Template:Short description Template:About Template:Use dmy dates {{#invoke:Infobox|infobox}}Template:Template otherTemplate:Main other{{#invoke:Check for clobbered parameters|check|nested=1|template=Infobox company|cat=Template:Main other|name; company_name|logo; company_logo|logo_alt; alt|trade_name; trading_name|former_names; former_name|type; company_type|predecessors; predecessor|successors; successor|foundation; founded|founders; founder|defunct; dissolved|hq_location; location|hq_location_city; location_city|hq_location_country; location_country|num_locations; locations|areas_served; area_served|net_income; profit|net_income_year; profit_year|owners; owner |homepage; website }}{{#invoke:Check for unknown parameters|check|unknown=Template:Main other|preview=Page using Template:Infobox company with unknown parameter "_VALUE_" | ignoreblank=y | alt | area_served | areas_served | assets | assets_year | aum | brands | company_logo | company_name | company_type | defunct | dissolved | divisions | embed | equity | equity_year | fate | footnotes | former_name | former_names | foundation | founded | founder | founders | genre | homepage | hq_location | hq_location_city | hq_location_country | incorporated | image | image_alt | image_caption | image_size | image_upright | income_year | industry | ISIN | key_people | location | location_city | location_country | locations | logo | logo_alt | logo_caption | logo_class | logo_size | logo_upright | members | members_year | module | name | native_name | native_name_lang | net_income | net_income_year | num_employees | num_employees_year | num_locations | num_locations_year | operating_income | owner | owners | parent | predecessor | predecessors | production | production_year | products | profit | profit_year | rating | ratio | revenue | revenue_year | romanized_name | services | subsid | successor | successors | traded_as | trade_name | trading_name | type | website| qid | fetchwikidata | suppressfields | noicon | nocat | demo | categories }} Selfridges, also known as Selfridges & Co., is a chain of upmarket department stores in the United Kingdom that is operated by Selfridges Retail Limited.<ref name="SRL">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> It was founded by Harry Gordon Selfridge in 1908.<ref name="SRL"/> The historic Daniel Burnham-designed Selfridges flagship store at 400 Oxford Street in London opened on 15 March 1909 and is the second-largest shop in the UK (after Harrods).<ref name="Ourheritage">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> Other Selfridges stores opened in the Manchester area at the Trafford Centre (1998) and at Exchange Square (2002), and in Birmingham at the Bullring (2003).
During the 1940s, smaller provincial Selfridges stores were sold to the John Lewis Partnership, and in 1951, the original Oxford Street store was acquired by the Liverpool-based Lewis's chain of department stores.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> Lewis's and Selfridges were then taken over in 1965 by the Sears Group, owned by Charles Clore.<ref name="oxford">Template:Cite ODNBsubscription required</ref> Expanded under the Sears Group to include branches in Manchester and Birmingham,<ref name=autogenerated1>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> the chain was acquired in 2003 by Canada's Galen Weston for £598 million.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> In December 2021, the Weston family agreed to sell the majority of Selfridges Group for around £4 billion to a joint venture between Thai conglomerate Central Group and Austria's Signa Holding.<ref>White, Georgia (24 December 2021) Selfridges confirms sale to Central Group and Signa Holding, Retail Gazette. Retrieved: 29 December 2021.</ref><ref name="bbc2">Template:Cite news</ref> The acquisition was completed on 23 August 2022.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> However, after Signa faced financial difficulties and declared bankruptcy, Saudi Arabia's Public Investment Fund (PIF) acquired Signa's shares in Selfridges, becoming a co-owner alongside the Central Group.
