Selfridges

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Selfridges & Co

Type	Private
Genre	Department Store
Founded	1909
Founder(s)	Harry Gordon Selfridge
Headquarters	Oxford Street, London, England
Industry	Retail
Owner(s)	Galen Weston
Website	http://www.selfridges.com/

Selfridges is a chain of high end department stores in the United Kingdom. It was founded by Harry Gordon Selfridge. The flagship store in London's Oxford Street is the second largest shop in the UK (after Harrods) and was opened on 15 March 1909^[1]. More recently, three other stores have been opened; in Trafford, Greater Manchester (1998), in Manchester City Centre's Exchange Square (2002) and in the Bullring, Birmingham (2003).

Contents 1 History 2 Architecture 3 Controversy 4 Further reading 5 Floor Directory 5.1 Selfridges London 5.2 Selfridges Birmingham 5.3 Selfridges Manchester Exchange Square 5.4 Selfridges Manchester Trafford 6 References 7 External links

[edit] History

H. Gordon Selfridge was born in 1858 in Ripon, Wisconsin, and in 1879 joined Field, Leiter and Company (later to become Marshall Field & Company), where he worked under the Chicago retailer of the same name. He worked his way up through the firm, married into the prominent Buckingham family, and amassed the fortune with which he built his new London store.

Selfridge's innovative marketing led to his success. He tried to make shopping a fun adventure instead of a chore. He put merchandise on display so customers could examine it, put the highly profitable perfume counter front-and-centre on the ground floor, and established policies that made it safe and easy for customers to shop — techniques that have been adopted by modern department stores the world over.

Either Selfridge or Marshall Field is popularly held to have coined the phrase "the customer is always right",^[2] and he did use it regularly in his extensive advertising.

He attracted shoppers with educational and scientific exhibits. He was himself interested in education and science, and believed that the displays would introduce potential new customers to Selfridges, generating both immediate and long-term sales.

In 1909, after the first cross-Channel flight, Louis Blériot's monoplane was exhibited at Selfridges, where it was seen by 12,000 people. The first public demonstration of television was by John Logie Baird from the first floor of Selfridges from 1-27 April 1925.

A Milne-Shaw seismograph was set up on the Selfridge store’s third floor in 1932, attached to one of the building's main stanchions, unaffected by traffic or shoppers. It recorded the Belgian earthquake of 11 June 1938 which was also felt in London. At the outbreak of war, the seismograph was moved from its original site near the Post Office to another part of the store. In 1947, the seismograph was given to the British Museum.

The provincial stores were sold to the John Lewis Partnership in the 1940s. The remaining Oxford Street store was acquired in 1951 by the Liverpool-based Lewis's chain of department stores, which was in turn taken over in 1965 by the Sears Group owned by Charles Clore.^[3] In March 1998 Selfridges had acquired a new logo at use to the present which came in tandem with the opening of the Manchester Trafford Centre store and Selfridges demerger from Sears.

Between 1998 and 2003, the store supplemented its 540,000-square-foot (50,000 m²)^[4] London flagship store with a 150,000-square-foot (14,000 m²) store at the Trafford Centre in Greater Manchester; because of its success a 125,000-square-foot (11,600 m²) store in Exchange Square, Manchester was also opened. A 260,000-square-foot (24,000 m²)^[5] store opened in 2003 in Birmingham's Bull Ring shopping complex becoming the chains largest branch outside London.

In 2003, the chain was acquired by Canada's Galen Weston for £598 million. Weston, a retailing expert who is the owner of department store chains such as Holt Renfrew and Brown Thomas as well as major supermarket chains in Canada, has chosen to invest in renovation of the Oxford Street store, rather than to carry out planned expansion to Leeds, Newcastle Upon Tyne, Bristol, and Glasgow, despite Selfridges owning a site in the latter city.^[6] The Chief Executive is Irish retailer, Paul Kelly. Kelly has worked for the Weston organisation since the mid-eighties.

