Department stores - Bainbridge's
Newcastle upon Tyne was possibly the first town in the world to have a department store. This picture shows a late nineteenth century appointment card for Bainbridge & Company, with an illustration of the store's front in Market Street, Newcastle.
Emerson Muschamp Bainbridge (1817 - 1892) opened his first shop in 1838, when he was only twenty-one years old, in partnership with William Alder Dunn. They sold drapery (cloth), laces and ribbons. It was one of the first shops to display labels with fixed prices for the goods, changing the normal practice of haggling with customers over prices.Although Bainbridge's partnership with Dunn did not last more than a few years, the shop continued to be successful.
Suggested Further Reading
