David C. Farrell, an enormous within the retail industry who led the previous May Department Stores Co. through years of profitability and growth, died June 5 in St. Louis. He was 89.
Farrell served as May Co.’s chairman and chief executive officer for 19 years until retiring in April 1998. He’s credited with shaping the fashionable day department store, pioneering matrix buying that requires vendors to satisfy strict sales and profit targets, thereby narrowing the list of vendors that make it into the stores, and running highly productive and tightly managed malls. He was on the forefront of huge brand marketing, acquisitions, consolidations and aggressive cost management.
He also did well by stockholders, who saw their shares rise significantly during his...
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