A department store is a retail establishment offering a wide range of consumer goods in different areas of the store, each area ("department") specializing in a product category. In modern major cities, the department store made a dramatic appearance in the middle of the 19th century, and permanently reshaped shopping habits, and the definition of service and luxury. Similar developments were under way in London (with Whiteleys), in Paris ( Le Bon Marché ) and in New York City (Stewart's). [1]
Today, departments often include the following: clothing, cosmetics, do it yourself, furniture, gardening, hardware, home appliances, houseware, paint, sporting goods, toiletries, and toys. Additionally, other lines of products such as food, books, jewellery, electronics, stationery, photographic equipment, baby products, and products for pets are sometimes included. Customers generally check out near the front of the store in discount department stores, while high-end traditional department stores include sales counters within each department. Some stores are one of many within a larger retail chain, while others are an independent retailer.
Since the 1980s, they have come under heavy pressure from discounters, and have come under even heavier pressure from e-commerce sites since the 2000s.
Department stores can be classified in several ways:
Some sources may refer to the following types of stores as department stores, even though they are not generally considered as such:
One of the first department stores may have been Bennett's in Derby, first established as an ironmonger (hardware shop) in 1734. [7] It still stands to this day, trading in the same building. However, the first reliably dated department store to be established, was Harding, Howell & Co., which opened in 1796 on Pall Mall, London. [8] The oldest department store chain may be Debenhams, which was established in 1778 and closed in 2021. It is the longest trading defunct British retailer. An observer writing in Ackermann's Repository , a British periodical on contemporary taste and fashion, described the enterprise in 1809 as follows:
The house is one hundred and fifty feet in length from front to back, and of proportionate width. It is fitted up with great taste, and is divided by glazed partitions into four departments, for the various branches of the extensive business, which is there carried on. Immediately at the entrance is the first department, which is exclusively appropriated to the sale of furs and fans. The second contains articles of haberdashery of every description, silks, muslins, lace, gloves, &etc. In the third shop, on the right, you meet with a rich assortment of jewelry, ornamental articles in ormolu, French clocks, &etc.; and on the left, with all the different kinds of perfumery necessary for the toilette. The fourth is set apart for millinery and dresses; so that there is no article of female attire or decoration, but what may be here procured in the first style of elegance and fashion. This concern has been conducted for the last twelve years by the present proprietors who have spared neither trouble nor expense to ensure the establishment of a superiority over every other in Europe, and to render it perfectly unique in its kind. [9]
This venture is described as having all of the basic characteristics of the department store; it was a public retail establishment offering a wide range of consumer goods in different departments. Jonathan Glancey for the BBC writes:
Harding, Howell & Co was focused on the needs and desires of fashionable women. Here, at last women were free to browse and shop, safely and decorously, away from home and from the company of men. These, for the main part, were newly affluent middle-class women, their good fortune – and the department store itself – nurtured and shaped by the Industrial Revolution. This was transforming life in London and the length and breadth of Britain at a dizzying pace on the back of energetic free trade, fecund invention, steam and sail, and a seemingly inexhaustible supply of expendable cheap labour. [10]
This pioneering shop was closed down in 1820 when the business partnership was dissolved. All the major High Streets in British cities had flourishing department stores by the mid-or late nineteenth century. Increasingly, women became the main customers. [11] Kendals (formerly Kendal Milne & Faulkner) in Manchester lays claim to being one of the first department stores and is still known to many of its customers as Kendal's, despite its 2005 name change to House of Fraser. The Manchester institution dates back to 1836 but had been trading as Watts Bazaar since 1796. [12] At its zenith the store had buildings on both sides of Deansgate linked by a subterranean passage "Kendals Arcade" and an art nouveau tiled food hall. The store was especially known