#department stores
Above: Macy’s Building and Herald Square in New York City, around 1907.
Launched in 1858, R.H. Macy & Co. was founded by American entrepreneur Rowland Hussey Macy. The business was the first to promote a woman, named Margaret Getchell, to an executive position.
(via Library of Congress)
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Ordered a Gucci bag from the department store I worked at during the holiday season back in November. I was able to use my employee discount and this was my Christmas gift.The shipping date kept changing and said it was back ordered. I was relieved thinking this meant it was coming direct from the warehouse and not from a store. I finally received an email with the expected ship date but it didn’t actually ship out for another week. I finally received the item in January. When I opened the box, it reeked of perfume, the front zipper was missing, the strap was ripped off and inside was used and it was missing the tags and dust bag. I had to call and email multiple times to finally get refunded, even though the return made its way back over a month ago.
10 Lost Department Stores in New York City - Untapped New York
10 Lost Department Stores in New York City - Untapped New York
You will rarely see a dressing room on the first floor of a department store because
A) they want as much selling space as possible
B) they put the items that are “one stop shops” on the first floor
&
C) If you want clothes, they know you will go to the other levels. The higher up it is, the more items you will see on the way up!
Interesting the way fashion retailing works…
Today’s #FashionFriday post sees us preparing for tomorrow’s Spring Equinox, the beginning of the beginning of astronomical spring in the Northern Hemisphere.
Opened by marketing pioneer John Wanamaker (1838-1922) at 13th and Market Streets in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania in April, 1876, Wanamaker’s department store was one of America’s first modern department stores. His goal was to revolutionize the experience of shopping, turning a mundane activity into a grand event. Wanamaker’s was well-ventilated, decorated with contemporary art, with large rooms that, after 1911, included a 150-foot-high Grand Court featuring attractions like the world’s second largest organ and a great eagle from the 1903 St. Louis World’s Fair.
The store was the first department store to feature electric lighting (installed in 1878), the first to adopt the telephone (in 1879), and the first to install a pneumatic tube delivery systems for transporting documents and cash deposits throughout the building (installed in 1880). It also relied on innovations in customer service and marketing, including the substitution of of haggling for prices in favor of a set sales price. This decision was partly due to Wanamaker’s desire to make shopping a more pleasurable, less adversarial experience. But it was also informed by Wanamaker’s devout Presbyterian faith, which led him to decide that “if everyone was equal before God, then everyone should be equal before price”.
Wanamaker’s Spring 1924 catalog is one of many in Hagley Library’s published collections. To view it and others that have been digitized for inclusion in our Digital Archive, just click here.
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