Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-ndw9j Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-14T09:32:47.273Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Global and Local: Retail Transformation and the Department Store in Britain and Japan, 1900–1940

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  25 July 2018

Rika Fujioka  and
Jon Stobart
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Department stores are often seen as transformative of both retail and wider social practices. This article offers a comparative analysis of department stores in early twentieth-century Britain and Japan to assess the extent to which there were universal qualities defining the operation, practices, and experience of department stores and to explore the ways in which they might be seen as transforming retailing in the two countries. Despite similarities in their origin, organization, and service to customers, we highlight the greater diversity of British department stores and their incremental development. Japanese stores were a far more powerful force for change because they formed part of a concerted and conscious program of modernization.

Keywords

department storesBritainJapanmodernizationretail managementcustomer experience
Type
Research Article
Information
Business History Review , Volume 92 , Issue 2 , Summer 2018 , pp. 251 - 280
Copyright
Copyright © The President and Fellows of Harvard College 2018 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

1 Howard, Vicki, From Main Street to Mall: The Rise and Fall of the American Department Store (Philadelphia, 2015)Google Scholar.

2 See, for example, Whitaker, Jan, The Department Store: History, Design, Display (London, 2011)Google Scholar.

3 Pasdermadjian, Hrant, The Department Store: Its Origins, Evolution and Economics (London, 1954), esp. 3–7Google Scholar; Whitaker, Department Store; Roberts, Evan, “‘Don't Sell Things, Sell Effects’: Overseas Influences in New Zealand Department Stores, 1909–1956,” Business History Review 77, no. 2 (2003): 265–89Google Scholar; Hilton, Marjorie L., “Retailing the Revolution: The State Department Store (GUM) and Soviet Society in the 1920s,” Journal of Social History 37, no. 4 (2004): 939–64Google Scholar.

4 See Hatsuda, Toru, Hyakkaten no Tanjo [The birth of the department store] (Tokyo, 1993)Google Scholar; Jinno, Yuki, Shumi no Tnajo: Hyakkaten ga tsukutta Teisuto [The birth of department stores’ taste] (Tokyo, 1994)Google Scholar; and Yamamoto, Taketoshi and Nishizawa, Tamotsu, eds., Hyakkaten no Bunkashi [Social history of department stores] (Tokyo, 1999)Google Scholar. In his pioneering work, The Department Store, Pasdermadjian discusses department stores in largely generic terms, only occasionally referring to the specificities of place. He implies that stores everywhere were like those in North America and Britain.

5 Howard, Main Street to Mall, 25.

6 Shaw, Gareth, “The Evolution and Impact of Large-Scale Retailing in Britain,” in The Evolution of Retail Systems, c. 1800–1914, ed. Benson, John and Shaw, Gareth (Leicester, U.K., 1992), 140Google Scholar; Howard, Main Street to Mall, 11.

7 Jefferys, James, Retail Trading in Britain, 1850–1950 (Cambridge, U.K., 1954), 326Google Scholar.

8 Markus, Thomas, Buildings and Power (London, 1993), 308Google Scholar.

9 Japan Department Stores Association (hereafter, JDSA), Nihon Hyakkaten Kyokai 10 nenshi [A 10-year history of the Japan Department Stores Association] (Tokyo, 1959), 14–15Google Scholar.

10 See Mitchell, Ian, “The Victorian Provincial Department Store: A Category Too Many?” History of Retailing and Consumption 1, no. 2 (2015): 149–63Google Scholar; Howard, Main Street to Mall, 54.

11 Rappaport, Erika, Shopping for Pleasure: Women in the Making of London's West End (Princeton, 2000), 153Google Scholar.

12 Jefferys, Retail Trading; Lancaster, Bill, The Department Store: A Social History (Leicester, U.K., 1995), 10–12, 28–31Google Scholar; Morrison, Kathryn, English Shops and Shopping: An Architectural History (New Haven, 2003), 140–43Google Scholar; Porter, J. H., “The Development of a Provincial Department Store, 1870–1939,” Business History 13, no. 1 (1971): 281Google Scholar. Mitchell, in “Victorian Provincial Department Store,” is skeptical about links to earlier bazaars.

