Discount Bargain Stores
Discount Bargain Stores
Hi to you all. It is so lovely to be back for another short BargainBrute.Com narrative where we will be exploring “The History of Discount Stores,” a subject close to my heart as I have been in retail as an analyst and journalist for many a year.
I would also like to thank our hosts BargainBrute, home of the hottest online deals on the internet, for allowing me to write upon their platform. Pop over and check them out and see for yourself just why they have been voted America’s favorite place to shop online.
To find out how online “Discount Bargain Stores” came about, we have to go back to the end of the American “Civil War” (1861-1865) with the development of mass production, hurriedly put in place to help feed an ever-growing population, who were moving inland following the new cross country railways which were nearing completion.
No longer were people tied to just small towns and cites, all of which, up until then, had lived in quiet seclusion cut off from the rest of the country, buying and selling produce and products mostly made within their separate communities.
Now, however, as these townies, as they were called, spread their wings and moved into the surrounding suburbs many miles from any manufacturing or produce growers, it did not take long for them to realize there were no retail units, hardware stores, or for that matter even the basics to live on. So a new way of mass distribution was set up to feed and clothe the nation.
As we concentrate on discount bargain stores from now on, I will discuss how this new mass-distribution approach affected and created today’s modern-day discount bargain stores.
The first to benefit from this new form of distribution was the department store, quickly followed by the chain store, and as its name implies, were spread across mainland America receiving all their goods from the newly formed railways.
Author’s note: The chain store was the forerunner of the franchising business.
So successful were these chain stores that small retail bargain stores began to open up, which added diversity. However, it was not long before these once-niche operated shops began to feel the pinch because of the increased competition, and it was because of this which forced many of them to open up smaller but highly stocked retail outlets which they called “Junior Department Stores,” really the first family-owned retail chain operated retail stores.
For just a little while, all seemed that no further changes to the distribution networks were on the cards. However, as is now, the world of retailing is an ever-changing one and will change. So retailers beware, if you do not move on with the times, you might pull the shutters down and go back home.
What happened? Mail order happened. The catalog shop opened up, and with that, more competition was out there, and as these mail-order catalogs spawned other catalog shops, some of the owners then decided to lower the prices, and with that, the “Discount Bargain Stores” were born. The world of retail would never be the same again.
For a while, mass-marketing remained relatively constant way up to the 1920s. However, the “discount sellers,” of old, as they had now become known, some of whom first operated in the early 1900s, as did “S.Kline,” who acted as one of the first under sellers way back 1912.
Soon after, they were quickly followed by W.May in 1924, and of course that old American traditional brick and mortar retail outlet “Alexander’s who first ran “Discount Bargain Stores,” specializing in soft goods opened up their first “Under Selling Stores” back in 1928. Yes, the discount Bargain Stores had arrived indeed.
Of course, as they say, all things must come to an end, but not it would seem for the Discount Bargain Stores.
The Great Depression hit, it was the beginning of the 1930s, and the economy dived so far that money was worthless if you were lucky enough to have any.
However, retail realized very quickly that people could not purchase anything, so moving with the times, the emergence of thousands of discount stores sprang up. Even discount grocery stores were built around the country, household names even today.
A good example is the early supermarkets, pioneered by Fred Meyer in 1922 and Hendrik Meijer in 1934, all of them were comprehensive grocery stores, selling groceries at discounted prices.
