Department Stores?

[Zach R.]

We've all seen the catalog examples of the clothes themselves, but does anyone have any pictures of what the inside of a Sears or any other department store would really look like in the 30s and 40s?

[CharlieH.]

Here are a few items from the 40's:









I also have a few colour shots of Macy's from around 1941, but they're on my currently disabled computing apparatus.

[Zach R.]

Thanks, those are pretty neat.

Anyone else have any photos, or know of somewhere online where they may be found?

[magneto]

Have you searched the Library of Congress Photo Archive?
http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/index.html
Darn it, I had some JPGs of the old SF stores (I. Magnin, City of Paris, etc) and now I can't find them. The best I can do is this 1930s pic of store clerks (mostly comely females) sunbathing on the roof of Kress-Newbury dept. store during a strike!

http://siobhan.freeshell.org/kress-newbury1938.jpg

[Maj.Nick Danger]

Christmas castle.






A Christmas Magician? At Halle's.

All you ever wanted to know about Department stores in Cleveland Ohio.

http://www.clevelandmemory.org/stores/

[Maj.Nick Danger]

The housewares department at Higbee's in downtown Cleveland 1931.

[Atomic Glee]

Some photos of the Montgomery Ward store in the Fort Worth Cultural District (just outside downtown), which opened in 1928.

Opening in 1928:













The building survived, and today has been renovated into a mixed-use project, with retail on the ground floor, parking on the 2nd & 3rd floors, and condos (still under development) on the rest of the floors:

[DanielJones]

And notice how un-cluttered and tidy they are. Most department stores today are so jammed packed it's hard to manuver through them.

Cheers!

Dan

[Tony in Tarzana]

Anybody know anything about Remick's in Quincy, Mass? My grey Stetson Homburg came from there. All I've been able to find is that it was founded by Frank Remick who was the father of the late actress Lee Remick.

[Wild Root]

Say this is a pretty neat topic... it's something that I've thought about many times... I've often wondered what it'd be like to shop in a department store back in those days... I'm sure it'd be fun! Did you know that in the music section of most department stores, they'd have a piano player on hand to play music for customers? What I mean is, say a customer wanted to buy some sheet music but, wanted to hear how it sounded first... well, that customer could hand it to a clerk and they'd play it! Sounds pretty cool to me!

Shopping for clothes would be pretty cool in one of these department stores... LA still has the old early 30's Sears standing down on Soto Street... it's still a Sears! But, around the main floor it got a face lift some time in the 1970's... ICH!!! But, as you look towards the top, you'll see the original green neon sign! It's so pretty when it's light at night!

=WR=

[Haversack]

Well, I have some young-boy memories of a few old department stores which were still functioning in the early 1960s.

In San Luis Obispo, Sinsheimers was the main department store. It still had the centralized cashier's office which was connected to several salesclerks' tables by an overhead trolley system. The clerk would write up a sales slip, and put it and your money in the wire basket, pull a cord, and the basket would fly on the overhead cable to the cashier's office. Change would be made there, and it and the receipt would come flying back. Makes a big impression on a 4-year-old boy.

Weinstock's in downtown Sacramento just north of Capitol Park was a much larger department store of several stories and a mezzanine. It too had a centralized cashier's office. The connection system however, was pneumatic. Money and sales slip would be put into small cylinders which would be placed into the send tube with a sucking snap. An even more distintive sound would be made when it returned and dropped into a wooden box. The mezzanine was my favourite spot in the store. Not only did it overlook the main floor, it was also where the toy department was. Goods were well presented on shelves and display tables. There were not aisles as is common today. One feature which distinguished department stores from general stores, hardware stores, usw. was their spaciousness. There was not only a sense of volume with the high ceilings, but also room between tables. This contrasted the narrow space between tables in a traditional hardware store such as Newberts' in Sacramento.

I also have memory-impressions of accompaning my grandmother into I. Magnin's in Los Angeles. Very well lit. Very white. A distinct smell of crisp cloth. And a strict admonition delivered in broad Scots to mind my manners and to not touch anything.

Haversack.

[RedPop4]

Haversack, Krauss, in New Orleans had same thing with the pneumatic system. I think you could pay cash in the departments, but any credit purchases went up the chute.

You could buy everything at Krauss. It's right on Canal St. Building is still there but closed about ten years ago. ANY specialty fabric or stuff you couldn't find elsewhere you could go get at Krauss or they'd order it for you.

Maison Blanche is now the Ritz-Carlton on Canal St.

[flat-top]

http://www.boscovs.com/static/about_boscov/history.html
During our location's grand opening, they used great 50's footage in the TV commercials!

[Tony in Tarzana]

Wow, Flat-top, what a cool place and what a great job for a vintage enthusiast to have!

[Mike in Seattle]

We had the same pneumatic system for receipts & cash at C.R. Anthony's in Bixby Knolls in Long Beach growing up. The other stores Mom loved were Buffum's (Dorothy Chandler of L.A. Music Center fame was Buffum's founder's daughter) which had fabulous Christmas window displays at their downtown store (gone since the early 70's to move to Long Beach Mall and they finally liquidated everything in the late 80's). The other, that always had a 40's feel up into the 70's was Walker's - 40's feel until they liquidated. Aluminum charge-plates (no plastic charge cards) up till the day they folded.

But I remember a store in Lincoln, Nebraska which I believe was called Miller & Paine - wooden escalators, elevator operators & a tea room where ladies still wore gloves when we visited an aunt in the 70's.

There's just something about the classic old stores that the new malls just completely miss. Chrome & glass & fluorescent lights - ugh!

[Terry Lennox]

sure beats walmart!

[Marc Chevalier]

Sadly, Wal-Mart helped to beat it.



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[Wild Root]

Wal*Mart... They be cancer of the earth... yep, cancer that's it! Ask Matt how they're building a new Super Wal*Mart just a block away from his house... it's in a residential area... makes no sense!!!

=WR=

[Marc Chevalier]

I read a book about a journalist who worked "undercover" at a Wal-Mart store. She wrote that at Wal-Mart, you're not taught how to sell to customers, or to interact with them in any meaningful social way. Instead, you spend your whole day putting out (and putting back) merchandise. The only time you talk to customers is when they ask you for directions.

Years ago, I spent summers selling suits in a department store. I really interacted with people and felt pride in my ability to help them well, to the best of my ability. Yes, I put away merchandise, but I also studied like heck and learned everything I could about what I sold ... and who I sold it to. And I felt that my work could have dignity to it.

Wal-Mart doesn't give its store employees the opportunity to do any of this. The company wastes new employees' time in "training" by making them watch films praising "the Wal-Mart way" and stressing "Wal-Mart pride", and then sends them out to put stuff on shelves. Well, if that's "the Wal-Mart" way, then they can keep it.


.

[Marc Chevalier]

There was a time, at least in the better deparment stores, when a salesperson really had to know his/her stuff, dress with expertise, and have a good understanding of psychology.

Salespeople built up solid reputations and relationships with their customers, based on trust and sometimes spanning decades.

The commission system really helped, and so did profit-sharing. Alas, all of that is long gone.


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