for its emphasis on quality and style over low prices giving it the nickname "the Harrods of the North", although this was due in part to Harrods acquiring the store in 1919. Harrods of London can be traced back to 1834, though the current store was built between 1894 and 1905. Opened in 1830, Austins in Derry remained in operation as the world's oldest independent department store until its closure in 2016. [13] [14] Lewis's of Liverpool operated from 1856 to 2010. The world's first Christmas grotto opened in Lewis's in 1879, entitled 'Christmas Fairyland'. [15] Liberty & Co. in London's West End gained popularity in the 1870s for selling Oriental goods. [16] In 1889, Oscar Wilde wrote "Liberty's is the chosen resort of the artistic shopper". [17]
The Paris department stores have roots in the magasin de nouveautés, or novelty store; the first, the Tapis Rouge, was created in 1784. [18] They flourished in the early 19th century. Balzac described their functioning in his novel César Birotteau . In the 1840s, with the arrival of the railroads in Paris and the increased number of shoppers they brought, they grew in size, and began to have large plate glass display windows, fixed prices and price tags, and advertising in newspapers. [19]
A novelty shop called Au Bon Marché had been founded in Paris in 1838 to sell items like lace, ribbons, sheets, mattresses, buttons, and umbrellas. It grew from 300 m2 (3,200 sq ft) and 12 employees in 1838 to 50,000 m2 (540,000 sq ft) and 1,788 employees in 1879. Boucicaut was famous for his marketing innovations; a reading room for husbands while their wives shopped; extensive newspaper advertising; entertainment for children; and six million catalogs sent out to customers. By 1880 half the employees were women; unmarried women employees lived in dormitories on the upper floors. [20]
Au Bon Marché soon had half a dozen or more competitors including Printemps, founded in 1865; La Samaritaine (1869), Bazar de Hotel de Ville (BHV); and Galeries Lafayette (1895). [19] [21] The French gloried in the national prestige brought by the great Parisian stores. [22] The great writer Émile Zola (1840–1902) set his novel Au Bonheur des Dames (1882–83) in the typical department store, making it a symbol of the new technology that was both improving society and devouring it. [23]
Australia is notable for having the longest continuously operating department store, David Jones. [24] [25] The first David Jones department store was opened on 24 May 1838, by Welsh born immigrant David Jones in a "large and commodious premises" on the corner of George and Barrack Streets in Sydney, only 50 years after the foundation of the colony. Expanding to a number of stores in the various states of Australia, David Jones is the oldest continuously operating department franchise in the world. [24] Other department stores in Australia include Grace Bros founded in 1885, now merged with Myer which was founded in 1900. [26]
Arnold Constable was the first American department store. It was founded in 1825 as a small dry goods store on Pine Street in New York City. In 1857 the store moved into a five-story white marble dry goods palace known as the Marble House. During the Civil War, Arnold Constable was one of the first stores to issue charge bills of credit to its customers each month instead of on a bi-annual basis. The store soon outgrew the Marble House and erected a cast-iron building on Broadway and Nineteenth Street in 1869; this "Palace of Trade" expanded over the years until it was necessary to move into a larger space in 1914. Financial problems led to bankruptcy in 1975. [27]
In New York City in 1846, Alexander Turney Stewart established the "Marble Palace" on Broadway, between Chambers and Reade streets. He offered European retail merchandise at fixed prices on a variety of dry goods, and advertised a policy of providing "free entrance" to all potential customers. Though it was clad in white marble to look like a Renaissance palazzo, the building's cast iron construction permitted large plate glass windows that permitted major seasonal displays, especially in the Christmas shopping season. In 1862, Stewart built a new store on a full city block uptown between 9th and 10th streets, with eight floors. His innovations included buying from manufacturers for cash and in large quantities, keeping his markup small and prices low, truthful presentation of merchandise, the one-price policy (so there was no haggling), simple merchandise returns and cash refund policy, selling for cash and not credit, buyers who searched worldwide for quality merchandise, departmentalization, vertical and horizontal integration, volume sales, and free services for customers such as waiting rooms and free delivery of purchases. [28] In 1858, Rowland Hussey Macy founded Macy's as a dry goods store.
