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Article: The invention of shopping: how the department store brought us teenagers, naval disarmament, and Salvador Dali.(Service and Style )(Book review)
- Article from:
- The Washington Monthly
- Article date:
- November 1, 2006
- Author:
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 2006 Washington Monthly Company. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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Service and Style By Jan Whitaker $35, St. Martin's Press
May I help you find suspenders to match the piano? A tie to go with your tea? Some Mozart for your handbag? If the modern art of selling depends upon creating associations, today's sales mavericks owe a lot to the history of the department store, the original lifestyle marketers.
In the early decades of the 20th century, if you were a person of moderate means and wanted to hear a piano recital, watch a film, sip tea, get a manicure, visit a travel bureau, or sign the kids up for bicycle lessons, the place to go was a downtown department store. Urbanization and rising wages created conditions for ...