Editing Department store (section)

==History==
===Origins in England, 1700s===
One of the first department stores may have been Bennett's in [[Derby]], first established as an [[ironmonger]] (hardware shop) in 1734.<ref name="Bennetts"/><ref name="derbyshire">{{cite news|author=Natalie Loughenbury|date=6 January 2010|title=Bennetts Irongate, Derby Celebrates Its 275th Anniversary|work=Derbyshire Life|publisher=Bennets|url=https://www.bennettsofderby.co.uk/history/|access-date=6 September 2021}}</ref> It continued trading in the same building until its administation and closure in 2019.<ref name="Bennetts">{{cite news |title=Bennetts: Green light for plan to transform former Derby store |url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-derbyshire-67588057 |access-date=20 May 2025 |publisher=BBC}}</ref> However, the first reliably dated department store to be established, was [[Harding, Howell & Co.]], which opened in 1796 on [[Pall Mall, London|Pall Mall]], London.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://hibiscus-sinensis.com/regency/shoppingmalls.htm|title=Regency England shopping arcades exchanges and bazaars|website=hibiscus-sinensis.com}}</ref> The oldest department store chain may be [[Debenhams]], which was established in 1778 and closed in 2021. It is the longest trading defunct British retailer. An observer writing in ''[[Ackermann's Repository]]'', a British periodical on contemporary taste and fashion, described the enterprise in 1809 as follows:

<blockquote>The house is one hundred and fifty feet in length from front to back, and of proportionate width. It is fitted up with great taste, and is divided by glazed partitions into four departments, for the various branches of the extensive business, which is there carried on. Immediately at the entrance is the first department, which is exclusively appropriated to the sale of furs and fans. The second contains articles of haberdashery of every description, silks, muslins, lace, gloves, &etc. In the third shop, on the right, you meet with a rich assortment of jewelry, ornamental articles in ormolu, French clocks, &etc.; and on the left, with all the different kinds of perfumery necessary for the toilette. The fourth is set apart for millinery and dresses; so that there is no article of female attire or decoration, but what may be here procured in the first style of elegance and fashion. This concern has been conducted for the last twelve years by the present proprietors who have spared neither trouble nor expense to ensure the establishment of a superiority over every other in Europe, and to render it perfectly unique in its kind.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://archive.org/details/repositoryofarts109acke|title=The Repository of arts, literature, commerce, manufactures, fashions and politics|first=Rudolph|last=Ackermann|date=3 August 1809|publisher=London : Published by R. Ackermann ... Sherwood & Co. and Walker & Co. ... and [[Simpkin & Marshall]] ...|via=Internet Archive}}</ref></blockquote>

This venture is described as having all of the basic characteristics of the department store; it was a public retail establishment offering a wide range of [[consumer good]]s in different departments. Jonathan Glancey for the [[BBC]] writes:

<blockquote>Harding, Howell & Co was focused on the needs and desires of fashionable women. Here, at last women were free to browse and shop, safely and decorously, away from home and from the company of men. These, for the main part, were newly affluent middle-class women, their good fortune – and the department store itself – nurtured and shaped by the [[Industrial Revolution]]. This was transforming life in London and the length and breadth of Britain at a dizzying pace on the back of energetic free trade, fecund invention, steam and sail, and a seemingly inexhaustible supply of expendable cheap labour.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.bbc.com/culture/bespoke/story/20150326-a-history-of-the-department-store/index.html|title=A history of the department store|website=BBC Culture|access-date=15 September 2019}}</ref></blockquote>

