Cinematic editorial image representing Fred Lazarus Jr.: department store retail context tied to building federated department stores.

Fred Lazarus Jr. Biography: From Family Store to Federated Leadership

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In 1943 and 1944, Federated Department Stores was seriously discussing whether it should be broken apart. The company had grown as a loose federation of regional stores, but that structure left it without a strong center for major reinvestment and expansion decisions.

In 1945, Federated chose stronger coordination over breakup, and Fred R. Lazarus Jr. emerged as its leading executive. The decision became the pivotal corporate turning point in a career that had begun decades earlier in his family’s Columbus store.

A Quick Look at the Life of Fred Lazarus Jr.

Biography Summary

Fred R. Lazarus Jr. was an American department-store executive who became a leading figure in Federated Department Stores. His career stretched from the Lazarus family business and the revival of Shillito’s to Federated’s reorganization and national growth, with a recurring emphasis on merchandising, operating discipline, and expansion.

Profile

Full Name: Fred R. Lazarus Jr.

Born: 1884, Ohio

Died: May 1973, age 88

Education: Briefly attended Ohio State University; received an honorary Doctor of Laws degree from Ohio State in 1951

Best Known For: Leadership of Federated Department Stores, department-store expansion, and size-based apparel merchandising

Company / Organization: F. & R. Lazarus, Shillito’s, Federated Department Stores

Major Roles: President of Shillito’s after its 1928 acquisition; president and later chairman of Federated Department Stores; later chairman of Federated’s executive committee

From a Columbus Family Store to Full-Time Retailing

Fred R. Lazarus Jr. was born in Ohio in 1884 into a family already established in retailing. His grandfather, Simon Lazarus, had opened a small men’s-clothing business in Columbus in 1851, creating the foundation for what became F. & R. Lazarus.

Retail work entered Fred Jr.’s life early. Contemporary accounts say he was helping in the family store by age ten. He later attended Ohio State University briefly, leaving in 1902 at about age 18 to enter the family business full time.

The store he joined was still modest compared with the organization he would eventually help build. The next major change came during a difficult economic period rather than during an easy stretch of growth.

Expanding During the Panic of 1907

During the Panic of 1907, Fred Jr. and his older brother Simon proposed a major expansion of F. & R. Lazarus to their father. The plan moved forward, and a new six-story store was completed in 1909.

The larger building gave the business room to broaden its merchandise and departments. Ohio State’s historical material records that sales nearly doubled when the new store opened and that the store continued adding departments afterward.

The episode became an early example of a pattern documented repeatedly in Lazarus’s career: expansion paired with operational changes and efforts to build volume department by department.

Building a Retail Network

Beyond his own store, Lazarus took part in cooperative efforts among noncompeting department stores that exchanged operating information and ideas. In 1921, he was involved in the development of Associated Merchandising Corporation, building on an earlier tradition of cooperation among retailers.

The network gave participating stores a way to compare operating experience without abandoning their local businesses. That cooperative background became part of the environment in which Federated Department Stores would later take shape.

Bringing Size-Based Selling from Paris

One of the retail practices most closely associated with Lazarus came from a trip to Paris in 1927. He observed apparel grouped by size at Galeries Lafayette rather than organized primarily by price or other categories.

After that trip, Lazarus adapted the approach at F. & R. Lazarus. The method allowed customers to compare styles and prices within the size they needed, and later histories credit the practice with becoming widely adopted in American retailing.

Rebuilding Shillito’s in Cincinnati

The Lazarus interests made a larger move in 1928 when they bought the John Shillito Company in Cincinnati. Fred Lazarus became president of Shillito’s and remained in that role until late 1947.

Shillito’s had slipped to fourth place among Cincinnati department stores, with about $4 million in 1927 sales. The Lazarus team refurbished the store, reclaimed leased departments, developed a basement operation, removed weak merchandise, and concentrated on improving individual departments.

The results changed Shillito’s position in the market. Sales rose to more than $6 million in 1929, and the store did not fall back to its pre-acquisition sales level during the Depression. By 1939, Fortune reported that Shillito’s had become Cincinnati’s leading department store.

Shillito’s showed an operating approach that would later matter at Federated: refurbish the store, strengthen individual departments, accept lower margins in selected areas to build volume, and focus on operating changes rather than ownership alone.

Federated Takes Shape

In 1929, F. & R. Lazarus joined other major regional stores in the formation of Federated Department Stores. Fred Lazarus Jr. was a founding participant in the combination, which involved several stores and executives rather than a single creator.