13 Shaw, “Large-Scale Retailing,” 140.

14 Matsuda, Shinzo, Depātomento Stoa [Department Stores] (Tokyo, 1931), 77–82Google Scholar; Takashimaya, Takashimaya 135 nenshi [A 135-year history of Takashimaya] (Osaka, 1968), 340–41.

15 Yamamuro, Kyoko, Ooedo Akinai Hakusho [Facts regarding stores in the Edo period] (Tokyo, 2015), 60–61Google Scholar.

16 Jefferys, Retail Trading, 59; Stobart, Jon, “Cathedrals of Consumption? Provincial Department Stores in England, c.1880–1930,” Enterprise & Society 18, no. 4 (2017): 810–45Google Scholar.

17 JDSA, A 10-Year History, 4–10; Economy, Trade and Industry Statistics Association, Census of Commerce, 1948–1951 (Tokyo, 1952, reprinted 1989)Google Scholar.

18 JDSA, Heisei 25 nen Nihon Hyakkaten Kyokai Tokei Nenpo [2013 annual report] (Tokyo, 2013), 24–25Google Scholar.

19 Stobart, “Cathedrals of Consumption,” table 1.

20 Kelly's Directories (London, 1931, 1932, 1934).

21 Stobart, “Cathedrals of Consumption.”

22 Scott, Peter and Walker, James, “The British ‘Failure’ That Never Was? The ‘Productivity Gap’ in Large-Scale Interwar Retailing: Evidence from the Department Store Sector,” Economic History Review 65, no. 1 (2012): 296Google Scholar.

23 Whitlock, H. D., ed., Browns and Chester: A Portrait of a Shop (London, 1947), 181Google Scholar. See also Lancaster, Department Store, 32–34.

24 Pasdermadjian, Department Store, 24, 43; Lancaster, Department Store, 12–13; Rappaport, Shopping for Pleasure, 122–26.

25 Quoted in Lancaster, Department Store, 13.

26 Bennett, Arnold, The Old Wives’ Tale (1908; repr. London, 1935), quote from 1935 edition, 503Google Scholar.

27 Stobart, Jon, “City Centre Retailing in Late Nineteenth- and Early Twentieth-Century Stoke-on-Trent: Structures and Processes,” in A Nation of Shopkeepers: Five Centuries of British Retailing, ed. Benson, John and Ugolini, Laura (London, 2003), 166–70Google Scholar.

28 Kobayashi, Ichizo, “Watashino Kigyo Senjyutsu [My management strategy],” in Zaikaijin Shiso Zenshu 2: Keiei Tetsugaku/Keiei Rinen [Collected works of business people, vol. 2: Management vision and philosophy], ed. Nakagawa, Keiichiro and Yui, Tsunehiko (Tokyo, 1970), 113Google Scholar.

29 Taniuchi, Masayuki, Senzen Osaka no Tetsudo to Depart [Railway and department store in Osaka before World War II] (Osaka, 2014), 88Google Scholar.

30 Mitsukoshi, Mitsukoshi 100 nen no Kiroku [A 100-year history of Mitsukoshi] (Tokyo, 2005), 128.

31 The exchange rate between shillings and yen in this paper is taken from the monthly exchange rate in January 1919 provided by Institute for Monetary and Economic Studies, Bank of Japan (website), accessed 26 Apr. and 20 July 2017, http://www.imes.boj.or.jp/hstat/data/ferdd/index.html.

32 By contrast, the Tokyo Wholesale Price Index decreased by 39 percent between 1919 and 1929, and by a further 25 percent by 1939. Institute for Monetary and Economic Studies, Bank of Japan (website).

33 In 1919 Matsuzakaya's sales share was 0.13 percent of Japan's gross national product (GNP) and 0.5 percent of its personal consumption expenditures (PCE) while Harrods’ sales comprised 0.03 percent of the U.K.’s gross domestic product (GDP). Matsuzakaya, Matsuzakaya 100 nenshi [A 100-year history of Matsuzakaya] (Nagoya, 2010), 344; Kazushi Ōkawa, Nobukiyo Takamatsu, and Yūzo Yamamoto, Kokumin Shotoku [National Income] (Tokyo, 1974); “Public Spending Details for 1919,” UK Public Spending (website), accessed 20 July 2017, http://www.ukpublicspending.co.uk/piechart_1919_UK_total.

