Belk wasn't always the massive department store we know it as today. According to the store's website, William Henry Belk opened what would become the first Belk store in a 1500 square foot space with $750 of his own savings, a $500 loan, and $3,000 worth of merchandise "taken on consignment from a bankrupt store," which means Belk was basically selling another retailer's goods to earn a fraction of the profit. And while $1,250 sounds like small potatoes in modern time, it amounted to over $34,000 in investment in Belk's day. Oh, and did we mention he was only 26 years old at the time?
At that young age, not only was William Henry Belk savvy about cash, but he also had a clever marketing strategy. Belk called his first store "New York Racket" (shown above) because he thought that name would imply something big and interesting and he adopted the slogan "Cheap Goods Sell Themselves." What's interesting is that the store was located in Monroe, N.C., which is a suburb of Charlotte and nowhere near New York. Mr. Belk's investment was a success though; in less than seven months, he had turned a $3,300 profit, which may not sound like a lot until you consider that at the time that was equivalent to $90,287.31 today. With that kind of capital in hand, Belk was ready to expand.
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