Federated’s original structure preserved substantial local independence. Its geographically separated stores helped spread risk, and the corporation initially functioned more like a holding company than a centrally directed retail chain.

That arrangement allowed regional stores to retain much of their operating identity. By the war years, however, Federated would confront the limits of such a loose structure.

Lazarus and the 1939 Thanksgiving Change

In 1939, President Franklin D. Roosevelt proclaimed Thanksgiving for November 23 amid retail-industry pressure for a longer Christmas shopping season. Federal historical records describe the requests broadly through the National Retail Dry Goods Association.

Later Macy’s and Ohio State histories credit Lazarus with personally lobbying Roosevelt for the earlier date. Federal records do not identify him alone as the decisive cause. Congress later established Thanksgiving on the fourth Thursday of November, and Roosevelt signed the measure in December 1941.

When Federated Faced a Choice Between Breakup and Coordination

By the war years, the structure that had once given Federated flexibility had become a strategic weakness. Individual stores largely ran themselves, while the corporation lacked a strong central organization for major reinvestment and expansion decisions.

Serious discussions in 1943 and 1944 considered dissolving Federated. When breakup proved impractical, the organization moved in the opposite direction. A stronger central office took effect in June 1945.

Contemporary reporting identified Fred Lazarus Jr. as Federated’s president and described him as an executive of the new central agency responsible for carrying out expansion policy. TIME later summarized the transition by saying Lazarus became Federated’s leading figure in 1945.

The change did not turn every Federated store into a copy of the others. The central office concentrated on finance, performance standards, management depth, and major strategic questions, while individual stores retained substantial responsibility for merchandising and daily operations.

That combination became one of the defining features of Lazarus’s Federated years: stronger coordination at the center without eliminating local operating judgment.

Foley’s Becomes a Postwar Model

Houston gave Federated a chance to put its postwar approach into physical form. Lazarus had taken a serious interest in the city during a 1941 visit, and Federated acquired Foley Brothers there in May 1945.

The company then developed a new downtown Foley’s store built around mechanized stock movement, handling, delivery, and other operating efficiencies. The new store opened on October 20, 1947.

Contemporary reporting described Foley’s as an important experiment in department-store mechanization. The New Yorker later reported that roughly 200,000 people visited on opening day, underscoring the scale of the new operation and the attention it attracted.

Foley’s represented more than geographic expansion. It showed how Federated could enter a growing market, invest heavily in a store, and apply systems intended to improve service and reduce handling costs.

In a 1948 profile, Lazarus explained part of his continuing interest in the work in a short phrase: “Because it’s fun!” The same profile connected that remark to his interest in distribution and in “helping to organize stores that in turn organize themselves.”

Growth on a National Scale

Federated’s stronger organization supported a much larger retail operation. By 1948, its major units were producing more than $300 million in annual sales. TIME reported in 1957 that Federated had grossed $601 million in the preceding year and operated a 38-link chain.

The company’s expansion combined acquisitions with internal growth. Harvard Business School later credited Lazarus with helping create, through acquisitions and organic growth, the largest department-store operation in the United States, while Ohio State records place Federated at the top of the U.S. department-store field by the mid-1960s.

The figures show how far Federated had moved beyond the regional scale of the organization Lazarus had joined at its formation in 1929.

Family Leadership and the Succession to Ralph Lazarus

The Lazarus family remained deeply involved in the organization as Federated grew. Fred’s son Ralph Lazarus became Federated president in June 1957, while Fred moved to chairman.

The transition was gradual rather than an immediate retirement. TIME described Fred as remaining the senior figure while authority shifted increasingly to Ralph. Fred continued in high-level corporate roles through the 1960s and into the 1970s.

Family involvement was visible enough to raise questions about nepotism. In a 1958 TIME profile, Fred Lazarus responded directly: “Nepotism smacks of favoritism.” He said family members had to earn their positions.

By 1970, Fred was listed as chairman of Federated’s Executive and Finance Committee, while Ralph was chairman of the board. The family connection continued, but it existed within a corporation that had become much larger and more institutionalized than the Columbus store Fred had joined in 1902.

Work Beyond Federated

Lazarus’s business career also brought him into national industry and public-policy work. Federal records list him as a public representative on industry committees formed under the Fair Labor Standards Act in 1939.

In 1941, a National Defense Advisory Commission publication identified him as chairman of a Retailers’ Advisory Committee selected by national retail trade organizations to address retailer-consumer issues during defense mobilization.

