The Tale of a Shopping Mall – Chapter 1

Shopping malls are collections of shops selling products belonging to a large number of brands! However, their stories started with the departmental store way back in 1796. Here’s a trip back in time penned down to the best of my ability.

For the sake of readability and interest, this post serves as a list citing the major departmental stores till 1926.

1796: Harding Howell and Company’s Grand Fashionable Magazine, London

Source: http://bbc.in/1OcnWuw

Mid 1900s: Crystal Palace, host to the Great Exhibition held in 1851 and eventually Europe’s biggest departmental store in 1905

Source: http://bbc.in/1NugDNa

1852: Wisconsin-born Harry Gordon Selfridge’s Marshall Fields, Chicago

Source: http://bbc.in/1LeyyY7

1921: GUM (State Departmental Store), Red Square, Moscow

Source: http://bbc.in/1OUeg5e

1926: Mendelsohn, Nuremberg, Moscow

Source: http://bbc.in/1USQjgn

In Chapter 2, the tale would be enlightened further with an insight into the infrastructure specialties of departmental stores – the precursors to the facilities of a modern, shopping mall.