Walter Hoving - Point of View

Point of View

Hoving stated in a 1973 interview: Every store must have a point of view. Generally it doesn't. Tiffany's did. We don't claim to have the best taste in America, But we do say it is our taste. For the Tiffany point of view, Hoving acquired space which he thought was the place one’s eye would immediately go to when opening the paper.

A man of conservative political bent, he expressed his opinions in various ways. In one year's annual report, he commented on the taxes paid by the store, saying, It is our hope, but not our expectation, that these sums will be spent with due diligence and a modicum of wisdom. He used Tiffany advertisements as a soapbox, too. Some of them he wrote as little essays with titles like Is Profit a Dirty Word?. He wrote and ran several others all of which ran in The New York Times in the usual Tiffany & Company placement on page three in the upper right hand corner.

In another he assailed the First National City Bank for its "loud and vulgar Christmas tree" and urged the bank to practice "good esthetics". In yet another he attacked as unconscionable the hoarding of silver, an unmistakable reference to the Hunt empire's efforts to corner the silver market in 1980.

• Is Profit a Dirty Word?

• The Truth About Capitalism

• On Education

• Is There An American Goal?

• Is Inflation the Real Problem?

• Full Employment

• Who Owns the Free Enterprise System?

• Are the Rich A Menace?