Marshall Field (1834–1906) merchant

Marshall Field was born near Conway, Massachusetts, on August 18, 1834, the son of small farmers. At 17 he began clerking in a local dry goods store and gained a reputation for hard work and courtesy. In 1856, the ambitious young Field relocated to Chicago, Illinois, where he soon found employment with the retail firm of Cooley, Wadsworth, and Company, the city’s largest dry goods operation. He again distinguished himself by his business acumen, and by 1860, he functioned as a junior partner. In 1862, when Field rose to full partner, the company was renamed Farwell, Field, and Company. Three years later, Field bought out his partner and joined forces with Potter Palmer and Levi Z. Leitner to found the new dry goods firm of Field, Palmer, and Leitner. With competent direction, the company flourished and posted sales of $8 million by 1867. At that time Field and Leitner bought out Palmer, renamed their firm after themselves, and continued to achieve great prosperity. Disaster struck during the Great Chicago Fire of 1871 and again in a second conflagration of 1877, but Field rebuilt his firm at new locations and continued flourishing. Throughout the 1880s, he was largely responsible for its impressive success, and in 1881 Leitner was finally bought out. The new establishment, renamed Marshall Field and Company, had yet to achieve its pinnacle of success.

During his tenure as company head, Field pioneered many business practices that were innovative and revolutionary in their day. He was one of the first American retailers to purchase high-quality goods from both domestic and foreign sources, and in 1871, he opened his first buying office in England. From a consumer standpoint, he introduced the practice of selling goods at a marked price, proffered generous credit, and initiated the policy of offering customers full refunds for returned merchandise. He was also quite possibly the first merchant to recognize the growing purchasing power of women and established company policies to win and keep their loyalty. Employees were instructed to be prompt and courteous, and the store was usually stocked full of high-quality yet moderately priced shawls, furs, perfumes, and other items of interest to female buyers. Fields was also quite adept at consumer psychology. He erected an immense store that ultimately covered 36 acres of Chicago’s city center and opulently stocked it with exotic goods, but then included such amenities as a bargain basement and a tea room. It became the largest retail operation in the world and was highly successful. He also pioneered the practice of buying goods in volume and creating a demand for them at a later date, which forced potential competitors to buy and subsequently offer the same objects at higher prices. He further manufactured goods at his own factories and sold them only through his own outlets. Field proved so adept at promoting customer satisfaction and retaining customer loyalty that by the turn of the century he was among the 10 wealthiest Americans. In 1906 alone, his annual sales brought in $86 million.

For all his success, Field himself was something of a quiet, elusive individual, rather flinty in outlook and not given to ostentatious display. He invariably worked long hours, spent money frugally, and declined to participate in social activities usually associated with the upper classes. Field was nonetheless quite generous in terms of philanthropy and indelibly altered the cultural and intellectual landscape of Chicago by subsidizing several of its most famous landmarks. These included the University of Chicago, the Academy of Fine Arts, and the Field Museum of Natural History. When he died of pneumonia on January 16, 1906, Field left behind an estate valued at $150 million. His legacy continues in the family owned Marshal Field stores that have survived in the Midwest and Texas. More important, his twin pillars of quality goods and customer satisfaction have become the lynchpin of the retail business everywhere.

Further reading

• Becker, Stephen D. Marshal Field III: A Biography. New York: Simon & Schuster, 1964. 
• Madsen, Axel. The Marshal Fields: The Evolution of an American Business Dynasty. New York: John Wiley, 2002. 
• Palmer, James L. The Origin, Growth, and Transformation of Marshall Field & Company. New York: Newcomen Society in North America, 1963. 
• Tebbel, John W. Marshall Field: A Study in Wealth. New York: E. P. Dutton, 1947. 

John C. Fredriksen