“Self-help department stores were a new idea, “Anderson
writes,” we had a whole new merchandising system. I was managing men's wear. We
had to have a fast turnover for it to work.
“When we had slow moving items, we had to move them out. We
announced “15 minute specials” (on the store’s public address system), but
people couldn’t find out where they were. We tried helium balloons, beach balls
suspended in the air over vacuum cleaners, but customers still couldn’t find
us.
“We rigged up a cart used to carry shirts and other items to
the counters where they were to be displayed. There was a tub on the top and a
shelf at the bottom. We put the car battery on the shelf, a chrome tube through
the middle of the cart with a blinking red light at the top.
“We would move it from department to department, and on
Saturdays and Sundays, we kept it going all day long. It was a instant success.
The Fire Department made us change the light from red to blue because the color
red had the exclusive function of marking exits.
The district manager saw it and put the system in all his
stores. Within six months, flashing blue lights were in every Kmart store in
the nation. I’ll be that even the Kmart historians don’t know how it got
started but I do—and now you do too!
“The story might bore the hell out of people, but it is an
event in the history of merchandising and perhaps the closes thing I have to
achieve celebrity status.”
Not only that, but the “Attention, Kmart Shoppers”
announcements over the stores’ PA systems are still the stock and trade of
comedians who stand in front of brick walls on cable TV and think they are
making people laugh by using the MF words.
We are indebted to celebrity Bob Anderson for the
information. Now, if we can just find out how “red-tag sales” started. My
earliest recollection of them was 40 years ago at Nessie Nides’ appliance store
on East Colfax during one of her frequent “sell-a-brations”.
Author Gene Amole - from his book "Amole One More Time" - October 8, 1992
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