Margaret Swain Getchell LaForge

July 16, 1841 — January 28, 1880

Linda Willard

You may not be familiar with my name, but I can assure you that my third cousin, Rowland H. Macy, and anyone who is familiar with the history of the retail business is very familiar with my name!

I was born on Nantucket Island, Massachusetts on July 16, 1841. I am the daughter of Barzilla and Phebe Ann Pinkham Getchell. On June 8, 1869, I married Abiel Teple LaForge. When I met Abiel, he was a buyer for a competing store. Abiel changed jobs and came to work at Macy’s and proposed marriage in that order! Abiel would become a junior partner in the store. I had to give up my salary once Abiel became a buyer and junior partner. We lived in an apartment over the store, and I combined motherhood and retail work. We became the parents of six children, four sons, and two daughters.

I finished school at the age of sixteen and taught school for a few years. At the age of twenty-two, I quit my teaching job and found employment at the Macy Department Store as a clerk. In 1861, Macy’s was still a small, struggling fabric store. It wasn’t long before my aptitude for numbers was noticed, and I was promoted to bookkeeper, I was responsible for training the “cash girls.” I was able to persuade Rowland to make other changes that would distinguish his store from others.

One of the changes I implemented was the creation of a trademark for the store. Rowland had used a rooster as the trademark for the store he had in Haverhill, Massachusetts. I decided to use the five-pointed red star tattoo that he had on his arm. We used this tattoo on our letterhead and price tags. I spotted new trends and encouraged Rowland to stock new products such as jewelry, sterling silver, gifts, and clocks. All of these items and others became separate departments. Our merchandise was sold on a cash-only basis, with no credit. In order to lure potential customers into the store, I created interesting window displays. We also installed a soda fountain in the middle of the store in order to route thirsty shoppers past numerous counters of merchandise. We also had the first in-store Santa Claus!

In 1866, Rowland promoted me to the position of superintendent. This made me the first female retail executive in the United States! After my promotion, sales at Macy’s Department store jumped from $11.06 on its first day, to $1 million in annual sales in 1869.

My motto was “Be everywhere, do everything, and never fail to astonish the customer.”

Sadly in 1878, Abiel contracted tuberculosis and died. Two years later, I became ill and died from a combination of heart failure and an inflammation of the ovary.

Abiel and I and three of our children are buried in Woodland Cemetery in New York.