In 1966, Evelyn Engelking, Lenora Russell, and the Church Women United in Carbondale founded The Thrift Shop. Church Women United consist of women who come from different churches and faith backgrounds. -S- It was moved to its present location at 215 N Illinois in 1991. The Thrift Shop is a community-based store with the sole purpose of giving back to the local community through charitable efforts. The primary mission of The Thrift Shop is to provide a positive, low-cost shopping experience, in a fun, safe environment, to all who need it. The manager of this store is Jennifer, alongside her is Cory, assistant manager, Jessica, sales associate, Sydney, sales associate, and Mark, worker. Jennifer has 5 years’ experience at The Thrift Shop.
As I walked into my local small ethnic grocery store in my hometown for the first time I could not help but to be amazed. It was so neat to see the cultural art hanging around the walls and all the variety of different foods. El Cristal: Tienda Hispana is a great place to shop. When shopping in the grocery store there were many Hispanics that would come in and out of the door. Since the store has a dominantly Hispanic demeanor there was only one other Caucasian in the store besides myself. Most people of other cultures visit an ethnic grocery store when looking for something specific in a recipe where as someone of the same ethnicity buys a good amount of their groceries from there.
Despite the outbreak of the First World War, the store strived to give a great service to the public, giving a meaning to the famous phrase “business as usual” (Harry Gordon Selfridge, 1914). During the period of 1919 and 1924, the company started its first expansion in Oxford Street and was selling everything from make-up to toys. So far, over 15 million had shopped in the store.
In his book A Shopkeepers Millenium, Paul E. Johnson tells of a settlement in early 1800s Western New York called Rochester, an inland, water-powered town which thrived by dint of mercantilism, trade, and supplying manufacturing goods for nearby towns and travelers passing through. Rochester’s mills made it famous, and commerce thrived in Rochester because it had goods that were in high demand. Rochester’s settlers were wealthy men, and maintained this by carefully courting wealthy women or having their family members marry into wealth. In the late 1820’s, Rochester succumbed to public drunkenness, debauchery, and an uncontrolled lower class. Johnson argues that the evangelical revival during the winter of 1931 was a reaction to dissolution
Informally, Girls Inc. was started in 1864 in Connecticut, for daughters of working class mill families (girlsinc.org, 2014). This club was an informal gathering place, a bright spot in girls’ lives during the Great Depression, where they could learn sewing skills, make friends, and connect with mentors (girlsinc.org). It was feelings of belonging, increased self worth, and a home away from home, that was the driving force behind the effort to gather 19 clubs in the New England area to become the Girls Club of America in 1945, a name that would last ten years (girlsinc.org).
Over the years, the American department store has developed and evolved as not only a commercial business but also a cultural institution. While it has weathered many storms and changes since its inception and throughout history, its most predominant enemy has been a change in the lifestyle of the American people (Whitaker, 2013). As the customer’s needs and wants have shifted, department stores have struggled to keep up with demands. It has been argued that the decline of the department store has been ongoing for the last 50 years (Whitaker, 2013). This dissertation aims to understand how the department store has historically played a role in consumer culture and spending, and additionally, how this has evolved and changed in today’s retail market. Although department stores may not be able to take all the credit for inventing modern shopping, they certainly made its conventions and conveniences commonplace. They set a new standard for the way the consumer should expect to be treated, the type of services that should be provided, and the convenience that should attend the process of acquiring the necessities and niceties of life all in one place. They made shopping into a leisure pastime. This environment meant shopping was a means of freedom to look around, pick up objects with no obligations to buy. As one historian remarked, department stores: “encouraged a perception of the building as a public place, where consumption itself was almost incidental to the delights of a sheltered promenade in a densely crowded, middle-class urban space” (Whitaker, 2006). Although this perception and view of the department store has changed over the years, this paper aims to follow the trail of how and why that happened.
Dayton, Ohio has a well known history that stretches back for Centuries. Sometimes, you take for granted the history of where you were born, but if you take a time line and look back, its clear to see how important it was to reflect on the different stages of triumph and victory that certain historical places like the one that will be talked about in this paper, that is The Woman’s Club. (This historical site) The Woman’s Club has been around for decades, and has been a very important tool for the history of Dayton. The history of this Club includes the survival of the Dayton flood and also the Great Depression which was around the 1930’s. You may think that The Woman’s Club was just for women but they did help men in some ways too but rooming was specifically, mostly only for women during the time when they rented rooms for overnight stay. An interesting fact about The Woman’s Club is that they have a ghost in their basement. Inside the basement there is a bar and this is where the men came to get a beverage. Going up into the main hall which is the historical part of the building where there is a wooden structure that is so beautiful and has a classical design to it. The history still lives in this beautiful structured building today. If the first owner of this beautiful structured place was still alive (Robert Steele) today, he probably would be happy to know that his classical, unique structured building was built for good use today and that people still value the history of The Woman’s Club as though it is something to remember. Today, The Woman’s Club is very important to Dayton because of its’ long lasting history. The history of The Woman’s Club starts out as the beginning of a brand new home, Robert Steele’s home who...
