The plight of 20th century department stores in the 21st century
News that the iconic Hudson’s Bay Company may close all of its stores under a restructuring agreement is a hard blow; the Hudson’s Bay Company has been Canada’s central, British colonizing presence since 1671. To say that every Canadian throughout history has somehow been touched by ‘the Bay’ during its history is an understatement, be it their elegant department stores, their overtly practical Northern Stores, their real estate holdings, their oil and gas department, their…. Let’s just say that ‘The Bay’ was big.
The way that we buy and sell goods is a very dynamic, always changing endeavour. Starting with open air markets, it came indoors to general stores, to department stores, to commercial strips, to shopping plazas, to climate controlled indoor shopping malls, to power centres – the way we buy and sell goods has gone through a lot. Architectural trappings aside, the purchasing of goods – shopping – became a social experience.
The 19th Century brought about a middle class that was structured around a family with one wage earner who went off to work five, maybe six days a week. It left another family member at home to run domestic affairs. A hallmark of the late 19th Century and through the 20th Century has been the advent of labour saving devices. That person who stayed home to run domestic affairs suddenly had time – and money – on their hands. The purchasing of goods – retail – suddenly became a recreation endeavor, something to do with newfound spare time. Social scientists gleaned over this marvelously, as it increased the standard of living! The department store format came into being and catered expressly to this market.
Department stores themselves became attractions. One of my favourites, the Wannamaker Store in Philadelphia housed one of the world’s largest pipe organs and played organ recitals regularly throughout the day, to attract and entertain shoppers. And it had an enormous brass eagle, standing guard over the shoppers! Marshall Field’s in Chicago noted that there were no socially proper places for a lady to have lunch, so they introduced the Chestnut Room and their classic pot pies for this market.
At Christmas time – a major shopping event – ‘all stops were pulled’: decorations, choirs, Santa Claus…. The Louden Machinery Company leased ‘kiddie monorails’ suspended from ceiling that would transport kiddies overtop the toy departments in a thrilling amusement park ride.
Shopping malls came into vogue, as the big department stores acted as anchors for an entire gaggle of complementing smaller stores. Shopping malls enhanced the retail social experience dramatically. Indeed, the West Edmonton Mall in Edmonton had an entire amusement park with carousels, roller coasters, an enormous wave pool, a hockey rink and a lagoon with more submarines than the entire Royal Canadian Navy, plus more than eight hundred stores, all under one roof! Shopping became a social experience and an increasing pool of spare time and disposable income made this experience very popular; a neighbourhood centre. Architect Victor Gruen is credited with developing the shopping mall format. He foresaw the shopping mall as becoming the ‘town center’, as demonstrated in his Midtown Plaza, in Rochester New York. It too came with a kiddie monorail, a fountain, and an animated clock that would perform on queue every hour on the hour.
Alas, all good things come to an end. Perhaps it was the cost of supporting this increasingly better standard of living, or perhaps simply to afford a mortgage on a house, but more and more, households were beginning to need two wage earners. The idea of attracting someone with spare time on their hands was a vanishing endeavour. Shopping became more of an acquisition of commodities than a social experience. Alas, enter the 21st Century shopping concept of ordering online – sight unseen – from a warehouse. Granted, major department store of the 20th century had large and successful catalogue shopping operations, they were soon phased out to bring shoppers into an enhanced social experience that a mail order catalogue couldn’t offer. That however, was a very 20th Century concept, we’ve moved into a 21st Century society of a highly competitive, highly managed workforce with little spare time, or at least, different diversions than before.
Wannamaker’s in Philadelphia was acquired by Macy’s and has since been closed, despite it being one of the world’s largest department stores. Marshall Field’s was similarly bought by Macy’s and appears to be downsizing its operations. Midtown Plaza was closed and has since been demolished. And now we’re left with the West Edmonton Mall, which will see its only traditional mainline “anchor” tenant, the Hudson’s Bay Co. Department Store, close. Just like all the other mainline anchor tenants: Sears, Woodward’s, Eaton’s, closed before.
Driving into the office, I came across this warehouse that was a Simpsons Sears Clearance Center. The building had been painted during that era but since then, Simpsons Sears became Sears which eventually folded. The ghost of the Simpsons Sears sign, which was probably from the early to mid 1970s, still haunts.
