"Harry Gordon Selfridge... started with the firm in 1879. ...[H]e began as a ten-dollar-a-week stock boy. ...Selfridge was exuberant, dramatic and hurried. He soon gained the nickname "mile-a-minute Harry" for his breathless speech and rapid gait. He was quickly promoted to salesman... Selfridge immediately locked horns with the retail superintendent... Selfridge considered Fleming a rusty old dinosaur who was preventing retail from growth. When Fleming sniffed in disdain at one of his many ideas, he would simply march to Field's office and plead his case. ...Field ...saw a man of vision and an unerring instinct for what the customer wanted. ...Soon, Selfridge was promoted to run the entire retail division. In 1889... Selfridge ...requested a partnership interest. Field was stunned... in 1889, Selfridge was awarded a 2/85th share, with Field loaning him the $200,000 in required capital."
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Gayle Soucek, Marshall Field's: The Store that Helped Build Chicago (2010)
https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Harry_Gordon_Selfridge
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Harry Gordon Selfridge
(January 11, 1858–May 8, 1947) was an American-British retail magnate who founded the London-based department store after retiring as 's partner, opening and selling Harry G. Selfridge and Co. in Chicago in only 2 months, and moving to England. His 20-year leadership of Selfridges led to his becoming one of the most respected and wealthy retail magnates in the United Kingdom. He was known as the 'Earl of Oxford Street'.
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