Marshall Field & Company originated in 1852. It was the premier department store on the busiest shopping street in the Midwest at the time, State Street in Chicago. [29] Marshall Field's served as a model for other department stores in that it had exceptional customer service.[ citation needed ] Marshall Field's also had the firsts; among many innovations by Marshall Field's were the first European buying office, which was located in Manchester, England, and the first bridal registry. The company was the first to introduce the concept of the personal shopper, and that service was provided without charge in every Field's store, until the chain's last days under the Marshall Field's name. It was the first store to offer revolving credit and the first department store to use escalators.[ citation needed ] Marshall Field's book department in the State Street store was legendary;[ citation needed ] it pioneered the concept of the "book signing". Moreover, every year at Christmas, Marshall Field's downtown store windows were filled with animated displays as part of the downtown shopping district display; the "theme" window displays became famous for their ingenuity and beauty, and visiting the Marshall Field's windows at Christmas became a tradition for Chicagoans and visitors alike, as popular a local practice as visiting the Walnut Room with its equally famous Christmas tree or meeting "under the clock" on State Street. [30]
In 1877, John Wanamaker opened what some claim was the United States' first "modern" department store in Philadelphia: the first to offer fixed prices marked on every article and also introduced electrical illumination (1878), the telephone (1879), and the use of pneumatic tubes to transport cash and documents (1880) to the department store business. [31]
Another store to revolutionize the concept of the department store was Selfridges in London, established in 1909 by American-born Harry Gordon Selfridge on Oxford Street. The company's innovative marketing promoted the radical notion of shopping for pleasure rather than necessity and its techniques were adopted by modern department stores the world over. The store was extensively promoted through paid advertising. The shop floors were structured so that goods could be made more accessible to customers. There were elegant restaurants with modest prices, a library, reading and writing rooms, special reception rooms for French, German, American and "Colonial" customers, a First Aid Room, and a Silence Room, with soft lights, deep chairs, and double-glazing, all intended to keep customers in the store as long as possible. Staff members were taught to be on hand to assist customers, but not too aggressively, and to sell the merchandise. [32] Selfridge attracted shoppers with educational and scientific exhibits; in 1909, Louis Blériot's monoplane was exhibited at Selfridges (Blériot was the first to fly over the English Channel), and the first public demonstration of television by John Logie Baird took place in the department store in 1925.
In Japan, the first "modern-style" department store was Mitsukoshi, founded in 1904, which has its root as a kimono store called Echigoya from 1673. When the roots are considered, however, Matsuzakaya has an even longer history, dated from 1611. The kimono store changed to a department store in 1910. In 1924, Matsuzakaya store in Ginza allowed street shoes to be worn indoors, something innovative at the time. [33] These former kimono shop department stores dominated the market in its earlier history. They sold, or instead displayed, luxurious products, which contributed to their sophisticated atmospheres. Another origin of the Japanese department store is from railway companies. There have been many private railway operators in the nation and, from the 1920s, they started to build department stores directly linked to their lines' termini. Seibu and Hankyu are typical examples of this type.
In the middle of the 1920s, American management theories such as the scientific management of F.W. Taylor started spreading in Europe. The International Management Institute (I.M.I.) was established in Geneva in 1927 to facilitate the diffusion of such ideas. A number of department stores teamed up together to create the International Association of Department Stores in Paris in 1928 to have a discussion space dedicated to this retail format.
This section needs expansion. You can help by adding to it. (October 2020) |
Year | Store | City/ Metro area | "First" | Source |
---|---|---|---|---|
1923 | I. Magnin Hollywood | Los Angeles | First suburban department store (not including hotel/resort stores) | [34] |
1930 | Suburban Square | Philadelphia | First department store branch to anchor a suburban shopping center | [35] |
This section needs expansion. You can help by adding to it. (October 2020) |
The U.S. Baby Boom led to the development of suburban neighborhoods and suburban commercial developments, including shopping malls. Department stores joined these ventures following the growing market of baby boomer spending.
A handful of U.S. retailers had opened seasonal stores in resorts, as well as smaller branch stores in suburbs, in the 1920s and 1930s. Examples include, in suburban Los Angeles, The Broadway-Hollywood, Bullocks Wilshire, The May Company-Wilshire, Saks-Beverly Hills, as well as two Strawbridge and Clothier stores: Suburban Square (1930) and Jenkintown (1931) outside Philadelphia. Suburban Square was the first shopping center anchored by a department store. [35] In the 1950s, suburban growth took off – for example, in 1952, May Company California opened a four-level, 346,700-square-foot (32,210 m2) [36] store in Lakewood Center near Los Angeles, at the time, the largest suburban department store in the world. [37] However, only three years later it would build an even bigger, 452,000-square-foot (42,000 m2) store in the San Fernando Valley at Laurel Plaza.
