Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: WEDNESDAY, March 29, 1995 TAG: 9503290023
SECTION: BUSINESS PAGE: B-8 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: SHANNON D. HARRINGTON STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
When Phil Boggs began training as a manager for J.C. Penney Co. in 1959, he was joining not only one of the country's largest retail chains, but also a close-knit group of people who would stick with him for the rest of his life.
After 36 years with Dallas-based Penney's, Boggs, 60, retires Friday as manager of the store at Tanglewood Mall. His physical involvement with the Roanoke County Penney's will cease, but the contributions he gave and the society he was a part of for 16 years will continue.
"It's sort of a fraternity," Boggs said. "We have an indoctrination - almost a fraternal type of ceremony that brings us closer together. And when I retire, I'll still be a lifetime member."
The program, which is mainly for members of Penney's upper management - both men and women - is known internally as HCSC, an acronym for Honor, Confidence, Service and Cooperation. Boggs said it was initiated by the company's founder, James Cash Penney, in the late 1930s.
Boggs' retirement will bring to a climax a career that has weathered what he said was one of the company's most crucial growth periods of its 93-year history.
Boggs started his career with the $20.38 billion (1994 sales) Penney's as a clothing salesman in its Columbus, Ga., store. He held various management positions in that store and two others in Florida. He worked on the district staff in Tampa, Fla., before he became regional merchandising manager in Atlanta in 1972. He came to Roanoke in 1979.
Boggs will be succeeded by Bill Webb, who has been manager of a Penney's store in Jasper, Ala.
During the early 1980s, Penney's began making decisions in its merchandising line that eventually eliminated hard lines such as hardware and automotive items to focus more on fashion apparel and housewares. The company established several marketing development teams to make these decisions, Boggs said.
In 1976, Boggs joined a marketing team that focused on the company's home line of merchandise - decorative accessories, furniture and other housewares.
Boggs said the marketing team also contributed to the company's advertising practices, initiating a program for advertising circulars, such as newspaper inserts.
"We began with six circulars a year for just the home lines," Boggs said. "Now there are 62 circulars a year for the entire company."
Boggs also witnessed the growth of Penney's merchandising in women's and men's apparel. The company had no choice but to strengthen its apparel lines, he said, because when the industry moved from downtown stores to shopping centers in the '70s and '80s, Penney's found itself chasing Sears, Roebuck & Co. and other chains with strengths in apparel merchandising.
"As retail developed in the shopping centers, there was more competition in apparel lines," he said.
At the Tanglewood Mall store, Boggs had a strong contribution to store growth. Besides having to conform to the national trends, the store was remodeled in 1983.
"He usually knew what trends were in," said senior merchandiser Byron Paddock. "He's been through all of the changes - when times were good and times were bad."
Thirty-six years with the same company may be rare in American businesses, but for the Penney company, it's a norm, said company spokesman Hank Rusman. He said the tenure for upper managerial positions is 39 or 40 years.
"The predominant number of store managers, district managers, regional managers and home office executives typically start with the company right out of college and stay for their entire career," Rusman said. "Generally it has always been a people-oriented environment that has instilled great loyalty to the company."
And store managers at Penney's are more autonomous than "virtually any other stores in retail," he said.
by CNB