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From Main Street to Mall - The Rise and Fall of the American Department Store (Hardcover)
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From Main Street to Mall - The Rise and Fall of the American Department Store (Hardcover)
Series: American Business, Politics, and Society
Expected to ship within 10 - 15 working days
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The geography of American retail has changed dramatically since the
first luxurious department stores sprang up in nineteenth-century
cities. Introducing light, color, and music to dry-goods emporia,
these "palaces of consumption" transformed mere trade into
occasions for pleasure and spectacle. Through the early twentieth
century, department stores remained centers of social activity in
local communities. But after World War II, suburban growth and the
ubiquity of automobiles shifted the seat of economic prosperity to
malls and shopping centers. The subsequent rise of discount big-box
stores and electronic shopping accelerated the pace at which local
department stores were shuttered or absorbed by national chains.
But as the outpouring of nostalgia for lost downtown stores and
historic shopping districts would indicate, these vibrant social
institutions were intimately connected to American political,
cultural, and economic identities. The first national study of the
department store industry, From Main Street to Mall traces the
changing economic and political contexts that transformed the
American shopping experience in the twentieth century. With careful
attention to small-town stores as well as glamorous landmarks such
as Marshall Field's in Chicago and Wanamaker's in Philadelphia,
historian Vicki Howard offers a comprehensive account of the uneven
trajectory that brought about the loss of locally identified
department store firms and the rise of national chains like Macy's
and J. C. Penney. She draws on a wealth of primary source evidence
to demonstrate how the decisions of consumers, government policy
makers, and department store industry leaders culminated in today's
Wal-Mart world. Richly illustrated with archival photographs of the
nation's beloved downtown business centers, From Main Street to
Mall shows that department stores were more than just places to
shop.
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