Evolution of the Department Store

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The controlled type of center, especially the larger ones, holds for its tenants a number of advantages. Some of these are obvious from the foregoing description of characteristics and reasons for growth. One is the convenience of adequate free parking. A second consists of the balanced shopping attraction which affords the consumer an opportunity for a one-stop buying expedition. Third, the uniform architectural treatment is generally attractive. Fourth, all stores located in such centers are, at this early stage of development, newer and more modern than those located in competitive types of locations. Fifth, individual stores benefit from aggressive promotion of the center as a whole, at least in contrast with more limited community efforts typically associated with unplanned business districts.

Sixth, most planned shopping centers provide a greater number of night openings, which has been especially attractive from the standpoint of family shopping. The department stores estabIished in the second half of the 19th century - Bon Marche in Paris, Macy's in New York, and Derry and Toms, Whiteleys, and Harvey Nichols in London - were joined, at about the tum of the century, by multi-branch retailing firrns appealing to the lower end of the market, such as John Jacobs' furniture stores in England. American department stores appealed to as wide a market as possible through dramatic visual means. Interior spaces expanded and large shop windows were introduced to show off the new products to their best advantage. Electric lighting increased their visual appeal. The idea was pioneered in 1877 by John Wanamaker who persuaded Thomas Edison to instali electricity in his store. The techniques of window dressing were also refined. In the United States, where there were large distances between urban centers, the mail-order catalog became a vital means whereby the rural population could acquire goods that they would not otherwise have been abIe to buy. Montgomery Ward pioneered the concept, producing a single-sheet catalog in 1872. Three years later the catalog had nearly four thousand items listed in it. Sears foliowed suit, producing his first catalog in 1891 and moving on to become, with Roebuck, the largest mail-order company in the 20th century. They offered goods as diverse as agricultural machinery, applied art products, dothing and other utility goods. By 1900 electrical appliances had joined these earlier items. Promotional gimmicks and giveaways, when properly merchandised, attract customers and achieve permanent sales increases. The success of such gimmicks is measured in terms of the permanent weekly sales increase resulting from the project. Gimmicks must be selected with the store clientele in mind or the promotion may prove ineffective. An operator in a new housing development used full-length mirrors on a tape plan giveaway. The new owners there were eager to get extra full-length mirrors. In an established area the promotion would have been of little value. The most direct way of making goods desirable was by modifying their appearance. Britain had gone a long way toward making the products of the traditional "art" industries available to the mass market through improved production techniques and distribution methods, but it was in the United States that the first consumer machines - automobiles, sewing machines, typewriters and domestic appliances - were made generaliy available. The relationship between mass production and mass consumption was crucial in these years. High capital investment in a product meant that it had to seli in vast numbers to justify its initial costs and as a result marketing, advertising and design became increasingIy important. However, the one product that dominated mass production and consumption in the first decades of the 20th century - the automobile - did not rely on "art" input to appeal to the mass market. Henry Ford's formula for mass production was based on product standardization; hence his famous statement that his cars were available in any color - providing it was black. The appeal of the Model T Ford lay Iess in its appearance than in its low price. Ford also used advertising and other marketing techniques to increase sales. Continuity of shopping is stimulated by requiring customers to accumulate special tapes, such as green sales tapes used only during the promotion, to a specified total. A premium for the customer equaling one or two per cent of the total purchase during the promotion is usual. 4 Next Page: The Spread of Fashion: The New Female Shape

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