This section needs expansion. You can help by adding to it. (October 2020) |
Starting in 2010 many analysts referred to a retail apocalypse in the United States and some other markets, referring to the closing of brick-and-mortar retail stores, especially those of large chains. [38] [39] In 2017, over 12,000 U.S. stores closed due to over-expansion of malls, rising rents, bankruptcies, leveraged buyouts, low quarterly profits other than during holiday peak periods, delayed effects of the Great Recession of 2008-9, [39] shifts in spending to experiences rather than material goods, relaxed dress codes in workplaces, and the shift to e-commerce [40] in which Amazon.com and Walmart dominated versus the online offerings of traditional retailers.
COVID-19 increased the number of permanent store closings in two ways: first through mandatory temporary closing of stores, especially in March and April 2020, with customers largely staying away from stores for non-essential purchases for many more months after that; and secondly, by causing a shift to working from home, which stimulated e-commerce further and reduced demand for business apparel.[ citation needed ]
Click-and-collect services at department stores had been increasing during the 2010s, with many creating larger, distinctly signed, designated areas. Some of the more elaborate ones included features such as reception and seating areas with coffee served, computers with large screens for online shopping, and dressing rooms. [41]
With the onset of COVID-19 in 2020, most U.S. retailers offered a curbside pickup service as an option on their websites, and a dedicated area at one of the store entrances accessible by car.
Along with discount stores, mainline department stores implemented more and more "stores-within-a-store". For luxury brands this was often in boutiques similar to the brands' own shops on streets and in malls; they hired their own employees who merchandised the selling space, and rang up the transactions at the brand's own cash registers. The main difference was that the boutique was physically inside the department store building, although in many cases there are walls or windows between the main store space and the boutique, with designated entrances.[ citation needed ]
Incomplete list, notable stores of 50,000 m2 (538,196 sq ft) or more. Individual department store buildings or complexes of buildings. Does not include shopping centers (e.g. GUM in Moscow, Intime "Department Stores" in China) where most space is leased out to other retailers, big-box category killer stores (e.g. Best Buy, Decathlon), hypermarkets, discount stores (e.g. Walmart, Carrefour), markets, or souqs.
closed | open |
Company | Branch | City | Country | Sq m | Sq ft | Opened** | Closed |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Shinsegae | Centum City | Busan | S. Korea | 293,905 [42] | 3,163,567 | Jun 26, 2009 | open |
| |||||||
Macy's | Herald Square (see article) | New York | U.S. | 232,258 | 2,500,000 [43] | 1902 | open |
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Anthony Hordern & Sons | Sydney | Australia | 210,437 | 2,265,120 | closed | ||
Gimbels | Center City | Philadelphia | U.S. | 202,343 | 2,178,000 [44] | 1894 | 1993 |
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Hudson's | Downtown Detroit | Detroit | U.S. | 197,355 (1983) | 2,124,316 (1983) [45] | 1891 [45] | Jan 17, 1983 [45] |
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Marshall Fields, now Macy's | State Street store (see article) | Chicago | U.S. | 185,806 (1912) | 2,000,000 (1912) [46] | 1902 | open |
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Wanamaker's, now Macy's | 1300 Market St., Center City | Philadelphia | U.S. | 176,516 (1995) | 1,900,000 (1995) [47] | 1876 | open |
Shinsegae | Uijeongbu (의정부점) | Uijeongbu | S. Korea | 145,000 [48] | 1,560,000 | open | |
