousines to transport Club members who would otherwise be unable to attend.

Achieving installation into the Moses Fox Club was an important milestone for employees. Newly inducted members received a pin engraved with their initials and the year they began working at the store. In addition, their names were added to a bronze plaque of Moses Fox Club members, which hung prominently in the main lobby of the store. Special recognition was also bestowed upon Club members after they had attained forty years of service and again at the fifty-year mark.

Whether hired as seasonal assistants, working part-time, or devoting their entire careers to the store, employees remembered their experiences at G. Fox & Co. long after they took positions elsewhere or retired. The training department prepared all new hires for success by teaching them courtesy, understanding, and a general knowledge of all store departments, which made employees highly qualified in the field of retail. In many cases, the sales staff's knowledge of merchandise allowed them to better assist customers, often resulting in higher sales. While much of the staff worked in sales, there were many employees who worked in non-selling positions throughout the building and in the warehouse.