34 Natanishi, Torao, Hyakkatenho ni kansuru Kenkyu [Investigation on the department stores law] (Tokyo, 1938), 31–32Google Scholar.

35 Jefferys, Retail Trading, 61. Including the greater number of stores identified by Stobart would increase this figure, but not substantially.

36 Moss, Michael and Turton, Alison, A Legend in Retailing: House of Fraser (London, 1989), 326, 316, 332, 291, 101–5Google Scholar.

37 Porter, “Provincial Department Store,” 284–85; Shaw, “Large-Scale Retailing,” 152.

38 Stobart, “Cathedrals of Consumption,” table 5.

39 Shaw, “Large-Scale Retailing,” 143–45. See also Briggs, Asa, Friends of the People: The Centenary History of Lewis's (London, 1956)Google Scholar.

40 See Whitaker, Department Store; Proctor, Robert, “Constructing the Retail Monument: The Parisian Department Store and Its Property, 1855–1914,” Urban History 33, no. 3 (2006): 393–410Google Scholar; Morrison, English Shops; Moss and Turton, House of Fraser, 36–38.

41 Howard, Main Street to Mall, 56–61.

42 Morrison, English Shops, 172; Moss and Turton, House of Fraser, 360–61, 290–91.

43 Takashimaya, Takashimaya 150 nenshi [A 150-year history of Takashimaya] (Osaka, 1982), 103–4.

44 Fujioka, Rika, “The Development of Department Stores in Japan: 1900s–1930s,” Japanese Research in Business History 31 (2014): 16–17CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

45 Gordon Selfridge's original plans for his Oxford Street store were rejected by London County Council because they contravened building regulations. See Lancaster, Department Store, 72.

46 See, for example, Briggs, Friends of the People; Corina, Maurice, Fine Silks and Oak Counters: Debenhams, 1778–1978 (London, 1978)Google Scholar; Moss and Turton, House of Fraser; Lancaster, Department Store, 58–84.

47 Pasdermadjian, Department Store, 21; Lancaster, Department Store, 56, 73.

48 Shaw, “Large-Scale Retailing.”

49 See Scott and Walker, “British ‘Failure,’” 281–82; Lancaster, Department Store, 58–84.

50 Pasdermadjian, Department Store, 87–88; Scott and Walker, “British ‘Failure,’” 282.

51 Scott and Walker, “British ‘Failure,’” 299–301. This dichotomy does not take into account the smaller, often family-owned stores found in many British market towns; these were perhaps least likely to adopt new practices.

52 Fujioka, Rika, Hyakkaten no Seisei Katei [The development of department stores] (Tokyo, 2006), 40–65Google Scholar.

53 Whitlock, Browns and Chester, 217; italics in the original.

54 Quoted in Howard, Vicki, Brides, Inc.: American Weddings and the Business of Tradition (Philadelphia, 2006), 98Google Scholar.

55 Lancaster, Department Store, 122, 143–44, 176; McBride, Theresa M., “A Woman's World: Department Stores and the Evolution of Women's Employment,” French Historical Studies 10, no. 4 (1978): 681Google Scholar.

56 Jefferys, James and Knee, Derek, Retailing in Europe: Present Structure and Future Trends (London, 1962)Google Scholar.

57 Hoshino, Shuichiro, “Joteiin wo Chushin to seru Hyakkaten no Kenkyu [Study on female staff in department stores],” Keizai Jisho 4, no. 12 (1933): 22–32Google Scholar.

58 Taniuchi, Senzen Osaka, 326–54.

59 This tradition can be traced from Pasdermadjian, Department Store, through Miller, Daniel, The Bon Marché: Bourgeois Culture and the Department Store, 1869–1920 (Princeton, 1981)Google Scholar, to Lancaster, Department Store.

