Culture: Parisian department stores as chic as ever
April 2006
As France moved into the industrial era, pioneering entrepreneurs dreamt up new retail venues. Today, more than one hundred years after the creation of these “temples of commerce”, the customers are still a-flocking. Now multinational corporations, these department stores continue to offer their clientele the ne plus ultra of Parisian chic.
Paris is largely indebted to Baron Haussmann. At the end of the 19th century, this high-ranking civil servant orchestrated major renovations in Paris, turning narrow, windy streets into major boulevards, and erecting imposing bourgeois apartment buildings. In 1865, inspired by the construction of the new Opera Garnier in the centre of Paris, Jules Jaluzot decided to open a store nearby: “Le Printemps”. Fifteen years later, Théophile Bader and Alphonse Kahn opened their own “Galeries Lafayette” on the street bearing the same name.
Thus were born France’s grands magasins, or department stores. Renowned French writer Emile Zola provides a detailed description of these beginnings in his novel Au Bonheur des Dames (The Ladies’ Paradise). He drew his inspiration not from Jaluzot, Bader or Kahn, but from Aristide Boucicaut, a former sales clerk who, in 1852, took over a small business located near Saint-Germain-des-Prés, in the heart of Paris. Boucicaut called his new venture “Le Bon Marché” and introduced several innovative selling methods, gradually transforming his enterprise into a retail mecca and increasing sales more than tenfold. Boucicaut irrevocably changed the art of selling, and his competitors were quick to cash in on his discoveries.
In order to increase their customer base and prosper, the new department stores endeavoured to attract the largest clientele possible, from young factory girls dreaming of bourgeois treasures to the spouses of rich industrialists eager to obtain the latest thing or newest fashion from around the world. And even though the Printemps, Galeries Lafayette and Bon Marché offered exceptional products, casual customers were free to browse down the aisles without obligation to purchase - a banal concept by today’s standards, but revolutionary at the time! The innovations didn’t end there: determined to make the items used by high society available to all, these commercial trailblazers began producing copies of elegant clothing. By using less expensive fabrics, they were able to sell the clothes for a lower price and attract a less wealthy, but much larger, clientele. Their plan was a resounding success, and the workforce embraced fashion!
All three stores remain on the cutting edge of innovative marketing to this day, and continue to seduce their customers in very subtle ways by creating increasingly attractive venues. Each establishment is organised into departments featuring specific items, with separate men’s, women’s, children’s and sports clothing departments, as well as beauty, lingerie and houseware departments with a selection of furniture and household goods.
Yet the reason these stores attract five times more visitors than the Eiffel Tower is perhaps due to the architectural marvels they display in addition to the pleasures of window-shopping. Built over one hundred years ago, the three grands magasins are listed buildings. The neo-Byzantine glass dome gracing the centre of the Galeries Lafayette and the Art Nouveau dome (more discrete) of the Printemps, as well as the façades of these two adjacent buildings are indeed remarkable, while the architecture of the Bon Marché, designed by Gustave Eiffel and Louis Charles Boileau, certainly doesn’t pale in comparison.
These stores bring together under the same roof anything necessary to satisfy the whim and fancy of every customer, including gourmet food departments that provide samplings of the finest culinary products. All the rage, the Bon Marché’s “Grande Epicerie” features dishes from Japan, the United States and Great Britain, while “Lafayette Gourmet” boasts premium wines, the finest charcuterie, the most delectable cheeses as well as the most exquisite pastries, all served by the city’s top caterers.
If you’re lucky, you might even chance upon a free tasting! Indeed, special activities are part of these stores’ sex appeal. Organised year-round, various events punctuate the day-to-day routine of these establishments. In December, crowds flock to admire the famous Christmas windows, where children’s toys are theatrically displayed alongside automated puppets that come to life under the wonder-filled eyes of passerbys, both young and old. Special sale days, fashion shows and photo exhibits are also organised to incite the curiosity of people who don’t generally visit department stores - with such success that it’s easy to forget that the raison d’être of these stores is… to sell!
Anne-Laure Bell
Last updated: 25.04.2006