Ohio State recognized Lazarus with an honorary Doctor of Laws degree in December 1951.

He later served on President Eisenhower’s Committee on Government Contracts, which dealt with fair employment in federal contracting. Lazarus was also active in the Committee for Economic Development and was identified in 1962 as one of its vice chairmen while serving as chairman of Federated’s board.

Death and Retail Legacy

Fred Lazarus Jr. died in May 1973 at age 88. At the time of his death, he was still chairman of Federated’s executive committee.

His strongest business legacy reaches beyond any one store or merchandising technique. Across Shillito’s, Federated’s 1945 reorganization, and Foley’s, Lazarus repeatedly linked store-level operating discipline with expansion on a much larger scale.

Federated continued after his death and eventually became part of the corporate lineage of today’s Macy’s. Lazarus’s career traced the growth of a family retail enterprise into a national organization while keeping practical store operations central to the work.

Timeline

This timeline highlights major milestones in Fred Lazarus Jr.’s retail career and public work.

Timeline.

1851

Simon Lazarus, Fred Jr.’s grandfather, establishes the family retail business in Columbus.

1884

Fred R. Lazarus Jr. is born in Ohio.

1902

Lazarus leaves Ohio State University after a brief period and enters the family business full time.

1907–1909

Fred Jr. and his brother Simon advocate a major expansion during the Panic of 1907. A new six-story F. & R. Lazarus store is completed in 1909.

1921

Lazarus is involved in the development of Associated Merchandising Corporation.

1927

He observes size-grouped apparel selling in Paris, a method he later adapts for F. & R. Lazarus.

1928

The Lazarus interests acquire Shillito’s in Cincinnati, and Fred becomes its president.

1929

Federated Department Stores is formed through a combination that includes F. & R. Lazarus.

1939

President Franklin D. Roosevelt proclaims Thanksgiving for November 23 amid retail-industry pressure for a longer Christmas shopping season. Lazarus is later widely credited with personally lobbying Roosevelt for the change.

1941

A federal defense publication identifies Lazarus as chairman of a Retailers’ Advisory Committee.

1943–1945

Federated considers dissolution, then creates a stronger central office. By June 1945, Lazarus is documented as president and a central executive in the reorganized structure.

1945–1947

Federated acquires Foley Brothers in Houston in 1945. The new mechanized Foley’s store opens on October 20, 1947.

1951

Ohio State University awards Lazarus an honorary Doctor of Laws degree.

June 1957

Ralph Lazarus becomes Federated president, and Fred Lazarus Jr. becomes chairman.

1962

Fred Lazarus Jr. is identified as Federated chairman and a vice chairman of the Committee for Economic Development.

1970

He is listed as chairman of Federated’s Executive and Finance Committee, while Ralph Lazarus is chairman of the board.

May 1973

Fred Lazarus Jr. dies at age 88 while still chairman of Federated’s executive committee.

FAQs

Question: Was Fred Lazarus Jr. the founder of Federated Department Stores?

Answer: Fred Lazarus Jr. was a founding participant in Federated’s 1929 formation, but the company was created collectively. Several major regional department stores and their executives were involved.

Question: Did Fred Lazarus Jr. change Thanksgiving?

Answer: Fred Lazarus Jr. is widely credited with personally lobbying Franklin D. Roosevelt for an earlier Thanksgiving to lengthen the Christmas shopping season. Federal historical records confirm that retailers pressed for the change but attribute the pressure more broadly to the National Retail Dry Goods Association rather than identifying Lazarus alone as the decisive cause.

Roosevelt moved the 1939 observance to November 23. Congress later established Thanksgiving on the fourth Thursday of November, and Roosevelt signed the measure in December 1941.

Question: What retail innovation is Fred Lazarus Jr. strongly associated with?

Answer: Lazarus is strongly associated with size selling, the practice of grouping apparel by size so customers can compare styles and prices within the size they need. He observed the approach in Paris in 1927 and later adapted it at F. & R. Lazarus.

Question: What changed at Federated under Fred Lazarus Jr. in 1945?

Answer: Federated moved from a very loose holding-company structure toward a stronger central office that could coordinate finance, performance review, management development, and expansion. Local stores still retained substantial control over merchandising and daily operations.

Question: Why is Foley’s important to the Fred Lazarus Jr. story?

Answer: Foley’s shows how Federated’s postwar strategy worked in practice. After acquiring the Houston store in 1945, Federated built a new location around mechanized handling, stock movement, delivery, and operating efficiency. The new store opened in October 1947.

Sources