[[File:Harrod's (50718173793).jpg|thumb|right|[[Harrods]] illuminated exterior at night in Knightsbridge, London]]
This pioneering shop was closed down in 1820 when the [[business partnership]] was dissolved. All the major [[High Street]]s in British cities had flourishing department stores by the mid-or late nineteenth century.  Increasingly, women became the main customers.<ref>Alison Adburgham, ''Shops and Shopping, 1880–1914: Where and in What Matter the Well-Dressed Englishwoman Bought Her Clothes'' (2nd ed. 1981)''</ref> [[Kendals]] (formerly Kendal Milne & Faulkner) in Manchester lays claim to being one of the first department stores and is still known to many of its customers as Kendal's, despite its 2005 name change to [[House of Fraser]]. The Manchester institution dates back to 1836 but had been trading as Watts Bazaar since 1796.<ref name="PB80">{{cite book|last=Parkinson-Bailey|first=John|title=Manchester an architectural history|publisher=Manchester University Press|location=Manchester|year=2000|pages=80–81|isbn=0-7190-5606-3}}</ref> At its zenith the store had buildings on both sides of Deansgate linked by a subterranean passage "Kendals Arcade" and an art nouveau tiled food hall. The store was especially known for its emphasis on quality and style over low prices giving it the nickname "the Harrods of the North", although this was due in part to Harrods acquiring the store in 1919. [[Harrods]] of London can be traced back to 1834, though the current store was built between 1894 and 1905. Opened in 1830, [[Austins (department store)|Austins]] in Derry remained in operation as the world's oldest independent department store until its closure in 2016.<ref>{{cite news |title=Historic Derry department store Austins closes after 186 years |url=https://www.irishtimes.com/business/retail-and-services/historic-derry-department-store-austins-closes-after-186-years-1.2565229 |access-date=15 April 2024 |newspaper=The Irish Times}}</ref><ref>{{cite news |title=Task Force for iconic Edwardian Austins building in Derry city centre established |url=https://www.derryjournal.com/heritage-and-retro/heritage/task-force-for-iconic-edwardian-austins-building-in-derry-city-centre-established-3939407 |access-date=15 April 2024 |work=Derry Journal}}</ref> [[Lewis's]] of Liverpool operated from 1856 to 2010. The world's first [[Santa's workshop|Christmas grotto]] opened in Lewis's in 1879, entitled 'Christmas Fairyland'.<ref>{{cite news |title=Liverpool's record breaking Christmas grotto beloved by generations |url=https://www.liverpoolecho.co.uk/news/nostalgia/liverpools-record-breaking-christmas-grotto-25517874 |access-date=15 April 2024 |work=Liverpool Echo}}</ref> [[Liberty (department store)|Liberty & Co.]] in London's [[West End of London|West End]] gained popularity in the 1870s for selling Oriental goods.<ref>Iarocci, L., ''Visual Merchandising: The Image of Selling'', Ashgate Publishing, 2013, p. 128</ref> In 1889, [[Oscar Wilde]] wrote "Liberty's is the chosen resort of the artistic shopper".<ref>{{cite book |last1=Wilde |first1=Oscar |title=The Woman's World ..., Volume 2 |date=1889 |publisher=Cassell and Company|page=6}}</ref>

===Origins in Parisian ''magasins de nouveautés''===
[[File:Au Bon Marché (vue générale - gravure).jpg|thumb|Au Bon Marché]]
The Paris department stores have roots in the ''magasin de nouveautés'', or [[novelty store]]; the first, the Tapis Rouge, was created in 1784.<ref>{{Citation|chapter=Discovery, Invention and Innovation|pages=1–31|publisher=Springer US|isbn=9780792393030|doi=10.1007/978-0-585-32028-1_1|title=Informational Society|year=1993}}</ref>  They flourished in the early 19th century. [[Balzac]] described their functioning in his novel ''[[César Birotteau]]''.  In the 1840s, with the arrival of the railroads in Paris and the increased number of shoppers they brought, they grew in size, and began to have large plate glass display windows, fixed prices and price tags, and advertising in newspapers.<ref name="Fierro (1996), pages 911–912">{{cite book|last=Fierro|first=Alfred|title=Histoire et Dictionnaire de Paris|year=1996|pages=911–912}}</ref>

A novelty shop called ''[[Le Bon Marché|Au Bon Marché]]'' had been founded in Paris in 1838 to sell items like lace, ribbons, sheets, mattresses, buttons, and umbrellas. It grew from {{convert|300|m2|ft2|abbr=on}} and 12 employees in 1838 to {{convert|50000|m2|ft2|abbr=on}} and 1,788 employees in 1879.  Boucicaut was famous for his marketing innovations; a reading room for husbands while their wives shopped; extensive newspaper advertising; entertainment for children; and six million catalogs sent out to customers. By 1880 half the employees were women; unmarried women employees lived in dormitories on the upper floors.<ref name="world">{{cite book| title=The World of Department Stores| author=Jan Whitaker| page=22| publisher=Vendome Press| place=New York| year=2011| isbn=978-0-86565-264-4}}</ref>

