The Impact of Department Stores

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The Impact of Department Stores Departments stores introduced the customs of shopping as we know them today. Before the advent of giant emporiums like Macy's and Saks, people made their purchases in specialty and dry goods houses, usually located in a nearby part of town. Store owners in small or rural areas, expecting a slow turnover of merchandise, sold their goods at a high mark-up, but allowed thrifty customers to bargain for lower prices or barter with cash crops. Window-shopping had yet to be born; those who entered the store were obligated to buy something, and customers could not return the goods they had purchased (Hall, "Pre-Department Stores"). As a result, people only went shopping for what they needed, when they needed it. According to most historians, it was Aristide Boucicaut's who opened the first true department store. Boucicaut's wildly profitable Bon Marché in Paris provided a model for modern commercial retailers, one which soon caught on in other countries, particularly America and England. Boucicaut concept was to lower the price mark-up on products, thereby exchanging a high profit margin for a rapid turnover of goods. Boucicaut popularized the idea of fixed prices; he charged the same amount for every customer and prohibited haggling between shoppers and staff. He also established the first returns policy, allowing unsatisfied customers to exchange merchandise or get their money back. Finally, he abandoned the moral obligation of entrants to purchase goods. Boucicaut encouraged retail workers to adopt an impersonal attitude towards their customers; this allowed shoppers to browse and inspect the stock without feeling pressure to buy. Although commonplace today, Boucicaut's innovations shocked ma... ... middle of paper ... ...w.chass.utoronto.ca/~ejames/> This site, created for a material culture class at the University of Toronto, provides a quick and easy to navigate analysis of the various strategies used by department stores to legitimate the notion of a female shopper--including advertising, interior decoration, and architecture. "Retail Stores Handling Boys' Clothing: The Department Store." Boy Historical Clothing Website. This site offers useful, if basic, information regarding the development of department stores in the nineteenth century. It's a bit before our period, but provides some neccesary background about the topic. Pictures: Exterior view of Bon Marche Ladies Fashion area

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