Inauguration of the Grand Bazaar on rue de Rennes, Paris, in 1907 • WIKIMEDIA COMMONS In early 19 th European cities century, the retail trade had not yet undergone major transformations:there were small specialized establishments, such as haberdasheries, perfumeries or jewellers, but also small street stalls, generally set up in fairs or markets by street vendors. The wealthy classes usually made their purchases at home:they sent merchants there and received craftsmen, such as tailors or dressmakers, who took note of their orders. As the supply was limited, prices sometimes soared and customers had to resort to the often thankless practice of haggling. Small shops are outdated The situation began to change in the middle of the 19 th century:the bourgeoisie, which had prospered thanks to the industrial revolution, began to covet all kinds of luxury goods to which they had never had access before. Lacking neither money to spend nor the desire to follow fashions, she soon began to feel cramped in the shops of the big capitals. New commercial formulas were developed to meet this emerging demand. In Paris, for example, the covered passages flourished, which housed shopping malls arranged between buildings, or even “novelty shops”, sorts of bazaars targeting a select clientele. But it was in the middle of the 19 th century that a new type of commercial establishment appeared characterized by its elegance and its comfort:mainly female, its customers could acquire there in the same sales space of the articles whose price was indicated on a label and profit there, if they wanted, advice from an abundant and specialized staff. Boucicaut, self-taught and born salesman The invention of this new kind of business, baptized “department store”, was attributed to the Frenchman Aristide Boucicaut. Son of a provincial hatter, this autodidact born and raised in the Norman village of Bellême began as a traveling hat seller. He left at the age of 18 for Paris, where he began in 1834 to work at the Petit Saint-Thomas bazaar; there he met Marguerite Guérin, who became his wife and main collaborator. In 1845, he was hired as a salesman by a novelty shop called Au Bon Marché. In direct contact with customers, Aristide Boucicaut pierced his psychology and all the factors of a successful sale. Driven by a spirit of initiative that characterized him throughout his life, he convinced the owners of Le Bon Marché to renovate their store and set up different departments offering all the items likely to be sought by customers. It was thus possible to find dresses, hats, umbrellas, gloves, bags or suitcases, so many items adaptable to the measurements and tastes of buyers. The enthusiasm aroused by this experience was such that Aristide Boucicaut founded a new company in 1852 with his former employers, which kept the name of Bon Marché and was moved in 1853 to larger premises, located rue de Sèvres. Thanks to the contribution of capital from a French merchant who had made his fortune in the United States, Aristide Boucicaut bought the entire company in 1863. The new premises having in the meantime become too cramped, he commissioned Gustave Eiffel and Louis-Charles Boileau to design buildings in iron and glass, in the fashion of the time; built in the same street of the VII e arrondissement than their predecessors, the latter still house the Bon Marché we know today. The art of building customer loyalty A true marketing genius, Aristide Boucicaut ingeniously transformed shopping into a rewarding experience, providing greater pleasure than simply satisfying a concrete need. To prevent the men from becoming impatient in this space oriented towards a female audience, he had a small café set up allowing them to read, smoke or have a drink while the women did their shopping. Seeing also the possibility of retaining mothers by winning the favors of their children, he also set up a distribution of balloons and sweets. For the first time in history, Le Bon Marché allowed customers to observe products up close, to consult the prices on the labels, to marvel at the captivating advertising posters praising the name of the store everywhere and even to benefit from discounts at different times of the year. In doing so, he banned the practice of haggling and included free advice provided by salespeople sufficiently trained to guide customers according to their needs. The establishment also had to be comfortable and welcoming; this is why Aristide Boucicaut paid particular attention to the decoration and had lifts installed to facilitate the movement of customers between the floors. He also imagined huge windows, which he left lit at night to advertise the brand, and he introduced home delivery to encourage customers to increase their purchases without worrying about transport. Aristide Boucicaut's talent for business did not stop at his Parisian establishment:to increase his turnover, he ventured into mail order and offered customers the possibility of returning the items received free of charge. they were not satisfied with it. This network extended to the main cities of France, then to Europe and America. To accommodate clients who did not live in Paris, Aristide Boucicaut even went so far as to open the Hôtel Lutetia in 1910, a splendid establishment halfway between Art Nouveau and Art Deco. Inspired by Christian socialism, Boucicaut offers its employees paid maternity leave, sickness benefits, accommodation and language courses. He