''Au Bon Marché'' soon had half a dozen or more competitors including [[Printemps]], founded in 1865; [[La Samaritaine]] (1869), Bazar de Hotel de Ville ([[Bazar de l'Hôtel de Ville|BHV]]); and [[Galeries Lafayette]] (1895).<ref name="Fierro (1996), pages 911–912" /><ref>{{cite book |first=Michael B. |last=Miller |title=The Bon Marché: Bourgeois Culture and the Department Store, 1869–1920 |location=London |publisher=Allen & Unwin |year=1981 |isbn=0-04-330316-1 }}</ref> The French gloried in the national prestige brought by the great Parisian stores.<ref name="Heidrun Homburg 1992 pp 183-219">{{cite journal |first=Heidrun |last=Homburg |title=Warenhausunternehmen und ihre Gründer in Frankreich und Deutschland Oder: Eine Diskrete Elite und Mancherlei Mythen |trans-title=Department store firms and their founders in France and Germany, or: a discreet elite and various myths |journal=Jahrbuch für Wirtschaftsgeschichte |year=1992 |volume=33 |issue=1 |pages=183–219 |doi=10.1524/jbwg.1992.33.1.185 |s2cid=201653161 }}</ref> The great writer [[Émile Zola]] (1840–1902) set his novel {{Lang|fr|[[Au Bonheur des Dames]]}} (1882–83) in the typical department store, making it a symbol of the new technology that was both improving society and devouring it.<ref>{{cite journal |first=Frans C. |last=Amelinckx |title=The Creation of Consumer Society in Zola's Ladies' Paradise |journal=Proceedings of the Western Society for French History |year=1995 |volume=22 |pages=17–21 }}</ref>

=== First Australian department stores ===
Australia is notable for having the longest continuously operating department store, [[David Jones (department store)|David Jones]].<ref name=":0" /><ref>{{Citation |last=Walsh |first=G. P. |title=Jones, David (1793–1873) |url=https://adb.anu.edu.au/biography/jones-david-2279 |work=Australian Dictionary of Biography |place=Canberra |publisher=National Centre of Biography, Australian National University |language=en |access-date=19 December 2022}}</ref> The first David Jones department store was opened on 24 May 1838, by Welsh born immigrant David Jones in a "large and commodious premises" on the corner of [[George Street, Sydney|George]] and [[Barrack Street]]s in [[Sydney]], only 50 years after the foundation of the colony. Expanding to a number of stores in the various states of Australia, David Jones is the oldest continuously operating department franchise in the world.<ref name=":0">{{Cite journal |last=Ravelli |first=Louise |date=April 2022 |title=Ode to a lost icon, David Jones |url=http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/17504813211073195 |journal=Discourse & Communication |language=en |volume=16 |issue=2 |pages=269–282 |doi=10.1177/17504813211073195 |s2cid=246463089 |issn=1750-4813|url-access=subscription }}</ref> Other department stores in Australia include [[Grace Bros]] founded in 1885, now merged with [[Myer]] which was founded in 1900.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Loy-Wilson |first=Sophie |date=January 2016 |title=The Gospel of Enthusiasm: Salesmanship, Religion and Colonialism in Australian Department Stores in the 1920s and 1930s |url=http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/0022009414561826 |journal=Journal of Contemporary History |language=en |volume=51 |issue=1 |pages=91–123 |doi=10.1177/0022009414561826 |s2cid=145570190 |issn=0022-0094|url-access=subscription }}</ref>

===First American department stores (1825–1858)===
[[Arnold Constable & Company|Arnold Constable]] was the first American department store. It was founded in 1825 as a small dry goods store on Pine Street in New York City. In 1857 the store moved into a five-story white marble dry goods palace known as the Marble House. During the Civil War, Arnold Constable was one of the first stores to issue charge bills of credit to its customers each month instead of on a bi-annual basis.  The store soon outgrew the Marble House and erected a cast-iron building on Broadway and Nineteenth Street in 1869; this "Palace of Trade" expanded over the years until it was necessary to move into a larger space in 1914. Financial problems led to bankruptcy in 1975.<ref>"The Arnold Constable & Company Buildings" [http://blog.bryantpark.org/2013/05/from-archives-arnold-constable-company.html May 16, 2013] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160513192017/http://blog.bryantpark.org/2013/05/from-archives-arnold-constable-company.html |date=13 May 2016 }}</ref>

