History of Clamp-Swing Pricing Company

Could You Please Spell That?

There was a time when it wasn't necessary to spell our name. It was a trademarked descriptor that accurately reflected our unique product line, when David Garfinkle was creating a minor revolution in the 1920's in the price marking field with his "Clamp-Swing Price Card Holders."
In 1924, he became disenchanted with the price tags purchased for his small grocery store, an outgrowth of the fruit stand started with his brother in 1913. The price card holder, a rigid metal unit that displayed the price directly in front of the product, was attached to the wooden shelf with a staple. Unfortunately, there is sometimes a gap between the intentions of the design and the reality of application. Customers inadvertently pulled many card holders out of the shelf, to the embarrassment and confusion of all concerned.

There Must Be A Better Way.

Frustration often being the motivation for invention, David Garfinkle put his creative talents to task and developed a mock-up for his own design. His invention incorporated a metal card holder hinged to a metal clamp, which attached to the shelf, suspending the price in front of the product. When the customer pulled the merchandise off the shelf, the card holders swung easily out of the way. With the encouragement of a tool and die maker and the aid of Scientific America patent attorneys in San Francisco, Clamp-Swing Pricing Company was founded. A patent, his first of five, was granted in 1926. Clamp-Swing Pricing Systems were sold world-wide for the next 15 years.

It'll Never Work.

With a manufacturing facility firmly established, experiments with new ideas continued. David felt, for instance, that it would be desirable to produce a more durable price tag than the paper tags in use. By 1935, the availability of plastic intrigued him as a substitute. His initial attempt with this new material was a nightmare-a solid brick of plastic resulted as the thin sheets dried and stuck to each other. Never one to be deterred by problems, David devised a satisfactory drying system. The DuPont plastics salesman, however, was still not convinced that printing on plastic was a proper use of his product (a concern we still hear today). But it was to his advantage to lose that argument as his commissions catapulted with the introduction of our plastic Shelf Tags and Meat and Produce Celotags.

Three People, Three Shifts.

In 1941, the government needed people to fight a war. They also needed "Point" and "limit" price tags for their rationing program. David Garfinkle, with his daughter-in-law Wilma, and his long remaining employee Alfred Ornellas, ran production on 16 hour overlapping shifts. Like the war itself the presses never seemed to stop. When peace came, business returned to normal, and the company began expanding its line. Under the direction of David's oldest son, Wil, Clamp-Swing Pricing Company took on the distribution of other products.

Retire?

David Garfinkle "retired" in 1979, three years after his grandson, Ben, joined the family business. David had devoted 55 years of his 87 years to Clamp-Swing. He only reduced his workload due to failing health, and remained active in the company business until his death on December 16, 1979. Today Wil and Ben continue to manage the family business. Following David's precedence, they continue to develop and produce new products to meet the demands of a rapidly changing world. It is their goal to maintain a position of leadership in the pricing field.