was also inspired by the theory of Christian socialism and the French politician and priest Félicité de Lamennais to guarantee absolutely unprecedented working conditions for his staff, which reached 3,500 employees. He thus offered them paid maternity leave, sickness benefits, wedding gifts, language courses intended to improve the services provided to foreign customers, and even accommodation located in the same buildings as the stores. In addition to contributing to the international prestige of French fashion and the integration of women into the labor market as sales assistants, seamstresses, embroiderers, hat makers, etc., this new form of trade also inspired great writers. In 1883, Émile Zola published Au Bonheur des Dames , whose protagonist, Octave Mouret, could be the alter ego of Aristide Boucicaut and whose title refers to a fictitious establishment, but nevertheless faithful to what Le Bon Marché was at its origins:"Also, le Bonheur des Dames, from eight o'clock, it blazed in the rays of this bright sun […]. Flags fluttered at the door, pieces of woolen wool beat in the fresh morning air, animating the Place Gaillon with the din of a carnival; while, on the two streets, the shop windows developed symphonies of displays, whose clearness of the mirrors heightened the brilliant tones still further. It was like a debauchery of colors, a joy of the street which burst there, a whole corner of consumption wide open, and where everyone could go to rejoice the eyes. » A success from London to New York Le Bon Marché was so successful that it soon became emulated. In its shadow, many Parisian brands flourished, opened in some cases by employees of Aristide Boucicaut himself. This was particularly the case of Printemps, founded in 1865 by Jules Jaluzot and Jean-Alfred Duclos, where the first escalators in the history of commercial establishments were fitted out in 1930, or La Samaritaine, founded in 1870 and administered by Ernest Cognacq and Marie-Louise Jaÿ, all trained at Bon Marché. Thanks to their geographical location, the Galeries Lafayette, founded in 1893 by Théophile Bader and Alphonse Kahn, soon attracted a clientele from the upper middle class, while the Bon Marché or La Samaritaine remained mainly reserved for the middle class. Like the Bon Marché, these brands embodied a new commercial concept, in remarkable premises combining Art Nouveau and Art Deco, which can be considered architectural masterpieces of their time. In London opened Harrods. Founded in 1835 in the London district of Stepney, this grocery store was transformed into a supermarket when it was transferred in 1849 to the Knightsbridge district, whose boom led to the growth in sales and the diversification of the products offered by this brand today. elitist. In the United States, Macy's inaugurated in 1902 in New York "the largest store in the world". The end of the 19 th century saw department stores flourish in other countries that still thrive today. In the United States, for example, the visionary Franklin W. Woolworth also transformed the traditional trade with the founding in 1879 of the first store of the eponymous chain, of which all the goods were sold at the single prices of 5 and 10 cents. Bloomingdale's was born in 1872, while Macy's inaugurated in 1902 in New York "the largest store in the world". Barcelona was the first Spanish city to take up the torch of Aristide Boucicaut:opened in 1878 on the Ramblas, the El Siglo department store had seven floors, an army of 1,000 employees, a fleet of 25 vehicles assigned to home deliveries and printed 20,000 catalogs. Its destruction by fire in 1932, during the Christmas period, left the city in shock. The first Madrid department store appeared in 1924 under the name of Madrid-París. Located in the middle of Gran Vía, it was aimed at an upper middle class audience. Ten years later, the company was forced by its lack of success to go out of business. Its premises were then taken over by other large stores called Sociedad Española de Precios Únicos (SEPU), whose products corresponded to the most affordable line of Woolworths. The Galerías Preciados and the Corte Inglés only appeared a few years later, during the 1940s. So many famous brands that would never have seen the light of day without the commercial intuition and innovative vision of a young Frenchman from the provinces. named after Aristide Boucicaut. Find out more At the Bon Marché. 1869-1920. The tamed consumer, by Michael Barry Miller, Armand Colin, 1987.A history of department stores, by Jan Whitaker, Citadelles &Mazenod, 2011.The Fabulous History of Department Stores, by Renée Grimaud, Editions Prisma, 2016. For Zola, the big fish devours the little ones Emile Zola describes Octave Mouret, owner of the department stores in his novel Au Bonheur des Dames , like a cunning fox that adopts modern business strategies, like slashing prices, to sink small businesses. "We'll lose a few cents on the article, I don't mind. After ? The beautiful misfortune, if we attract all the women and if we hold them at our mercy, seduced, panicked by the piling up of our goods, emptying their purses without counting! The whole thing, my dear, is to light them up, and for that you need a flattering, epoch-making article. Then, you can sell the other articles as expensive as elsewhere, they will believe to pay them cheaper at home. […] Buried, all these junk dealers who are dying of rheumatism, in their cellars! »