In New York City in 1846, [[Alexander Turney Stewart]] established the "[[280 Broadway|Marble Palace]]" on [[Broadway (Manhattan)|Broadway]], between Chambers and Reade streets. He offered European retail merchandise at fixed prices on a variety of dry goods, and advertised a policy of providing "free entrance" to all potential customers. Though it was clad in white marble to look like a [[Renaissance]] [[palazzo]], the building's [[cast iron]] construction permitted large [[plate glass]] windows that permitted major seasonal displays, especially in the Christmas shopping season. In 1862, Stewart built a new store on a full city block uptown between 9th and 10th streets, with eight floors. His innovations included buying from manufacturers for cash and in large quantities, keeping his markup small and prices low, truthful presentation of merchandise, the one-price policy (so there was no haggling), simple merchandise returns and cash refund policy, selling for cash and not credit, buyers who searched worldwide for quality merchandise, departmentalization, vertical and horizontal integration, volume sales, and free services for customers such as waiting rooms and free delivery of purchases.<ref>{{Cite journal |jstor = 3112143|title = Alexander Turney Stewart and the Development of the Department Store, 1823–1876|journal = The Business History Review|volume = 39|issue = 3|pages = 301–322|last1 = Resseguie|first1 = Harry E.|year = 1965|doi = 10.2307/3112143|s2cid = 154704872}}</ref> In 1858, [[Rowland Hussey Macy]] founded [[Macy's]] as a dry goods store.

===Innovations 1850–1917===
[[File:Marshall field interior.jpg|thumb|Marshall Field's State Street store "great hall" interior around 1910]]
[[Marshall Field's|Marshall Field & Company]] originated in 1852. It was the premier department store on the busiest shopping street in the Midwest at the time, [[State Street (Chicago)|State Street]] in Chicago.<ref>Lloyd Wendt and Herman Kogan, ''Give the Lady What She Wants: The Story of Marshall Field & Company'' (1952)</ref> Marshall Field's served as a model for other department stores in that it had exceptional customer service.{{Citation needed|date=January 2017}} Marshall Field's also had the firsts; among many innovations by Marshall Field's were the first European buying office, which was located in Manchester, England, and the first bridal registry. The company was the first to introduce the concept of the personal shopper, and that service was provided without charge in every Field's store, until the chain's last days under the Marshall Field's name. It was the first store to offer revolving credit and the first department store to use [[escalator]]s.{{Citation needed|date=January 2017}} Marshall Field's book department in the State Street store was legendary;{{Citation needed|date=January 2017}} it pioneered the concept of the "book signing". Moreover, every year at Christmas, Marshall Field's downtown store windows were filled with animated displays as part of the downtown shopping district display; the "theme" window displays became famous for their ingenuity and beauty, and visiting the Marshall Field's windows at Christmas became a tradition for Chicagoans and visitors alike, as popular a local practice as visiting the Walnut Room with its equally famous Christmas tree or meeting "under the clock" on State Street.<ref>Wendt and Kogan, ''Give the Lady What She Wants: The Story of Marshall Field & Company'' (1952)</ref>

In 1877, [[John Wanamaker]] opened what some claim was the United States' first "modern" department store in [[Philadelphia]]: the first to offer fixed prices marked on every article and also introduced electrical illumination (1878), the telephone (1879), and the use of pneumatic tubes to transport cash and documents (1880) to the department store business.<ref>Robert Sobel, ''The Entrepreneurs: Explorations Within the American Business Tradition'' (1974), chapter 3, "John Wanamaker: The Triumph of Content Over Form"</ref>

[[File:Anthony Hordern and Sons- 20th December 1936 (18832395934).jpg|thumb|Aerial view of [[Anthony Hordern & Sons]] in [[Sydney, Australia]] (1936), once the largest department store in the world.]]
[[File:Christmas Party For Trooper Devereux's Daughter- Christmas in Wartime, Pinner, Middlesex, December 1944 D23005.jpg|thumb|[[Selfridges]] in [[Oxford Street]], [[London]] in wartime Britain (December 1944)]]
Another store to revolutionize the concept of the department store was [[Selfridges]] in London, established in 1909 by American-born [[Harry Gordon Selfridge]] on [[Selfridges, Oxford Street|Oxford Street]]. The company's innovative marketing promoted the radical notion of shopping for pleasure rather than necessity and its techniques were adopted by modern department stores the world over. The store was extensively promoted through paid advertising. The shop floors were structured so that goods could be made more accessible to customers. There were elegant restaurants with modest prices, a library, reading and writing rooms, special reception rooms for French, German, American and "Colonial" customers, a First Aid Room, and a Silence Room, with soft lights, deep chairs, and double-glazing, all intended to keep customers in the store as long as possible. Staff members were taught to be on hand to ''assist'' customers, but not too aggressively, and to ''sell'' the merchandise.<ref>J.A. Gere and John Sparrow (ed.), ''Geoffrey Madan's Notebooks'', Oxford University Press, 1981</ref> Selfridge attracted shoppers with educational and scientific exhibits; in 1909, [[Louis Blériot]]'s [[monoplane]] was exhibited at Selfridges (Blériot was the first to fly over the [[English Channel]]), and the first public demonstration of television by [[John Logie Baird]] took place in the department store in 1925.

