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Department Stores in Down State Illinois, 1889–1943

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  24 July 2012

Wayland A. Tonning
Wayland A. Tonning
Affiliation:
Instructor, Marketing Department at University of Illinois
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Abstract

Standing between expanding productive capacity on the one hand and growing consumer demand on the other, the marketing middleman in our economy has been forced into a succession of adaptive measures, significant among which has been department store retailing. A study of the general developmental pattern in down state Illinois reveals a “spawning era” and identifies three generic antecedents for the department store. Case studies of individual firms reveal the external underlying forces and the innovating policies which made the department store necessary and possible in this geographic area. Since by many criteria the small cities of Illinois were typical of those elsewhere, a study of retail developments there has more than regional implications.

Type
Research Article
Information
Business History Review , Volume 29 , Issue 4 , December 1955 , pp. 335 - 349
Copyright
Copyright © The President and Fellows of Harvard College 1955

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References

1 The most recent department store definition was used to select the firms studied (see pp. 338–39). A former definition, suggested by a Dun & Bradstreet executive, was used to date the initial department store classifications of today's down state Illinois department stores. The earlier definition cited department stores as establishments “… primarily engaged in selling at retail, on a departmentalized basis, dry goods in combination with apparel and accessories, or furniture and home furnishings with annual sales of more than $100,000 or with 10 or more employees.” (Standard Industrial Classification Manual, Bureau of the Budget [Washington, Government Printing Office, 1940], II, 62.)

2 Department stores, mail-order houses, modern chain stores, supermarkets, and discount houses.

3 Jones, Fred M., “Middlemen in the Domestic Trade of the United States, 1800–1860,” Illinois Studies in the Social Sciences, XXI, No. 3 (University of Illinois, Urbana, Illinois, 1937), 50Google Scholar.

4 Hower, Ralph M., History of Macy's of New York, 1858–1919 (Cambridge, Massachusetts, 1943), cf. p. 100CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

5 Ibid., p. 146.

6 Russell, Frederic W. and Beach, Frank H., Textbook of Salesmanship (New York, 1955), p. 23Google Scholar.

7 Hower, History of Macy's, p. 90.

8 Standard Industrial Classification Manual, Bureau of the Budget (Washington, Government Printing Office, 1949), II, 74Google Scholar.

9 Converse, P. D., “Retail Trade Areas in Illinois,” Business Studies Number Four (University of Illinois, Urbana, Ill., 1946), cf. pp. 16–17Google Scholar.

10 Census Reports, 1890, Vol. IX, Manufacturers Part III, Special Reports on Selected Industries, Men's Clothing, p. 296.

11 Haswell, C. H., Reminiscences of New York by an Octogenarian (New York, 1896), p. 262Google Scholar.

12 Russell & Beach, Textbook of Salesmanship, p. 25. “John Wanamaker… started as a clerk in the Tower Hall Clothing Store for Men in Philadelphia in 1857…. Four years later,… he formed a partnership with his brother-in-law, Nathan Brown, selling clothing for men and boys.…”

13 Moses, J. and Kirkland, J., The History of Chicago, Illinois (Chicago, 1859), I, 297Google Scholar.

14 Andreas, A. T., History of Chicago (Chicago, 1884), III, 716Google Scholar.

15 Moeckel, Bill R., “The Development of the Wholesaler in the United States, 1860–1900” (Ms. Ph.D. Thesis, University of Illinois, 1953), p. 176Google Scholar.

16 Industrial Commission, Final Report, XIX (Washington, 1902), 547Google Scholar.

17 Census Reports, IX, 300.

18 Foulke, Roy A., The Sinews of American Commerce (Dun and Bradstreet, Inc., 1941), p. 52Google Scholar.

19 Passer, Harold C., “Frank Julian Sprague,” Miller, William, Editor, Men in Business (Cambridge, 1952), p. 216Google Scholar.

20 Due, John F., “The Rise and Decline of the Midwest Interurban,” Current Economic Comment (University of Illinois, Urbana, Illinois, Vol. 14, No. 2, Aug., 1952), p. 46Google Scholar.

21 Hard money in this instance meant a money economy in contrast to a barter economy.

22 Champaign County News, Champaign, Illinois, 21 Feb. 1891. This was the final advertisement to incorporate in the signature “The Farmers Store.” The advertisement featured home furnishings.

23 Champaign County News, cf. 13 Feb. 1892.

24 Ibid., 22 May 1897.

25 The selection of Champaign, Illinois, as the site for the firm was an accident; but the time was carefully considered. Mr. Wolf Lewis, the original proprietor of W. Lewis & Co., had migrated from Troy, New York, to enter the mercantile business with a brother George in Marinette, Wisconsin, in 1880. George Lewis had established the business 5 Dec. 1876. Marinette was a “logging” town. Apprehensive about the future of the community, Mr. Lewis asked a brother-in-law in the dry goods business in Kankakee, Illinois, to watch for a favorable location. When a store location opened up in Champaign, Mr. Lewis leased the space and moved his store stocks to Champaign.

26 Gazette, 3 April 1872. This issue carried the first advertisement of the firm Scott & Willis, which opened for business one week later, 10 April. “The Philadelphia One Price Family Dry Goods Store” advertised “Satisfaction Guaranteed to Every Purchaser, All Goods Marked in Plain Figures and One Price.” In the same 3 April issue of the Gazette, the following article appeared on page one:

New Firm. — Messrs Scott and Willis this week appear before the public and take a place among the businessmen of this city. They hail from the model city of Philadelphia, but having cast their fortune here, expect to be with us and for us. May they meet with a cordial reception and the support and patronage their way of doing business merits. They are located at No. 7 Main St.… As will be seen from their posters and advertising, they mean business and intend that their campaign for public favor shall begin at once.…

A survey of the preceding fifteen years of the advertising (back to the founding date of the Gazette) reveals no consistent effort to develop a “one price policy.” The fact that the merchants “hailed” from Philadelphia seems significant. Willis had worked as a dry goods clerk in Strawbridge and Clothier, one of the oldest firms in Philadelphia; prior to that he had apprenticed as a “draper” in London. This rigid training and the exposure to Wanamaker's advertising in Philadelphia had schooled Willis in high business ethics and effective advertising methods. The advertising for the first few years was remarkably similar to Wanamaker's.

27 Gazette, Jan. through March, 1904, and passim.