Dorothy winkle, age 15, of St. Augustine, Fla., for her question:
WHEN WAS THE FIRST DEPARTMENT STORE OPENED?
A department store is a place where a lot of different types of merchandise can be found, with each type in a separate department. The "general store" of the early 1800s, where many kinds of items were handled, grew into the first department store with the establishment in 1938 of the Bon Marche in Paris, France.
By the 1860s, the Bon Marche, which was primarily a dry goods store, looked very much like the modern department store in organization, administration and even size.
Then also in Paris in 1885 a store named Printemps opened. This was probably the first store to actually open as a department store.
About this same time a number of large stores in various parts of America started to offer different types of merchandise that was arranged in separate departments.
Among the earliest dry good stores in the United States to convert to the department store formulas were R.H. Macy & Co. in New York City, John Wanamaker in Philadelphia, Marshall Fields in Chicago and Jordan Marsh Co. in Boston.
One of the things that was unique in the early department stores was the marking of prices on the merchandise that was on display. Before this innovation, the customer had to verbally obtain the price from a clerk.
Another new idea that came with the department store was that merchandise could be returned for either a refund or an exchange.
During the last years of the 1800s a number of things happened in the United States that helped to make department stores succesful. Most important, perhaps, was that people in large numbers were moving to urban centers and that a large and prosperous middle class developed.
Also helping establish department stores at the turn of the century was the growth of mass methods of producing merchandise and improved ways to get the goods to the stores.
A large department store will employ hundreds of people to handle ail of the details involved in selling. There have to be buyers, people to price the merchandise and then more people to sell. A sales promotion department must be staffed to handle advertising and a large group must be on hand to handle the financial details.
Ownership groups and chain organizations have increased since the 1920s. Today a number of giant chains operate department stores across the nation.
Two of the largest chains, Sears, Roebuck & and Co. and Montgomery Ward & Co., are also leading mail order organizations. Both were founded in Chicago at the end of the last century, and both originally were geared to service rural communities. Now they both have retail stores in all parts of the country.
Department stores have benefited from the growth of suburban shopping centers.
One of the most recent methods of merchandising used by department stores today is the self service selection of goods. This has helped reduce the stores staff expenses.