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Rich's | Downtown | Atlanta | U.S. | 115,886 | 1,247,382 | 1924 | 1994 |
Kaufmann's | 400 5th Ave., Downtown | Pittsburgh | U.S. | 111,484 [50] | 1,200,000 | 1887 [51] | Sep 20, 2015 [52] |
| |||||||
Wertheim | Leipziger Straße | Berlin | Germany | 106,000 [53] | 1,140,975 | Dec 1897 [53] | Nov 1943 [54] |
May Co. | Public Square− | Cleveland | U.S. | 104,144 | 1,121,000 [55] | 1915 | 1993 |
Hankyu | Umeda (see article in Japanese) | Osaka | Japan | 102,758 [56] | 1,106,078 | Apr 15, 1929 [57] | open |
| |||||||
Le Bon Marché | 7th arrondissement | Paris | France | 102,360 | 1,101,794 | Apr 2, 1872 [58] | open |
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Hamburger's/ May Company | Broadway, Downtown (see article) | Los Angeles | U.S. | 102,193 | 1,100,000 [59] | 1906 | 1986 |
Harrods | Knightsbridge | London | U.K. | 102,193 | 1,100,000 [60] | 1849 | open |
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Kintetsu | Abeno Harukas (see article in Japanese) | Osaka | Japan | 100,000 [61] [62] | 1,076,391 | Mar 2014 [61] | open |
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Intime | Ningbo General | Ningbo | China | 96,000 | 1,003,335 [63] | open | |
Gimbels | Herald Square | New York | U.S. | 92,903 | 1,000,000 [64] | Sep 29, 1910 | Sep 27, 1986 [65] |
Shinsegae | Daejeon (대전신세계) Shinsegae Art & Science | Daejeon | S. Korea | 88,572 dept. store area[ citation needed ] | 953,380 | 2021 | open |
Carson Pirie Scott | State Street | Chicago | U.S. | 87,695 | 943,944 [66] | 1872/1898 | Feb 21, 2007 [67] [68] |
Mandel Bros./ Wieboldt's | State Street | Chicago | U.S. | 81,848 | 881,000 [69] | 1875 | Jul 18, 1987 [70] |
Takashimaya | Minami (Namba-Shinsaibashi) | Osaka | Japan | 78,000 [62] | 839,585 | open | |
Daimaru | Shinsaibashi (see article in Japanese) | Osaka | Japan | 77,000 | 828,821 | 1922 | open |
Eaton's/ Sears Canada | Eaton Centre | Toronto | Canada | 76,809 | 816,000 [71] | Feb 10, 1977 [72] [73] | Feb 9, 2014 [72] |
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Bullock's | Broadway, Downtown | Los Angeles | U.S. | 75,809 | 806,000 [74] | 1907 | 1983 |
The Bon Marché | Downtown see article | Seattle | U.S. | 74,322 | 800,000 [75] | 1929 | 2020 |
Karstadt now Galeria | Hermannplatz (see article in German) | Berlin | Germany | 72,000 | 775,002 | 1929 | open |
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The Emporium | Market Street | San Francisco | U.S. | 72,000 | 775,000 [79] | 1908 | 1996 |
El Corte Inglés | Torre Titania, Paseo de la Castellana, Castellana | Madrid | Spain | 70,000 [80] | 753,474 | 2011 [81] | open |
Galeries Lafayette | Boulevard Haussmann | Paris | France | 70,000 [82] | 753,474 | 1912 [82] | open |
Lazarus | 141 S. High St. (see article) | Columbus, Ohio | U.S. | 65,000 | 700,000 [83] | 1909 [83] | 2004 [83] |
Isetan | Shinjuku (see article in Japanese) | Tokyo | Japan | 64,296 [84] | 692,080 | Sep 28, 1933 [84] | open |
Daimaru | Umeda (see article in Japanese) | Osaka | Japan | 64,000 [62] | 688,890 | open | |
El Palacio de Hierro/ Casa Palacio | Centro Santa Fe | Santa Fe, Mexico City | Mexico | 61,987 [85] | 667,223 | 1993 [86] | open |
Saks Fifth Avenue | Midtown (see article) | New York | U.S. | 60,387 | 650,000 [87] | 1924 | open |
KaDeWe | Tauentzienstraße | Berlin | Germany | 60,000 [88] | 645,835 | Mar 27, 1907 | open |
J. W. Robinson's | 7th St. Downtown | Los Angeles | U.S. | 57,940 | 623,700 [89] | Sep 7, 1915 [90] | Feb 1993 |
Shinsegae | Myeongdong Main Store (본점 본관, 신관) | Seoul | S. Korea | 56,528 [91] | 608,460 | open | |
Halle's | Halle Building, 1228 Euclid Ave., Downtown | Cleveland, Ohio | U.S. | 56,300 | 606,000 [92] | 1910 [93] | 1982 [93] |
Selfridges | Oxford Street | London | U.K. | 55,742 | 600,000 [94] | Mar 15, 1909 [95] | open |