HistoryEdit
The basis of Harry Gordon Selfridge's success was his relentlessly innovative marketing, which was elaborately expressed in his Oxford Street store. Originally from America himself, Selfridge attempted to dismantle the idea that consumerism was strictly an American phenomenon.<ref name=":0" /> He tried to make shopping a fun adventure and a form of leisure instead of a chore,<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> transforming the department store into a social and cultural landmark that provided women with a public space in which they could be comfortable and legitimately indulge themselves.<ref name=":0">Template:Cite book</ref> Emphasizing the importance of creating a welcoming environment, he placed merchandise on display so customers could examine it, and moved the highly profitable perfume counter front-and-centre on the ground floor.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>
Either Selfridge or Marshall Field is popularly held to have coined the phrase "the customer is always right".<ref name="phrase">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>
In 1909, after the first cross-Channel flight, Louis Blériot's monoplane, the Blériot XI, was put on display at Selfridges, where it was seen by 150,000 people over a four day period.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> John Logie Baird made the first public demonstration of moving silhouette images by television from the first floor of Selfridges from 1 to 27 April 1925.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>
In the 1920s and 1930s, the roof of the store hosted terraced gardens, cafes, a mini golf course and an all-girl gun club. The roof, with its extensive views across London, was a common place for strolling after a shopping trip and was often used for fashion shows.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>
During the Second World War, the store's basement was used as an air-raid shelter and during raids employees were usually on the lookout for incendiary bombs and took watch in turns.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>
A Milne-Shaw seismograph was set up on the Oxford Street store's third floor in 1932, attached to one of the building's main stanchions, where it remained unaffected by traffic or shoppers. It successfully recorded the Belgian earthquake of 11 June 1938, which was also felt in London. In 1947, it was given to the Science Museum.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation
|CitationClass=web }}</ref>
The huge SIGSALY scrambling apparatus, by which transatlantic conferences between American and British officials (most notably Winston Churchill and Franklin D. Roosevelt) were secured against eavesdropping, was housed in the basement from 1943 on, with extension to the Cabinet War Rooms about a mile away.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>
In 1926, Selfridges set up the Selfridge Provincial Stores company, which had expanded over the years to include sixteen provincial stores, but these were sold to the John Lewis Partnership in 1940. The Liverpool-based Lewis's chain of department stores acquired the remaining Oxford Street Shop in 1951, expanding the brand by adding Moultons of Ilford, purchased from rival chain R H O Hills and renaming the store Selfridges.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> In 1965 the business was purchased by the Sears Group, owned by Charles Clore.<ref name="oxford"/> Under the Sears group, branches in Ilford and Oxford opened, with the latter remaining Selfridges until 1986, when Sears rebranded it as a Lewis's store. In 1990, Sears Group split Selfridges from Lewis's and placed Lewis's in administration a year later. In March 1998, Selfridges introduced new branding in tandem with the opening of the Manchester Trafford Centre store and Selfridges' demerger from Sears.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>
In September 1998, Selfridges expanded and opened its first department store outside London. A Template:Convert anchor store at the newly opened Trafford Centre in Greater Manchester.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> Following its success, Selfridges announced they would open an additional store in Greater Manchester. A Template:Convert store in Exchange Square, Manchester city centre opened in 2002 as Manchester city centre started to return to normal following the 1996 Manchester bombing.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>
A Template:Convert store soon followed in 2003 at Birmingham's Bull Ring.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>
Plans for expansion and additional stores continued soon after. Desired locations included Leeds, Liverpool, Dublin and Glasgow. The company purchased a site in Glasgow in 2002 and announced a new 200,000 sq ft Scottish flagship store was due to open in 2007.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> The following year all expansion plans were put on hold as the company began negotiations to sell the business. The Glasgow site was eventually sold off in 2013 and no plans to open any future stores has been announced - as of 2023.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>
In 2003, the chain was acquired by Canada's Galen Weston for £598 million and some of his other investments, which included Brown Thomas and Arnotts in Ireland, Holt Renfrew in Canada and de Bijenkorf in the Netherlands, became part of Selfridges Group. Weston, a retailing expert who is the owner of Loblaw Companies in Canada, chose to invest in the renovation of the Oxford Street store—rather than to create new stores in British cities other than Manchester and Birmingham.<ref name="bbc">Template:Cite news</ref>
In October 2009, Selfridges revived its rooftop entertainment with the pop up "The Restaurant on the Roof" restaurant.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> In July 2011, Truvia created an emerald green boating lake (with a waterfall, a boat-up cocktail bar and a forest of Stevia plants).<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> In 2012 the Big Rooftop Tea and Golf Party featured "the highest afternoon tea on Oxford Street" and a nine-hole golf course with "the seven wonders of London" realised in cake as obstacles.<ref name="look">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>
In August 2020, during a difficult time for UK retail, Selfridges offered luxury pieces for hire to millennial and socially conscious clients. The store partnered with HURR, an online fashion rental platform, offering hire of 100 items from over 40 fashion brands for up to 20 days at a time.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>
The Weston family put the Selfridges business up for auction in July 2021, with an estimated value of £4 billion. The sale includes all stores including the flagship Oxford Street store and worldwide outlets.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> In early December 2021, the family was reported to be finalising the chain's sale to Central Group.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref><ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref><ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>
On 24 December 2021, it was announced that the majority of Selfridges Group had been sold to a joint venture between Thai conglomerate Central Group and the Austrian Signa Holding for around £4 billion.<ref name="bbc2"/>
