From the Up-to- Date in Downtown Troy through Alexander's to A&S in Brooklyn

Dead but Not Forgotten | Service and Style: How the American Department Store Fashioned the Middle Class | Jan Whitaker

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	• Service and Style: How the American Department Store Fashioned the Middle Class Jan Whitaker St. Martin's Press, 2006 - 352 pages average customer review:based on 6 reviews view larger image
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highly recommended

Everything you ever wanted to know about DEPARTMENT STORES: Late 1800's to 1980's

This book is about the history of the American Department class="textlinks">Store, from the late 1800's to the early 1980s.

The author of this book is emphatic about the fact that Department Stores are quite different from the "Catalog Stores" (eg: SEARS), or different from the huge "National Chain Stores" (eg: WAL-MART). So please note that this book is only about "Department Stores" (as stated in the book's title) and NOT about Chain Stores,nor the very huge National Catalog Chains.

Anyhow, this book is very well-written. The photos are mostly in black-n-white, since at that time, most photos were not in color.

The author does a wonderful job at categorizing each chapters into sub-categories, and the author goes into great detail in explaining the issues and experiences that affected the American Department stores (be it, their evolution, but also their demise).

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From the Up-to- Date in Downtown Troy through Alexander's to A&S in Brooklyn

Christina Larsen in her highly favorable review of this book in 'Washington Monthly' notes that one major reason people shop is for 'the experience'. Jan Whitaker chronicles class="textlinks">how the Department Store became a central element in American life. She tells of how the great movement from farm to City in the late nineteenth - century , combined with new developments in communication and transportation helped make Department stores the center of American commercial life. Here is Larsen's description of of what Whitaker does in the book.

" She details how department stores, which dominated American retail in the early 20th century, helped give "material expression to vague ideas of what success, femininity, citizenship, and popularity might mean," then put the identifying accessories (briefcase, lingerie, top hat, tennis racket) within reach of most customers. The secret to the stores' success was that they were always selling more than the thing itself."

The Department Store drew the masses into the heart of town. It democratized fashion, and made goods available to the many which were once for the exclusive enjoyment of the wealthy. Though Department Stores sold many different kinds of product, once for instance were a central vendor of books, their major product and great attraction was clothing.

This book will bring a lot of insight into an American institution , and I think for older folks like myself much nostalgic enjoyment. I grew up in the world of Department stores from the 'Up-to- Date' in downtown Troy New York Alexander's in Manhattan and Abraham and Strauss Brooklyn where my Aunt Molly Zeibert of blessed memory was for many years a 'buyer'(Dresses) .

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Dead but Not Forgotten

Service and class="textlinks">Style has a lot going for it. A great mostly unexplore subject, the history of the American Department Story, a great historical theme, the role these stores played in forming middle class style and great photos. Its well written, organized and researched. I have a family connection to Hess's a department store in Allentown and was pleased to find several references to the store and its owner Max Hess. Many of the things my family talked about that made his store special were shared among other stores as well.

Too bad it didn't take it to the next level and show how the stores transformed the American middle class into sophisticated and pampered consumers. Still, it was well-worth reading and for gazing at all the great photographs of a bygone era.

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Immensely Readable Retailing History

Jan Whitaker has written an engaging and entertaining book, a whirlwind tour of the American department class="textlinks">store, from its glory days in the Victorian era through its demise in recent times. Whitaker reminds us that browsing, window shopping, and buying were once pleasureable experiences that anchored the dreams of consumers who were middle class, or who aspired to be middle class. John Wanamaker, Marshall Field, and other department store pioneers created their stores to be palaces of consumption, luxurious escapes from the humdrum of everyday life. With verve and humor, Whitaker captures that magic and momentarily transports us back to the golden era of retailing. Chain store executives, driven by the imperative to endlessly cut costs, would do well to read this book and think about what's missing from the contemporary retailing scene.

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      Downtown department class="textlinks">stores were once the heart and soul of America?s pulsing Broadways and Main Streets. With names such as City of Paris, Penn Traffic, The Maze, Maison Blanche, or The Popular, they suggested spheres far beyond mundane shopping. Nicknames reflected the affection customers felt for their favorites, whether Woodie?s, Wanny?s, Stek?s, O.T.?s, Herp?s, or Bam?s.
      The history of downtown department stores is as fascinating as their names and as diverse as their merchandise. Their stories encompass many themes: the rise of decorative design, new career paths for women, the growth of consumerism, and the technological ingenuity of escalators and pneumatic tubes. Just as the big stores made up their own small universes, their stories are microcosmic narratives of American culture and society.
      The big stores were much more than mere businesses. They were local institutions where shoppers could listen to concerts, see fashion shows and art exhibits, learn golf or bridge, pay electric bills, and plan vacations ? all while their children played in the store?s nursery under the eye of a uniformed nursemaid.
From Boston to San Diego and Miami to Seattle, department stores symbolized a city?s spirit, wealth, and progressiveness. Situated at busy intersections, they occupied the largest and finest downtown buildings, and their massive corner clocks became popular meeting places. Their locations became the epicenters of commerce, 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 and they still have power to influence how we shop today.
       Service and Style recreates the days of downtown department stores in their prime, from the 1890s through the 1960s. Exploring 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.

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