60 See Howard, Main Street to Mall, 53–56; Rappaport, Shopping for Pleasure, 74–107; Lancaster, Department Store, 171–94; and Williams, Rosalind, Dream Worlds: Mass Consumption in Late Nineteenth Century France (Berkeley, 1982)Google Scholar.

61 Mitsukoshi, 100-Year History, 366–67.

62 Lancaster, Department Store, 138–42; Miller, Bon Marché, 77–111.

63 Whitlock, Browns and Chester, 216, 217.

64 Bruno Blonde and Ilja Van Damme, “From Consumer Revolution to Mass Market,” in Routledge Companion to the History of Retailing, ed. Jon Stobart and Vicki Howard (London, forthcoming).

65 Briggs, Friends of the People, 66.

66 Walsh, Clare, “The Newness of the Department Store: A View from the Eighteenth Century,” in Cathedrals of Consumption: The European Department Store, 1850–1939, ed. Crossick, Geoffrey and Jaumain, Serge (Aldershot, U.K., 1999), 46–71Google Scholar.

67 Stobart, “Cathedrals of Consumption.”

68 Nagano, Mayumi, Anokoro no Depart [The department stores at that time] (Tokyo, 2012), 14–15Google Scholar.

69 Quoted in Whitaker, Department Store, 202. In reality, the “through-floor” design only became widespread in the United States from the 1920s. See Howard, Main Street to Mall, 19, 56–62.

70 Moss and Turton, House of Fraser, 334, 140; Cox, Nancy, The Complete Tradesman: A Study of Retailing, 1550–1820 (Aldershot, U.K., 2000), 137Google Scholar.

71 See Lancaster, Department Store, 94–107; Morrison, English Shops, 93–99.

72 Rappaport, Shopping for Pleasure, 74–107.

73 Scott and Walker, “British ‘Failure,’” 296.

74 Tamagawa, Yuko, “Mitsukoshi Hyakkaten to Ongaku: Ongaku to Shōgyo wa Te ni Te wo totte” [Music and Commerce Hand in Hand: Mitsukoshi and Music], Toho Gakuen Daigaku Kenkyu Kiyo 23 (1997): 27–59Google Scholar.

75 Mitsukoshi, 100-Year History, 66–73.

76 Ibid., 39.

77 Howard, Main Street to Mall, 18–19; Lancaster, Department Store, 30–31.

78 Yamagataya, Yamagataya 247 nen [A 247-year history of Yamagataya] (Kagoshima, 1998), 37–43.

79 See, for example, Bowlby, Rachel, Just Looking: Consumer Culture in Dreiser, Gissing and Zola (London, 1985)Google Scholar; Rappaport, Shopping for Pleasure; and Nava, Mica, “Modernity's Disavowal: Women, the City and the Department Store,” in Modern Times: Reflections on a Century of English Modernity, ed. Nava, Mica and O'Shea, Alan (London, 1996), 38–76Google Scholar.

80 Blonde and Van Damme, “Consumer Revolution to Mass Market”; Lancaster, Department Store, 175–82.

81 Rappaport, Shopping for Pleasure, 74–107.

82 Lancaster, Department Store, 182–83; Moss and Turton, House of Fraser, 138, 140.

83 Jinno, Yuki, Hyakkaten de Shumi wo Kau [Consumers bought the taste of department stores] (Tokyo, 2015), 54–56Google Scholar.

84 Mitsukoshi, 100-Year History, 86; Hirano, Takashi, “Igirisu ni okeru Hyakkaten no Kigen to Shoki Hatten Patān: Nihon tono Hikaku [The origins of English department stores and their development by comparison with Japanese stores],” Mita Shogaku Kenkyu 48, no. 2 (2005): 76–77Google Scholar.

85 Fujioka, Rika, “Taishoki no Konrei Jyuyo to Hyakkaten no Hatten [The development of department stores with bride's outfit: 1912–1926],” Kokuritsu Rekishi Minzoku Hakubutsukan Kenkyu Kiyo 197 (2016): 127–43Google Scholar.

86 See Howard, Main Street to Mall, 62–73.