El Palacio de Hierro | Polanco | Mexico City | Mexico | 55,200 [96] | 594,168 | 2016 | open |
| |||||||
The Broadway | Broadway, Downtown | Los Angeles | U.S. | 53,600 [97] | 577,000 | Feb 24, 1896 [98] | Nov 16, 1973 [99] |
Hanshin | Umeda (see article in Japanese) | Osaka | Japan | 54,000 [62] | 581,251 | open | |
Isetan | JR West Ōsaka Station (see article in Japanese) | Osaka | Japan | 50,000 | 538,196 | May 4, 2011 | Jul 28, 2014 [100] |
|
*store has no branches **opened at this location (may have expanded significantly in the years after initial opening)
Shopping is an activity in which a customer browses the available goods or services presented by one or more retailers with the potential intent to purchase a suitable selection of them. A typology of shopper types has been developed by scholars which identifies one group of shoppers as recreational shoppers, that is, those who enjoy shopping and view it as a leisure activity.
The May Department Stores Company was an American department store holding company, formerly headquartered in downtown St. Louis, Missouri. It was founded in Leadville, Colorado, by David May in 1877, moving to St. Louis in 1905. After many changes in the retail industry, the company merged with Federated Department Stores in 2005.
Selfridges, also known as Selfridges & Co., is a chain of upscale department stores in the United Kingdom that is operated by Selfridges Retail Limited, part of the Selfridges Group of department stores. It was founded by Harry Gordon Selfridge in 1908.
King of Prussia, also referred to as King of Prussia Mall, and referred to locals as KOP, is a shopping mall located in the community of King of Prussia in Upper Merion Township, Pennsylvania. It is the largest shopping mall in Pennsylvania and the third-largest shopping mall in the United States in terms of gross leasable area. It is an upscale mall with 450 retailers.
Wanamaker's, originally known as John Wanamaker Department Store, was one of the first department stores in the United States. Founded by John Wanamaker in Philadelphia in 1861, it was influential in the development of the retail industry including as the first store to use price tags.
Marshall Field & Company was an upscale department store in Chicago, Illinois. Founded in the 19th century, it grew to become a large chain before Macy's, Inc, acquired it in 2005. Its founder, Marshall Field, was a pioneering retail magnate.
Zayre was a chain of discount stores that operated in the eastern half of the United States from 1956 to 1990. The company's headquarters were in Framingham, Massachusetts. In October 1988, Zayre's parent company, Zayre Corp., sold the stores to the competing Ames Department Stores, Inc. chain. In June 1989, Zayre Corp. merged with one of its subsidiaries, The TJX Companies, parent company of T.J. Maxx, which still exists today. A number of stores retained the Zayre name until 1990, by which time all stores were either closed or converted into Ames stores.
A store-within-a-store, also referred to as store-in-store or shop-in-shop, refers to a space within a larger retail store, designated for use by a specific brand to feature its products, clearly branded with signs and other branding elements like color, materials, layout, etc. Such a space may be a section of the main area of the store, or it may have the form of an enclosed store with "walls" an entrance, much like a store in a shopping mall.
Rich's was a department store retail chain, headquartered in Atlanta, Georgia, which operated in the southern U.S. from 1867 until March 6, 2005 when the nameplate was eliminated and replaced by Macy's. Many of the former Rich's stores today form the core of Macy's Central, an Atlanta-based division of Macy's, Inc., which formerly operated as Federated Department Stores, Inc.
