大象传媒

Flamboyant American retailer Harry Gordon Selfridge introduced Londoners to a whole new shopping experience, one honed in the department stores of late-19th century America. He swept away previous shopkeepers鈥� customs of keeping shopper and merchandise apart to one where 鈥渏ust looking鈥� was positively encouraged. In the full-page newspaper adverts Selfridge took out when his eponymous department store opened in London in the early 1900s, he compared the 鈥減leasures of shopping鈥� to those of 鈥渟ight-seeing鈥�. He installed the largest plate glass windows in the world 鈥� and created, behind them, the most sumptuous shop window displays. His adverts pointedly made clear that the 鈥渨hole British public鈥� would be welcome 鈥� 鈥渘o cards of admission are required鈥�. Recognising that his female customers offered profitable opportunities that competitors were neglecting, one of his quietly revolutionary moves was the introduction of a ladies鈥� lavatory. Selfridge saw that women might want to stay in town all day, without having to use an insalubrious public convenience or retreat to a respectable hotel for tea whenever they wanted to relieve themselves. As Tim Harford explains, one of Selfridge鈥檚 biographers even thinks he 鈥渃ould justifiably claim to have helped emancipate women.鈥�

Producer: Ben Crighton
Editors: Richard Knight and Richard Vadon

(Images: Selfridges Christmas shop window, Credit: Stuart C. Wilson/Getty Images)