FILENE'S

in full William Filene's Sons Co ., in Boston, a department store that pioneered a number of retailing innovations. It was founded in 1881 by the Prussian immigrant William Filene and his sons, Edward and Lincoln. Well-known for its high-quality fashion merchandise, Filene's is probably most famous for its Automatic Bargain Basement. This unique basement store was opened in 1909, selling distress merchandise at bargain prices, as did many other stores' basements, but at Filene's the prices were plainly marked and were automatically reduced by a set percentage after a given number of days if the goods remained unsold25 percent after 12 selling days, another 25 percent at the end of 18 selling days, and a third 25 percent after 24 selling days; after 30 days, the merchandise was given to charity. The basement operated at a loss for the first three years but subsequently became such a success that its earnings alone were responsible for maintaining the profitability of Filene's during the Great Depression, when every other floor was operating at a loss. Filene's was the first store to use the charge-plate system and cycle billing and pioneered branch-store operation. In 1929 the store joined F. & R. Lazarus & Co. and Abraham & Straus to form Federated Department Stores, Inc. Edward Filene, who with his brother Lincoln was responsible for the development and success of Filene's, was a coinventor of the FileneFinlay simultaneous translator that was later used for the Nuremberg war crime trials and for sessions of the United Nations.