Sam Walton, founder of the retailing company Wal-Mart, once said, “If we work together, we’ll lower the cost of living for everyone...we’ll give the world an opportunity to see what it’s like to save and have a better life” (“Our History: Sam Walton”). Throughout the “Leaving a Legacy” unit, many historical and social movements as well as people and the legacies that they left, have been explored. Sam Walton created one of the biggest retailing industries in the United States and has left a lasting legacy.
Coming from the world of technology, Johnson envisioned the idea of transforming the “brick and mortar” experience for JCPenney shoppers. His goal was to modernize the store atmosphere to become more appealing to JCPenney consumers, which eventually lead to Johnson’s store-within-store concept. This strategic expansion of JCPenney’s product line was a major point of differentiation for the brand. The collection of branded shops such as MNG, Liz Claiborne, and Arizona were not blocked off with doors and it allowed for consumers to engage with the entire store while easily navigate into other shops within JCPenney (Poggi, 2012). The newly renovated layout focused on improving merchandise presentation and highlighting private brands such as JCP and St. John’s Bay. This store makeover allowed for ...
The goal for my ethnographic study is subjected to the study of the people of Wal-Mart. Wal-Mart is a place that varies from city to city, but still attracts many of the same people. Everyone knows the weird people that wear ridiculous things to do their normal routine of shopping. That is why I have chosen to do my mini ethnography one day while shopping as an insider at the local Wal-Mart in Auburn, Alabama. Wal-Mart is a large center for shopping that attracts many different types of people, while creating an environment within itself.
Baker and Pierce-Baker, Houston and Charlotte. "Patches: Quilts and Community in Alice Walker?s ?Everyday Use.?" Alice Walker: Critical Perspectives Past and Present. Eds. Henry Louis Gates and K. A. Appiah. New York: Amistad , 1993.
During the Great Depression, while the competitors were cutting costs and reusing outdated designs, Kress was expanding and building more elaborate stores than their previous ones. The architecture was referred to as an “emporium” evoking an elegant atmosphere more suited to a fine cloth or furniture store in New York rather than the five & dime stores dotting small town America. Many wonder what the driving force was behind these design decisions, especially during a national time of economic recession. Perhaps simply to outpace the competition, but perhaps more importantly Samuel Kress was an avid art collector and a proponent of public art enhancing a community. In this way the Kress legacy of the brand became more than a retail business, it became a symbol of small town civic pride.
Dunnes Stores is an indigenous, family owned Irish Company. The Company is a retailer in both the food and textile market who work around the principle of providing competitive prices, high quality products and a vast variety of choices. The company’s motto of “Better Value” looks to draw in all these principles together.
Drop and Go Laundry Services (DnG) desires to offer a satisfying and excellent laundry services within the community. DnG aspires to build trust and harmonious relationship between the management and its customers by providing quality service that will help the business be patronized by its consumers.
Retail Merchandising Retail merchandising is a management system of strategic planning and tactical control, directed toward the financial enhancement of an inventory and the profitable distribution of that inventory to the retail consumer. Merchandising enables retailers to make the best use of space and layout. It creates part of the communication process with consumers and focuses on layout, design, traffic flow and display advantage points. It links in with the overall development of a company’s corporate image and strategies, and fits with the organisation’s objectives to enhance and promote image. The primary goal of retail merchandising is to influence the potential customers to purchase a particular merchandise product at a particular retail store.
CHAPTER I Introduction In the Philippines, junk shops are virtually in every corner, and there is a reason why. In a world where almost every container is made out of plastic, tin cans and bottles, a junkshop is very economical and a very logical choice of business. It may be messy and stinky but it will certainly pay the bills when managed properly. Junk shops are very simple; basically, it’s basically a buy and sell business. They buy junk from households, segregates and classify the junks and sell them to resellers like a bottle return business. This is where it gets exciting; a bottle return is also a kind of buy and sells business. They buy empty bottles from junk shops and households, then cleanse it, and sell those empty bottles to the big companies such as Emperador Distilleries and San Miguel Brewery.