In 2024, Thailand's Central Group partnered with Saudi Arabia's Public Investment Fund (PIF) to co-own the Selfridges Group. After Signa's bankruptcy, PIF acquired its shares, leaving Central Group with a 60% stake and PIF with 40%.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>
ArchitectureEdit
Selfridge stores are known for architectural innovation and excellence, and are tourist destinations in their own right.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> The original London store was designed by Daniel Burnham, who also created the Marshall Field's main store in his home town of Chicago. Burnham was the leading American department store designer of the time and had works in Boston (Filenes's), New York (Gimbel's, Wanamaker's), and Philadelphia (Wanamaker's, his magnum opus).<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>
The London store was built in phases. The first phase consisted of only the nine-and-a-half bays closest to the Duke Street corner,<ref name="heritage">Template:NHLE</ref> and is an example of one of the earliest uses of steel cage frame construction for this type of building in London. This circumstance, according to the report of a contemporary London correspondent from the Chicago Tribune, was largely responsible for making possible the eventual widespread use of Chicago’s steel frame cage construction system in the United Kingdom:
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Also involved in the design of the store were American architect Francis Swales, who worked on decorative details, and British architects R. Frank Atkinson and Thomas Smith Tait.<ref name="morrison">Template:Cite book</ref><ref name="tait">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> The distinctive polychrome sculpture above the Oxford Street entrance is the work of British sculptor Gilbert Bayes.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}<</ref>
The Daily Telegraph named Selfridges in London the world's best department store in 2010.<ref name="telegraph">Template:Cite newsTemplate:Cbignore</ref>
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The Birmingham store, designed by architects Future Systems, is covered in 15,000 spun aluminium discs on a background of Yves Klein Blue.<ref name="guardian">Template:Cite news</ref> Since it opened in 2003, the Birmingham store has been named every year by industry magazine Retail Week as one of the 100 stores to visit in the world.<ref name="must">Template:Cite newsTemplate:Cbignore</ref>
WindowsEdit
Selfridges' windows have become synonymous also with the brand, and to a certain degree have become as famous as the company and Oxford Street location itself. Selfridges has a history of bold art initiatives when it comes to the window designs. Selfridge himself likened the act of shopping to the act of attending the theatre and encouraged his customers to make this connection as well by covering his show windows with silk curtains before dramatically unveiling the displays on opening day.<ref name=":0"/> Later, when the building was undergoing restoration,<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> the scaffolding was shrouded with a giant photograph of stars such as Sir Elton John by Sam Taylor-Wood.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> For Christmas 2014, the window displayed a Kate Moss-designed Paddington Bear statue—themed "Goldie Bear"—which was auctioned to raise funds for the National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children (NSPCC).<ref>Template:Cite news</ref><ref>Template:Cite news</ref>
Since 2002, the windows have been photographed by London photographer Andrew Meredith and published in magazines such as Vogue, Dwell, Icon, Frame, Creative Review, Hungarian Stylus Magazine, Design Week, Harper's Bazaar, The New York Times, WGSN as well as many worldwide media outlets, including the world wide press, journals, blogs and published books.<ref name="meredith">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>
Opening day and marketingEdit
Template:Multiple image The long lasting influence that Harry Selfridge would have on shopping and department stores became immediately clear with Selfridges' opening day. The store’s opening to much fanfare on 15 March 1909 laid the foundation for the success of the entire lifestyle that Selfridge aimed to promote. Even before the unveiling of the window displays, innovative marketing techniques set up the momentous occasion and the store for great success.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>
Harry Selfridge developed close relationships with the media to ensure that his store and its opening were properly publicized.<ref name=":0" /> The opening week ad campaign relied mainly on unpaid promotions in the form of news articles in newspapers, magazines, and journals. As time progressed, Selfridge took the more traditional form of marketing by writing daily columns under the pen name Callisthenes.<ref name=":0" /> Overall, however, one of the most effective marketing tools proved to be the opening week cartoons focusing on the grand event. Selfridge enlisted the help of thirty-eight of London’s top illustrators to draw hundreds of full page, half page, and quarter page advertisements for eighteen newspapers.<ref name=":1">Template:Cite journal</ref>
The marketing continued on opening day itself. Touted as “London’s Greatest Store,” Selfridges immediately became a cultural and social phenomenon. From the store's soft lighting to the general absence of price tags to live music from string quartets, every detail of the opening was purposeful to draw people into the entire shopping experience and make each shopper feel unique.<ref name=":1" /> At Selfridges, shoppers entered another world in which they became "guests," as the store referred to them, and could purchase unique items that differed from the material goods sold in other stores.<ref name=":1" />
ControversiesEdit
- After protests by animal welfare advocates,<ref>Template:Cite news</ref><ref>Template:Cite news
</ref><ref>Template:Cite news </ref> in November 2009 Selfridges agreed to stop selling foie gras (a delicacy made from the livers of forcibly fattened ducks and geese).<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>
- In July 2010, Selfridges apologized publicly after its Manchester store displayed an Alexander McQueen garment hanging from a gallows-like structure, just months after the designer committed suicide by hanging.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>
- In September 2013, the store suspended a shop assistant who refused to serve a friend of Tommy Robinson.<ref>Template:Cite news
</ref><ref>Template:Cite news</ref>
- In February 2015, one of Selfridges' stores in Manchester installed so-called anti-homeless spikes.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>
In cultureEdit
ITV and Masterpiece produced a series entitled Mr Selfridge, which aired from 2013 to 2016.<ref name="hale">Template:Cite news</ref><ref name=":2">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>
Selfridges was also featured in the 2017 movie Wonder Woman as the shop where Steve Trevor takes Diana Prince to give her a more contemporary appearance to blend in.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>
The brand has worked with artists like Jaden Smith and others throughout its history.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>
See alsoEdit
ReferencesEdit
Further readingEdit
- Honeycombe, Gordon. Selfridges, Seventy-Five Years: The Story of the Store 1909–84. London, 1984. Template:ISBN.
External linksEdit
Template:UK Department stores Template:London landmarks Template:Authority control