Selfridges is one of the best stores for wealthy and fashionable shoppers. What few modern consumers know is that this venerable English store was a major early advocate for women’s rights.
Selfridges is a small chain of large, well-rounded UK department stores, it’s what you could get if you crossed the fashionista style of Harvey Nichols with the kind of shopper merchandise encyclopedia that used to be the Sears & Roebuck catalog. The stores, all in architecturally extraordinary buildings, used to target the middle market. These days, designer products have consistently raised prices and made annual sales worth keeping an eye on.
What to buy at Selfridges department store
Selfridges emphasizes luxury and designer goods, exotic foods and high-end brands in its UK department stores. It highlights the latest UK and international fashion designers alongside well-established fashion names.
But clothing is only the beginning. This is the kind of store that is a day trip unto itself, with men’s, women’s, and children’s fashions, jewelry, toys, household items, various beauty salons and nail bars, home accessories, and products. lifestyle, technology and small appliances.
At 540,000 square feet, its Oxford Street flagship store is one of the largest stores in the world, where you can buy a few pounds of potatoes, see an exhibition of cutting-edge art, or invest in the world’s first diamond-encrusted Bluetooth headset.
All that and the dining rooms are to die for. With everything from fancy French takeaways, spicy Thai and Indian dishes, Krispy Kreme donuts, even New York-style corned beef sandwiches (they call it salty meat here). And of course, if you prefer to cook yourself, you can buy all the ingredients you need in one of the Selfridges canteens: fish, meat, chicken, pasta, game, fruits and vegetables, seasonings, whatever you like.
Amazing services
Selfridges Department Store has all the services you can expect in a top department store: personal shoppers, alterations, hair salon, actually several men’s and women’s hair salons, plus a nail bar and skin spa. But a quick rundown of their alphabetical list of in-store services reveals:
- Bicycle repairs
- Catering
- Rub the back without knocking
- Psychics
- Tailored jeans
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… Forgot to change money? It is not a problem, all Selfridges boxes, in all company stores accept:
- American dollars
- Swiss francs
- Euros
- Japanese yen
Where to find Selfridges department store
This retail sale requires a lot of effort. Therefore, there are only four branches. But any Selfridges is worth a visit, even if all you can afford is to look around and have a snack in one of the restaurants or bars. You can find them in:
- Londres
- Birmingham
- Manchester Exchange Square
- Manchester Trafford Center
Leave it to the Americans …
… To arrive at this exaggerated but winning mix. Selfridges was founded in 1909 by Wisconsin native Harry Gordon Selfridge, who trained at Chicago’s Marshall Field. For years part of Sears Holdings, another North American company, Selfridges is now owned by the Weston family of Canada, which also owns Holt Renfrew and Brown Thomas stores in Ireland.
Miss Selfridge, a spin-off from the department store, with branches everywhere, is no longer part of the same company.
Women rights
Mr. Selfridge founded his shop just as the women’s suffrage movement was in full swing and the London Underground Central Line was bringing ladies from the middle-class western suburbs to London. Shopping as a respectable leisure activity for women was new. Selfridge supported independent women because she knew that they would ultimately be her best clients.
It may seem strange today, but women’s fashion and women’s clothing were considered important to such prominent suffragettes as the Pankhursts, who frequented Selfridges. Selfridge was a major supporter of the movement. He even refused to press charges when a suffragette broke one of the store’s 25 glass windows, then the largest in the world.
To make shopping easier and more enjoyable for women, Selfridge opened the first in-store cafes and restaurants and had the first in-store ladies’ public restrooms. Everything was designed to make a day of shopping in the city something a respectable, suburban lady would look forward to.
