THE MAMMOTH SHOPS OF LONDON.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LII, Issue 98, 22 May 1909, Page 3

THE MAMMOTH SHOPS OF LONDON.

| It is exiivmvly doubtful il there is another street in the world which contains so many huge shops, or, rather, I stores —for they can provide you with ■ anything from a ipiu to a steam-engine--ii.s OMiord-streel, London. America maybe able to boast of the jrritit J'hiladel- ! pliian store of Wauauiaker, "the WhiteI ley of the .States," which covers some : twenty acres and employs close upon 10,000 people; of Siegel Cooper and Co., the great store of Xenv York, whic'i ' covers twenty-two acres, has over ninety j departments, spends 1,000,000 dollars a ' yi-ur on advertising, and employs close ' upon 5000 hands; and of the mammoth : drapery establishment of Field, Leiter, [ and Co., of Chicago, whose turnover has'' been said to reach the enormous figure I of £2,000,000 -per annum; but it cannot j point, to a spot like the Oxford-street' quarter-mile, where so many huge busi- I ncsscs worth millions are concentrated. I

The capital investment of Messrs. Waring and Gi'llow, for instance, rfbosc fine premises, occupying a site of some 40,000 s'quare feet, were opened nearly three years ago. represents about £2,000,000. Some idea of the size of this establishment may be gathered from tho fact that its eight floors contain over one hundred galleries, averaging 00ft by 30ft in size, and 150 specimen furnished rooms—for Messrs. Waring and Gillow't speciality,. of course., is furnishing and decorating. e

A XOTABLE ADDITION. Like the great firm of Peter Robinson, which is almost next door, Messrs. Waring and Gillow employ thousands of hands. And on the other side of Oxford Circus are the big houses of Marshall and Snclgrove, Dchenham and Freebody, and D. ill'. Evans, whose total capital runs into many millions. To tlies'e firms has now been added Selfridge's, which was opened the other day. Kclfridge's start their business with aliout 1200 employees and merchandise! representing a value of something like £300,000. Like Waving and Gillow, Selfridge's huge building contains eight floors, the ground floor Ibc.ing one acre in extent. There arc about one hundred different departments-—veritable fairylauds of attractive goods—through which the public can wander at will. HARBOD'S.

At the time when Selfridge's was' being opened the Great Harrod's Stores in Brompton-road were celebrating their diamond jubilee. It was in 1849 that Mr. Henry Charles Harroil opened a modest little grocer's shop on a spot now covered by the gigantic emporium, which | has tliirtv-six acres of'shop space, where , you can buy anything from a pin to a | piano, insure your life, sell your property, bank your money, hire your house, buv vour railway and steamboat tickets, «nd'fit out anything from a picnic to a Polar expedition. Nearly 5000 employees are kept bus'y practically every minute of the day, and when Harrod's sales are announced railway companies run special twins from the nrovinces. Some idea of the amount of business done may be gathered from the ■ fact that 200 carts and forty motor vans ; are constantly employed delivering goods, the printed catalogue of which runs to over 1300 pages. TINY SHOP TO MAMMOTH STORE. The romance of Harrod's naturally reminds one of the story of the growth ot Whitelev's, of Wes'tbourne Grove, which employs" between 5000 and 0000 people, half of whom are boarded and lodged on the premises. .. There are, bv Ac iwav, seventy different departments at Whitelev's and evcrv description of business is transacted. A stud of over 350 horses with 250 veWclcs is requited to deliver the r/oo<ls purchased within a twenty-fhe-mile radius of Bays'w<i.ter. ~ VALUE 01' ADVERTISING. _ And, talking about small beginnings of great businesses, how many of the thousands of people Who da.lv pass dow Holboru realise that only thirty jea « lo damage's magnificent premises eo >• i;e ( a „e! Instead of eighty Square fee ,t» floor space is now Ave acres, and eanital which was originally £.40, now Eat ..350,000.000. There WW* 300,000 regular customers ohe booU while 100.000 copies of a 1400-page caia oC illustrated with 13.000 picture-, are out annually in order to advertise the firm's goods. . The success of this great hvm Mr A. W damage attributed .purely to advet- «■•„,« "1 am a believer,' he sajs, in savin,. '»on't hide your light■ unuVr "bushel/ Advertising is the V™ " i^^ir^art^fif^-f ?hc ptwV -an be obtatned. Then the