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Bennett CerfBennett Cerf
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Session:         Page of 1029

department stores--had a very good book department. I'll tell you the name of it. It was Strawbridge and Clothier.

Q:

Still has a very good book department.

Cerf:

The buyer happened to be an admirer of Roosevelt and we'd arranged to have a table in the ground floor in the main aisle with this set on publication day--not only in the book department but on the main floor. The day after the books came out, our salesman.discovered that the books had disappeared. He said, “Hey, we spent yesterday fixing up this table. What happened?" The buyer very angrily said, “The vice-president of the store came by and, when he saw this set, he almost fired me on the spot. He said, 'Get those books off this floor.‘He made me take them away.” So our salesman said, “Can I go up and talk to your vice-president?” The man said, “I wish you would. I'm furious about it.” So our salesman went up to.meet this vice-president. The vice-president said, “Don't be angry with me. Roosevelt doesn't mean one thing or another as far as I'm concerned. But Strawbridge and Clothier customers hate Roosevelt. I wouldn't have those books in the center aisle. I wouldn't promote prophylactics there either!" My salesman said, “Are you comparing the President of the United States book with pro-phylactics?” He said, “Yes. We put on that floor what we think our customers will want.”

I don't regret our loss on this venture one bit. I





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