[[File:Hiroshige, Sugura street.jpg|thumb|[[Utagawa Hiroshige]] designed an [[ukiyo-e]] print with [[Mount Fuji]] and Echigoya as landmarks. Echigoya is the former name of Mitsukoshi named after the [[Echigo Province|former province of Echigo]]. The Mitsukoshi headquarters are located on the left side of the street.]]

In [[Japan]], the first "modern-style" department store was [[Mitsukoshi]], founded in 1904, which has its root as a [[kimono]] store called Echigoya from 1673. When the roots are considered, however, [[Matsuzakaya]] has an even longer history, dated from 1611. The kimono store changed to a department store in 1910. In 1924, Matsuzakaya store in [[Ginza]] allowed street shoes to be worn indoors, something innovative at the time.<ref>[http://www.matsuzakaya.co.jp/corporate/history/honshi/index.shtml Matsuzakaya corporate history]</ref> These former kimono shop department stores dominated the market in its earlier history. They sold, or instead displayed, luxurious products, which contributed to their sophisticated atmospheres. Another origin of the Japanese department store is from [[railway]] companies. There have been many [[private railway]] operators in the nation and, from the 1920s, they started to build department stores directly linked to their lines' [[Train station#Terminus|termini]]. [[Seibu Department Stores|Seibu]] and [[Hankyu Department Stores|Hankyu]] are typical examples of this type.
<!--Please only add history (of individual stores or for countries) where there were developments that truly affected the industry as a whole. It is too much information for this article to publish the names of the first, and the current, department stores in every country on Earth. There is a separate article for that.-->

===Innovation (1917–1945)===
In the middle of the 1920s, American management theories such as the [[scientific management]] of [[Frederick Winslow Taylor|F.W. Taylor]] started spreading in Europe. The [[International Management Institute, Geneva|International Management Institute]] (I.M.I.) was established in Geneva in 1927 to facilitate the diffusion of such ideas. A number of department stores teamed up together to create the [[International Association of Department Stores]] in Paris in 1928 to have a discussion space dedicated to this retail format.{{expand section|date=October 2020}}

{|table class=wikitable
|+Table of department store "firsts"
! Year
! Store
! City/<br/>Metro area
! "First"
! Source
|-
| 1923
| [[I. Magnin]] [[Hollywood, Los Angeles|Hollywood]]
| [[Greater Los Angeles|Los Angeles]]
| First suburban department store (not including hotel/resort stores)
| <ref>{{cite book |last1=Longstreth |first1=Richard |title=Branch Stores 1910-1960 |date=1 December 2009 |url=http://www.departmentstorehistory.net/attachments/BranchStoreWeb.doc |access-date=4 December 2023}}</ref>
|-
| 1930
| [[Suburban Square]]
| [[Philadelphia metropolitan area|Philadelphia]]
| First department store branch to anchor a suburban shopping center
| <ref name="inq"/>
|}

===Expansion to malls===
{{expand section|date=October 2020}}
The U.S. [[Baby Boom]] led to the development of suburban neighborhoods and suburban commercial developments, including shopping malls. Department stores joined these ventures following the growing market of baby boomer spending.

A handful of U.S. retailers had opened seasonal stores in resorts, as well as smaller branch stores in suburbs, in the 1920s and 1930s. Examples include, in [[Greater Los Angeles|suburban Los Angeles]], [[Broadway Hollywood Building|The Broadway-Hollywood]], [[Bullocks Wilshire]], The [[Saban Building|May Company-Wilshire]], [[Saks Fifth Avenue|Saks]]-[[Beverly Hills]], as well as two [[Strawbridge and Clothier]] stores: [[Suburban Square]] (1930) and [[Strawbridge and Clothier Store, Jenkintown|Jenkintown]] (1931) outside Philadelphia. Suburban Square was the first shopping center anchored by a department store.<ref name="inq">{{cite news | url= https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-philadelphia-inquirer/136267040/ |quote=Dreher's design called for a cluster of shops built around a major department store, with a supermarket, movie theater and office buildings with ample parking space. | title= Setting the trend for, not in, stores | newspaper=[[The Philadelphia Inquirer]] | date= 25 April 1999 | accessdate=24 February 2010}}</ref> In the 1950s, suburban growth took off – for example, in 1952, [[May Company California]] opened a four-level, {{convert|346700|sqft|sqm|adj=on}}<ref>{{cite news |title=May Co. Opens Its vast New Lakewood Store (cont'd.) |url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-los-angeles-times-may-co-opens-its/136262536/ |access-date=4 December 2023 |work=The Los Angeles Times |date=19 February 1952 |page=26}}</ref> store in [[Lakewood Center]] near Los Angeles, at the time, the largest suburban department store in the world.<ref>{{cite news |title=May Co. Opens Its vast New Lakewood Store |url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-los-angeles-times-may-co-opens-its/136261990/ |access-date=4 December 2023 |work=The Los Angeles Times |date=19 February 1952 |page=25}}</ref> However, only three years later it would build an even bigger, {{convert|452000|sqft|sqm|adj=on}} store in the [[San Fernando Valley]] at [[Laurel Plaza]].