Filene's is an American department store chain; it was founded by William Filene in 1881. The success of the original full-line store in Boston, Massachusetts, was supplemented by the foundation of its off-price sister store Filene's Basement in 1908. Filene's, in partnership with Abraham & Straus, Lazarus, and Shillito's, was an original member of the holding company Federated Department Stores upon its establishment in 1929.
L. S. Ayres and Company was a department store based in Indianapolis, Indiana, and founded in 1872 by Lyman S. Ayres. Over the years its Indianapolis flagship store, which opened in 1905 and was later enlarged, became known for its women's fashions, the Tea Room, holiday events and displays, and the basement budget store. As urban populations shifted to the suburbs, Ayres established branch stores in new shopping centers in several Indiana cities. Ayres also acquired retail subsidiaries in Springfield, Illinois; Fort Wayne, Indiana; and Louisville, Kentucky. Ayr-Way, the Ayres discount store subsidiary, became the first discount store launched by a full-line department store. By the end of the 1960s Ayres had become a diversified merchandising business with retail department stores, a chain of discount stores, specialty clothing stores, a home furnishings showroom, and a real estate holding company. A long-time Ayres slogan, "That Ayres Look", promoted the company as a fashion leader, and by 1972 it had become the oldest continuous retail slogan in the United States.
F&R Lazarus & Company was a regional department store with its retail chain operating primarily in the U.S. Midwest, and based in Columbus, Ohio. For over 150 years, Lazarus was influential in the American retail industry, particularly during the early 20th century as a founding partner in Federated Department Stores, and continued until the nameplate was retired on March 6, 2005, in favor of Macy's.
TJ Maxx is an American discount department store chain. It has more than 1,000 stores in the United States, making it one of the largest clothing retailers in the country. TJ Maxx is the flagship chain of the TJX Companies. It sells men's, women's and children's apparel and shoes, toys, bath and beauty products, accessories, jewelry, and home products ranging from furniture and decor to housewares and kitchen utensils.
E. J. Korvette, also known as Korvette’s, was an American chain of discount department stores, founded in 1948 in New York City. It was one of the first department stores to challenge the suggested retail price provisions of anti-discounting statutes. Founded by World War II veteran Eugene Ferkauf and his friend, Joe Zwillenberg, E. J. Korvette did much to define the idea of a discount department store. It displaced earlier five and dime retailers and preceded later discount stores, like Walmart, and warehouse clubs such as Costco.
A price tag is a label declaring the price of an item for sale. It may be a sticker or attached by twist tie or other means.
Selfridges is a Grade II listed retail premises on Oxford Street in London. It was designed by Daniel Burnham for Harry Gordon Selfridge, and opened in 1909. Still the headquarters of Selfridge & Co. department stores, with 540,000 square feet (50,000 m2) of selling space, the store is the second largest retail premises in the UK. It was named the world's best department store in 2010, and again in 2012.
Off-price is a trading format based on discount pricing. Off-price retailers are independent of manufacturers and buy large volumes of branded goods directly from them. The off-price retail model relies on the purchase of over-produced, or excess, branded goods at a lower price, thus being able to sell to consumers at a discount compared to other stores which purchased an initial run. Among the largest retailers of this type are TJX Companies and Ross Stores. The model is more common in countries that import fashion-oriented or household goods, as the discount role in producer countries is usually filled by factory outlets or small-scale open-air marketplaces.
The retail format influences the consumer's store choice and addresses the consumer's expectations. At its most basic level, a retail format is a simple marketplace, that is; a location where goods and services are exchanged. In some parts of the world, the retail sector is still dominated by small family-run stores, but large retail chains are increasingly dominating the sector, because they can exert considerable buying power and pass on the savings in the form of lower prices. Many of these large retail chains also produce their own private labels which compete alongside manufacturer brands. Considerable consolidation of retail stores has changed the retail landscape, transferring power away from wholesalers and into the hands of the large retail chains.
Department stores are an established retail format globally. The format has origins in France, the United Kingdom and United States, among many others.
Dreher's design called for a cluster of shops built around a major department store, with a supermarket, movie theater and office buildings with ample parking space.
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