THE MAMMOTH SHOPS OF LONDON.

Taranaki Herald, Issue 13917, 29 May 1909, Page 6 (Supplement)

THE MAMMOTH SHOPS OF LONDON.

It is oxtmnrly doubtful if there ;s; s another stnx-t in the world winch contains so many huge shops or, rather stores— for they can provide you with anything from a pin to a steam enpn" -as Oxford Street. London. America may be able to boast of the great Philadelphian store of Wanamaker, the Whiteley of the States/ which covers some twenty acres and employs close upon 10,000 people; of feiegel Cooper and Co., the great store of New York, which covers twenty-two acres , mm over ninety departments, spends 1,000 - 000 dollars a year on advertising, and employs close upon 5000 hands; and of the mammoth drapery establishment ol Field. Leiter, and Co., of Chicago whoso turnover has I^"^™ the enormous figure of £,J,OUU,iJUU pt. annum; but it cannot point to a spot like the Oxford Street quarter mile, where so many huge businesses worth millions arc concentrated. The capital investment of Messrs. Waring and Gillow, for instance, whose fine premises, occupying a site of some 40,000 square feet, weie opened nearly three years ago, lepresents about £2,000,000. Some idea of the size of this establishment may be gathered from the fact that its eight floors contain over one hundred galleries, averaging 60ft. by 30ft. in size, and 150 specimen furnished rooms — for Messrs. Waring and Gillow's specialty, of course, is furnishing and decorating. Like the great firm of Peter Robinson, which is almost next door, Messrs. Waring and Gillow employ thousands of hands. And on the other side of Oxford Circus arc the big houses of Marshall and Snelgrove, Debenham and Freebody, and D. H. Evans, whose total capital runs into many millions. To ( these firms has now been added Selfridge's, which was opened the other day. Selfridge's start their business with about 1200 employees and merchandise representing a value of something like £300,000. Like Waring and Gillow's, Selfridge's huge building contains eight floors, the ground floor being on» acre in extent. There are about one hundred different departments — veritable fairylands of attractive goods — through which the public can wander at will. At the time when Solfridge's was being opened the great Harrod's Stores in Brompton Road were celebrating their diainorixl jubilee. It was in 184 c) that Mr. Henry Charles Harrod opened a modest little grocer's shop on a spot now covered by the gigantic emporium, which has thirty-six acres of shop space, where you can buy anything , from a pin to a piano, insure your life, sell your property, bank your money, hire your house, buy your railway and I steamboat tickets, and fit out anything from a picnic to a Polar expedition. Nearly 5000 employees are kept busypractically every minute of the day, ' and when Harrod's sales are announced ( railway companies run special trains j from the provinces. Some idea of the amount of business done may be gathered from the fact that 200 carts and forty motor vans are constantly em- : ployed delivering goods, the printed catalogue of which runs to over 1300 pages. I The romance of Harrod's naturally j reminds one of the story of tl»e growth i of Whiteley 's. of Westbourne Grove, I which employs between 5000 and 6000 • people, half of whom are boarded and ; lodged on the premises. | There are, by the May, seventy different departments at Whiteley's, and every description of business is transacted. A stud of over 350 horses with 250 vehicles is required to deliver the goods purchased within c twenty-five-Uiile radius of Bayswater. And talking it bout small beginnings of great businesses, how many of the thousands of people who daily pass down Holborn realise that only thirty years ago Gamage's magnificent premises consisted of a small shop with a 16ft. frontage. Instead of eighty square feet, the floor space is now five acres, and the capital, which was originally £40, now stands at £350,000. There are over 300,000 regular customers on the books, while 100,000 copies of a 1400-page catalogue, illustrated with 13,000 pictures, arc sent out annually in order to advertise the firm's goods. The success of this great firm Mr. A. W. Gamage attributes purely to advertising. "I am a believer," he says, "in the saying, 'Don^t hide your light under a bushel.' Advertising is the groundwork of success, providing the articles offered are good and the confidence of the public can be obtained. Then the reward is hound to come." If further illustration be needed of the fact that London is the city of great shops, one. might turn to the huge furnishing houses of Shoolbred and Maple, the Kensington firm of John Barker, and the Army and Navy Stores, all employing thousands of assistants.