I read an article a while ago which said, “… the Vera Wang bridal shop in Singapore imposes a nonrefundable $482 fee to try on dresses. And last month a health food retailer in Australia posted this notice on its door: As of the first of February, this store will be charging people a $5 fee per person for just looking. The $5 fee will be deducted when goods are purchased.’”
I thought that was interesting, and it made me think of one of our favorite PBS series, “Mr. Selfridge,” which finished its third season last winter. It’s the story of Harry Selfridge, an American-born retail giant who founded the London-based department store called Selfridges in 1906.
Selfridge would have been appalled by a practice of charging to “browse”; he wanted people in his store to spend as much time as possible there. Selfridge promoted the radical notion of shopping just for pleasure rather than for necessity. He had elegant restaurants, special reception rooms and a Silence Room, with soft lights and deep chairs, all intended to keep customers in the store as long as possible.
Harry Selfridge has a Wisconsin connection; he was born in Ripon in 1864. There’s a Selfridge Park in Ripon, and the Wikipedia page for the city includes him as one of its famous residents. Harry was one of three boys, but according to Wikipedia before he was a year old, the family moved to Jackson, Michigan, because Harry’s father had purchased the town’s general store. The city of Ripon claims he lived there longer.
At the outbreak of the American Civil War, Selfridge’s father joined the Union Army, but he chose not to return to his home and family after the war ended. That left Harry’s mother to bring up three young boys. Harry’s two brothers died at very young ages shortly after the war ended, so Harry became an only child. His mother found work as a schoolteacher and struggled to support herself and Harry. She supplemented her income by painting greeting cards and eventually became headmistress of Jackson High School. Harry and his mother were good friends; they lived together all their lives.
At age 10, Harry began delivering newspapers. At 12, he started working at the Leonard Field’s dry-goods store. With the money he earned, he started a monthly boys magazine with a school friend, making money from the advertising carried in it.
He left school at 14 when he found work at a bank in Jackson. He failed his entrance examinations to the Naval Academy, so Harry became a bookkeeper at a local furniture factory. However, when the company closed down four months later, Selfridge moved to Grand Rapids to work in the insurance industry.
In 1876, Leonard Field agreed to write Selfridge a letter of introduction to Marshall Field, senior partner in the most successful store in Chicago. That store eventually became Marshall Field’s. Harry started as a stock boy and worked his way up. He became a junior partner and married Rosalie Buckingham, a wealthy heiress, and amassed a considerable personal fortune.
After their marriage, Harry and Rose built an imposing Tudor-style mansion on Lake Geneva, complete with large greenhouses and extensive rose gardens. Over the next 10 years, they had five children, a boy who died in infancy, three girls and another boy.
At Marshall Field, Harry promoted Christmas sales with the phrase “Only __ Shopping Days Until Christmas,” a catchphrase quickly picked up by other retailers. He is also credited with popularizing the phrase “The customer is always right.”
In 1904, Harry opened his own department store in Chicago. After only two months he sold the store at a profit to Carson, Pirie and Co. Harry decided to retire and for a couple of years spent a lot of time at Lake Geneva and played a lot of golf.
In 1906, Selfridge and his wife went to London on vacation. He noticed that London stores couldn’t compare to Field’s in Chicago. Harry invested £400,000 in a new department store of his own, which opened in March 1909, and Selfridge remained chairman until he retired in 1941.
During the Great Depression, Selfridge’s fortune rapidly declined, a situation not helped by his free-spending ways. He gambled frequently and often lost. After his wife died, Selfridge had numerous liaisons, including those with the celebrated Dolly Sisters. Maybe the new season will get into these juicy affairs, huh?
He died destitute in May 1947, in Putney, London, at the age of 89 and was buried in St. Mark’s Churchyard at Highcliffe, Dorset, next to his wife and mother.
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