An interesting photo of William Henry Belk (left) meeting with James Cash (J.C.) Penney from February 17, 1950. W.H. Belk said they were "friends first, then competitors occasionally." (Pat Richardson)Find more Belk memories in The Belk Archive
An interesting photo of William Henry Belk (left) meeting with James Cash (J.C.) Penney from February 17, 1950. W.H. Belk said they were "friends first, then competitors occasionally." (Pat Richardson)
Would love to know what they talked about. Also, was JC Penny a powerhouse in 1950? At this point, Belk was fairly entrenched in the Southeast
ReplyDeletePenney's was national back in the '50s, but it was still operating small downtown stores that were a lot like Belk. They probably had plenty of war stories because of the similarites in their stores.
ReplyDeletePenney's really didn't take off until the '60s when they started opening in regional malls.
Like they say, keep your friends close, but keep your enemies closer.
ReplyDeleteScott
They grew to be fierce competitors, but back in the day, they had very little overlap.
ReplyDelete