RETAILING: Sincerity for Sale

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In no other store, for instance, can a Japanese shopper amble through Cartier and Tiffany salons and, at almost every turn, receive a gracious bow from clerks. Mitsukoshi's 4,500 employees are specifically taught to show respect for customers "by lowering the position of the bottom," as one executive puts it, and to exude sincerity. That is a company policy that staffers find hard to forget. A 33-ft. statue towers over the street-level selling floor. Its name: The Goddess of Sincerity.