The History of Department Stores

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Introduction

Chapter 1. Behemoth to Dinosaur: Upsetting the Apple Cart – The Youthful Behemoth – Feeding the Hungry Beast – Becoming a Presence, 1900-1930 – Lean Years, 1930s – Prosperity Returns, 1940s – Slippage, 1950s and 1960s

Chapter 2. Lower, Upper, Middle: Bargains and Bluster – Carriage Trade – The New Consumer – Calibrating the Middle Position – Down in the Cellar – Out in the Cold – The Men that Got Away

Chapter 3. Women’s Wear: Silks and Ribbons – Suits and Shirtwaists – Loving Paris in the Springtime and the Fall – Fashion Perplexities – Creative Merchandising – American-Style: Sportswear, California, and the Movies

Chapter 4. Bricks and Mortar: At the Center of the Universe – “Palaces” – Inside the Store – How They Grew – When Cash Flew Through the Air – Going Up? – Fire Losses ... and Gains? – Shedding Light on the Merchandise – Fresh, Cool Air – Relentlessly Modern

Chapter 5. Window Shopping: From Blank ... to Bulging – Displaying Class – Special Dispensations for Christmas – Windows Get Art – Women Wanted, Wax Only – Showrooms or Stockrooms?

Chapter 6. Razzle Dazzle: Good Vibes in the Air and on the Airwaves – Big-Time Advertising – Building a Fashion Reputation – Teaching Style – Marketplace or Museum? – Depression Days of Bread and Circuses – Busy, Busy, Busy – Community Relations

Chapter 7. Floorwalkers, Fashionists, and Founders: Finishing School for Salesclerks – Male Strongholds – The Paper Bag Test – “Lady Buyers” – Shopping, Writing, Coordinating – Fashion’s Queens – Labor Struggles – “Tops, Tops, Tops”

Chapter 8. The Goods: Expansion and Contraction -- “Where Can I Find ...?” – Little Things Mean a Lot: Notions and Accessories – “The Zone of Sensuous Odors” – Food and Drink – Disorder in the Bookcase – Store Brands vs. National Brands

Chapter 9. At Your Service: From Rolling Chairs to Shuttle Buses – Lunch and Tea – Banking Where You Buy – The Customer, Unfortunately, Is Always Right – We Deliver – Self-Service – Cutting Back

Chapter 10. Children’s Wonderland: Baby and Child Experts – The Playroom in the Sky – From Seasonal Trinkets to Year-round Essentials – Christmas Fantasylands – Joy in the Streets – Juvenile Fashion – Cultivating the Young Consumer

Chapter 11. Fashioning the Teen Market: Youth Rises – The College Girl Rules – The Booming Teen Market – Clubs, Classes, and Contests – Almost Everybody Wants to Be Young – Clinging to Youth

Chapter 12. Everything for the Home: Mundane Wares – Epicenter of the Style Quake – Morris Chairs for the Masses – Model Rooms, Model Houses – Gloss and Glitter

Epilogue

Department stores were stewards of taste, circus impresarios, tourist sites, civic centers, women’s clubs, urban landmarks, and places where customers could spend the day and buy anything from an ironing board to a Dior original – or nothing at all.

The big stores were much more than mere businesses. They were local institutions where shoppers listened to concerts, saw fashion shows and art exhibits, learned golf or bridge, paid electric bills, and planned vacations -- while their children played in the store’s nursery under the watchful eye of a uniformed nursemaid.

From Boston to San Diego and Miami to Seattle, department stores symbolized a city’s spirit, wealth, and modernity. Situated at busy intersections, they occupied the largest and finest downtown buildings, and their massive corner clocks became popular meeting places. At the epicenter of retailing, their locations were the high point from which downtown property taxes were calculated. Spanning the late 19th century well into the 20th, their peak development mirrors the growth of cities and of industrial America when both were robust and flourishing.

The time may be gone when children accompany their mothers downtown for a day of shopping and lunch in the tea room, when monogrammed trucks deliver purchases for free the very same day, and when the personality of a city or town can be read in its big stores, but they are far from forgotten.

SERVICE AND STYLE recreates the days of downtown department stores in their prime, from the 1890s through the 1960s. It explores in detail the wide range of merchandise they sold, particularly style goods such as clothing and home furnishings. It examines how they displayed, promoted, and sometimes produced goods. It reveals how the stores grew, why they declined, and how they responded to and shaped the society around them.