Selfridges, the United Kingdom department store, which opened in 1909, is going strong today. It stuck to its principles, which it advertised in the Times on 24 February 1909:
What the public have yet to realize is that business is a science, or at its greatest an art. . . . Sheer commercialism, the desire to make a profit and to accumulate money, may determine the organization of a business, but business to-day has passed beyond that mere money-grubbing stage. (Quoted from ch. 4 of Consuming Traditions: Modernity, Modernism, and the Commodified Authentic, by Elizabeth Outka. Oxford University Press. 2009.)
For a history of Selfridges, click here. To see it in its present condition, click here. To learn about Elizabeth Outka, click here.
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