===Expansion worldwide===
{{expand section|date=October 2020}}
{{See also|Department stores by country}}

===2010–today===
{{See also|Retail apocalypse}}

Starting in 2010 many analysts referred to a [[retail apocalypse]] in the United States and some other markets, referring to the closing of [[brick-and-mortar]] [[retail]] stores, especially those of large chains.<ref>{{cite web |url= http://www.businessinsider.com/store-closures-in-2018-will-eclipse-2017-2018-1 |title=A tsunami of store closings is about to hit the US — and it's expected to eclipse the retail carnage of 2017 |last=Peterson |first=Hayley |date=1 January 2018 |website= businessinsider.com |access-date= 4 January 2018}}</ref><ref name="atlantic" /> In 2017, over 12,000 U.S. stores closed due to over-expansion of malls, rising rents, bankruptcies, [[leveraged buyout]]s, low quarterly profits other than during [[Economics of Christmas|holiday peak periods]], delayed effects of the [[Great Recession]] of 2008-9,<ref name="atlantic">{{cite magazine|url=https://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2017/04/retail-meltdown-of-2017/522384/|title=What in the World Is Causing the Retail Meltdown of 2017?|first=Derek|last=Thompson|date=10 April 2017|access-date=10 April 2017|magazine=[[The Atlantic]]}}</ref> shifts in spending to [[experience economy|experiences]] rather than material goods, relaxed [[dress code]]s in workplaces, and the shift to [[e-commerce]]<ref>{{cite web |title=These haunting photos of the retail apocalypse reveal a new normal in America |url=https://www.msn.com/en-us/money/companies/these-haunting-photos-of-the-retail-apocalypse-reveal-a-new-normal-in-america/ss-BByFpjX |website=Business Insider |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170408075056/https://www.msn.com/en-us/money/companies/these-haunting-photos-of-the-retail-apocalypse-reveal-a-new-normal-in-america/ss-BByFpjX |archive-date=8 April 2017 |date=24 March 2017}}</ref> in which {{anchor|Amazon effect}}[[Amazon.com]] and [[Walmart]] dominated versus the online offerings of traditional retailers.

COVID-19 increased the number of permanent store closings in two ways: first through mandatory temporary closing of stores, especially in March and April 2020, with customers largely staying away from stores for non-essential purchases for many more months after that; and secondly, by causing a shift to working from home, which stimulated e-commerce further and reduced demand for business apparel.{{cn|date=May 2024}}

===Click-and-collect, curbside pickup===
[[Omnichannel retail strategy|Click-and-collect]] services at department stores had been increasing during the 2010s, with many creating larger, distinctly signed, designated areas. Some of the more elaborate ones included features such as reception and seating areas with coffee served, computers with large screens for online shopping, and dressing rooms.<ref>{{cite web |title=Click & Collect de Palacio de Hierro Polanco |url=https://fundamentalmx.com/proyectos/click-and-collect-palacio-de-hierro |website=Fundamental (Architects, Mexico) |access-date=5 December 2023}}</ref>

With the onset of COVID-19 in 2020, most U.S. retailers offered a [[curbside pickup]] service as an option on their websites, and a dedicated area at one of the store entrances accessible by car.

===Store-within-a-store===
Along with discount stores, mainline department stores implemented more and more "stores-within-a-store". For luxury brands this was often in boutiques similar to the brands' own shops on streets and in malls; they hired their own employees who merchandised the selling space, and rang up the transactions at the brand's own cash registers. The main difference was that the boutique was physically inside the department store building, although in many cases there are walls or windows between the main store space and the boutique, with designated entrances.{{cn|date=May 2024}}