Brand Bible

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BRAND BIBLE178

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Industrial Revolution,

a new consumer value surfaced: self-indulgence.

Retail brands and marketers raced to encourage

this new value in consumers, responding with

more styles of clothing, more variety at the local

grocers, as well as nonessential items like chil-

dren’s toys and entertainment products for adults,

too. Consumers were now inundated with choice

and with it, the recognition of the power of their

spending dollars. With the boom of new products

and competing brands, came many more “rules”

to follow. Increasingly, retail shopping developed

into a game—some might say “a war”—of competi-

tive pricing.



One of the earliest examples of xed pricing in

the United States came with the 1846 opening of

A.T. Stewart, the country’s rst department store.

Located in lower Manhattan, the store oered

European retail merchandise and the rst set

prices on many dry goods—in the past, consumers

the evoLution

of Branding

retaiL

environments



Choose me



Photographs show-

ing an early store of

the Great Atlantic &

Pacic Tea Company

Photo: ChipPix / Shutterstock.com

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could haggle with shop proprietors about prices.

But while setting the standard for all future retail

stores with its xed prices, A. T. Stewart also

oered an experience of shopping unlike any other.

The store embodied sheer immensity, as shop-

pers made their way from the clothing department

to shoes to housewares within the largest retail

space in the city. It was an experience of luxury,

a treat, to be in the store’s sublime setting of

expensive marble, Italian architecture, and light

streaming light from French plate glass windows.

Women were especially drawn to the in-store

fashion shows, and soon enough, a number of

imitation stores sprang up on the same strip of

Broadway, all of them becoming popular among

the city’s fashionable elite.

Choose Me: The Evolution of Branding Retail Environments

Photo: ChipPix / Shutterstock.com

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Photo: Dmitrijs Dmitrijevs/Shutterstock.com

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