[edit] Architecture

Selfridge stores are known for architectural excellence. Their London store was designed by Daniel Burnham, who also crafted Marshall Field's main store in his home town of Chicago. The London store was built in phases, the first phase consisting only of the nine-and-a-half bays closest to the Duke Street corner.^[7] A scheme to erect a massive tower above the store was never carried out.^[8] Also involved in the design of the store were the American architect Francis Swales, who worked on decorative details, and the British architects Frank Atkinson and Thomas Smith Tait.^{[9] [10]}

The Trafford store is noted for its modern staircase and marble exterior. Each floor of the Exchange Square store was designed by a different architect, giving each its own unique look. The 260,000-square-foot (24,000 m²)^[5] Birmingham store, designed by architects Future Systems, is covered in 15,000 spun aluminium discs on a background of Yves Klein Blue^[11]. 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.

The stores are also distinctive for their yellow carrier bags - available in a selection of sizes.

[edit] Controversy

Selfridges' has been criticised for continuing to sell foie gras, a food product made from the liver of specially fattened ducks and geese.^[12][13][14] Animal rights and welfare groups, such as PETA, contend that the method of producing foie gras involves the inhumane treatment of animals. But, as of November of 2009, with help from Roger Moore, Selfridge has agreed to remove foie gras from their shelves permanently.^[15]

[edit] Further reading

• Honeycombe, Gordon. Selfridges, Seventy-Five Years: The Story of the Store 1909-84 London, 1984

[edit] Floor Directory

[edit] Selfridges London

4th floor	3rd floor	2nd floor	1st floor	Ground floor	Lower Ground floor
Furniture & Lighting Beds Bedlinen Bathshop Optician Toy Shop Food Garden Cafe Starbucks Bathrooms	Women's Contemporary Women's Casual Women's Denim Lingerie & Swimwear Kids Women's Hair & Beauty Salon	Womenswear Superbrands Women's Shoes Alterations Personal Shopping Obika Mozzarella Bar Lab Cafe	Men's Designer Men's Shoes Men's Contemporary Men's Accessories Men's Formal Men's Underwear Men's Casual Men's Street Fashion Gordon's Cafe	Wonder Room Fashion Jewellery Fragrance Beauty Pharmacy Watch Repairs Women's Accessories Wines, Spirits & Cigars Confectionary Foodhall Stationery Women's Street Fashion The Wonder Bar Gallery Restaurant Moet Bar The Brass Rail	Books Cookshop & Dining Customer Services Christmas Shop Key Cutting & Engraving Home Accessories Music Luggage Shoe Repairs Travel Agent Ultralounge Wedding shop Bureau de Change Frankie's Bar & Grill

[edit] Selfridges Birmingham

4th floor/Level 4	3rd floor/Level 3	2nd floor/Level 2	1st floor/Level 1
Womenswear Women's Designer Women's Accessories Women's Casual Women's Shoes Lingerie Hair Salon Moet Bar & Gallery Restaurant	Beauty Hall Menswear Men's Shoes Sunglasses	Women's Street Fashion Men's Street Fashion Technology	Home Foodhall Wineshop Stationery Luggage Kids Coffee Shop

[edit] Selfridges Manchester Exchange Square

3rd floor	2nd floor	1st floor	Ground floor	Lower Ground floor
Women's Street Fashion Women's Shoes	Women's Designer Women's Casual Women's Contemporary Women's Shoes Lingerie & Swimwear Moet Bar	Men's Spirit Men's Contemporary Men's Casual Men's Formal Men's Shoes Men's Underwear Men's Street Fashion	Beauty Women's Accessories Accessories	Technology Confectionery Luxury Foodhall Illy Cafe Yo! Sushi

[edit] Selfridges Manchester Trafford

2nd floor/Upper Level	1st floor/Lower Level
Women's Street Fashion Technology Home Accessories Bed & Bath Books Luggage Foodhall Kids & Babywear Kids Shoes Cookshop Pet Accessories Stationery Wine Shop	Men's Designer Men's Formal Men's Street Fashion Men's Shoes Men's Casual Women's Designer Women's Fashion Women's Denim Beauty Swimwear Lingerie Jewellery Luxury Accessories Accessories Evening Wear Hair Salon

[edit] References

[edit] External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Selfridges

• Selfridges website