RETAIL TRADE: You Are My Children

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Hammacher Schlemmer, I love you—

You're like a sweetheart to me.

Hammacher Schlemmer, above you

No other firm e'er could be . . .

—The Little Show, 1929

Hammacher Schlemmer & Co. is a 104-year-old Manhattan store to which a Park Avenue dowager goes automatically if she wants a washboard, and to which an Indian prince once wrote for a bronco (he got it). For a price, its customers can get every nicety of modern living—from ten varieties of outdoor grills and 90 types of coffeemakers to rhinestone dog collars (for the cocktail hour) and bronze fig leaves (for statues).

Last week Mrs. Else Schlemmer, a small, soft-eyed woman in her 50s, who has run the store since her husband, William F. Schlemmer, died in 1945, called a special meeting of the staff. Standing beside a counter, she announced that she had made a new will. Among the principal beneficiaries: more than 100 employees. Said Mrs. Schlemmer: "I have no children. You are my children ... I have not only taken special note of you who have done an outstanding job for and with us for many years, but I have also taken this step to show my appreciation to many of the newer members of my family." Since Hammacher Schlemmer had some 200 employees, Mrs. Schlemmer had, in a way, set up a unique incentive plan. She declined to give employees' names or the size of the bequests. But speaking to a reporter later, she said: "There will be enough ..."