Bloomingdale's

Bloomingdale's

Company type	Division
Industry	Retail
Founded	1860
Headquarters	1000 Third Avenue New York, New York, USA
Number of locations	41 stores, 4 Bloomingdale's Outlets
Products	Clothing, footwear, bedding, furniture, jewelry, beauty products, housewares, optical, salon, portrait studio, cafe.
Owner	Macy's, Inc.
Website	www.bloomingdales.com

Bloomingdale's is an upscale chain of department stores owned by American multinational corporation Macy's, Inc. It is one of two divisions owned by the company, with the other being the mid-range Macy's. It competes with Neiman Marcus, Saks Fifth Avenue, Bergdorf Goodman, Barneys New York, Lord & Taylor and Nordstrom.

History

19th century

Bloomingdale's started in 1861 when brothers Joseph and Lyman G. Bloomingdale started selling hoop-skirts in their Ladies Notions' Shop on Manhattan's Lower East Side. The pair were sons of Benjamin Bloomingdale, a Bavarian-born salesman who had lived in North Carolina and Kansas, and settled in New York City. In 1872, the Bloomingdale brothers opened their first store at 938 Third Avenue, New York City.

As the popularity of the hoop-skirt was declining, the brothers closed their East Side Bazaar in 1872 in a small row house on Third Avenue and 56th Street, selling a variety of garments such as ladies' skirts, corsets, "gent's furnishings", and European fashions. At the time the East Side was a working-class neighborhood with shantytowns, garbage dumps, and stockyards. Most of their customers and competitors were in the Upper West Side, and at that time most 'respectable stores' only specialized in one trade.

Within a few years after opening the store, the Metropolitan Museum of Art opened, the new St. Patrick's Cathedral was dedicated near the store after moving from its downtown location, Central Park was completed, and the New York subway system began construction. These additions brought wealthy customers to the East Side, who built brownstones that surrounded the new park.

The store moved in 1886 to its current location on 59th Street and Lexington Avenue. It was designed with large plate glass display windows and large merchandising areas. Instead of the common practice of cluttering the display windows with an assortment of the goods they sold, each window featured a couple of products as props on a theatrical mise-en-scene. Many of these products were European imports.

By the start of the 20th century, Bloomingdale's growth greatly increased, facilitated by its convenient location at a hub of New York City's horse-drawn trolley system. Offerings at the time ranged from ladies' stockings at 10¢ a pair to $10 men's wool suits and $149 upright pianos. In 1902, the advertising slogan "All Cars Transfer to Bloomingdale's" capitalized on the store's location, and the company commissioned artist Richard F. Outcault to create a series of paintings around this theme. The slogan appeared on billboards and on 5,000 free beach umbrellas which were offered to street vendors and delivery cart drivers.

20th century

Around 1905, hard times hit. The popular upper class shopping area moved downtown along Sixth Avenue to between 14th and 23rd Streets. In 1913, the 59th Street Station of the Lexington Avenue subway was constructed in Bloomingdale's basement, further reinforcing the "All Cars Transfer to Bloomingdale's" slogan, and business recovered. By the 1920s, the store covered the whole city block.

Bloomingdale's flagship store on Lexington Avenue in New York

In 1930, Bloomingdale's moved to a new location off of Lexington. The building, which had grown to encompass the entire block, had an eleven story addition and was completely redesigned by architects Starrett & van Vleck in the Art Deco style.

In 1949, Bloomingdale's opened its first branch store in Fresh Meadows, Queens.

Bloomingdale's also had a full line branch store in New Rochelle, NY and a furniture store in the Vernon Hills shopping center in Eastchester, NY (about seven miles (11 km) away) which they wanted to expand, however, the City of New Rochelle and the surrounding neighborhood were opposed to Bloomingdales being enlarged, for fear of increased traffic congestion and the loss of some other long-time businesses along New Rochelle's Main Street. Subsequently, Bloomingdales built a full line store in White Plains combining its Eastchester and New Rochelle stores. (The White Plains store is now one of the only freestanding suburban stores, as most others are a part of a mall environment.) The same year Bloomingdale's joined Federated Department Stores, now Macy's, Inc.

In 1961, the company started using designer shopping bags to promote its "Esprit de France" exhibit. The design, by artist Jonah Kinigstein, was based on French tarot cards in dramatic shades of red, black, and white. In 1973, the iconic "Brown Bag" appeared. These were designed by Massimo Vignelli, who also designed the current store typeface, and they were prominently labeled in three sizes: "Little", "Medium", and "Big". Fashion designer Michaele Vollbracht designed one of the classic shopping bags in red, black, and white of a formally dressed man on one side and a woman on the other. Other artists who have designed shopping bags were fashion illustrator Antonio Lopez, and Mark Kostabi.

In 1969, Bloomingdale's two branch stores opened in Garden City, New York on Long Island, and Jenkintown, Pennsylvania. Bloomingdale's opened home furnishing stores on the East Coast using products from the flagship's home furnishings department.

According to a survey taken around 1972, over 60 percent of the customers lived and worked in the luxury high-rise apartment and office towers near to the main store. Bloomingdale's sold such popular items as pet rocks and glacial ice cubes.

In 1973, the store stamped the name "Bloomie's" on ladies' panties as part of its launch for intimate apparel in 1973. The rising popularity caused the store to become a tourist attraction, and articles stamped with "Bloomie's" became popular as souvenirs.

During Queen Elizabeth II's visit to New York City in 1976, traffic was reversed on Lexington Avenue so the Queen could exit her vehicle on its right side and enter the famous Manhattan flagship through the main entrance.

Expansion from 1974 to 2014

In 1974, Bloomingdales opened a store in Newton, Massachusetts, just outside of Boston. A store still exists in Newton's Mall at Chestnut Hill.

The Bloomingdale's By Mail catalog launched in 1978 and this expanded the store's reach to households across the United States.

The retail market boomed in the 1980s. New stores opened along the East Coast, Florida, California, and in Dallas, Texas.

Expansion in the 1990s included a 1992 opening (the 15th store) in the Mall of America near Minneapolis, Minnesota, and four stores in California in 1996.

The chain opened two Atlanta locations in 2003, converting the longtime Davison's/R.H. Macy & Co. properties in Lenox Square and Perimeter Mall. In addition, in 2006 and 2007, stores were opened in San Francisco, San Diego, and Costa Mesa, California.

On February 14, 2008, parent company, Macy's, Inc., announced plans to enter the Phoenix market with a 180,000 square foot store by 2009. Arizona would have been the thirteenth state to have a Bloomingdale's store location, with this store being the tenth in the western U.S. and 41st throughout the chain. This store never materialized.

On September 10, 2008, Bloomingdale's announced plans to open three stores, two of which will be modeled after the SoHo store: a 3-level, 82,000-square-foot (7,600 m²) anchor store at The Shops at Georgetown Park in Washington, D.C. by August 2011, a 3-level 150,000 sq ft (14,000 m²) store at Westfield Valley Fair in San Jose, CA by Fall 2011, and a 105,000 sq ft (9,800 m²) in Santa Monica Place, in Santa Monica, CA(which opened on August 6, 2010). The store is reported to be modeled after the chain's concept store in New York's SoHo neighborhood to carry select contemporary men's and women's apparel.

Twelve days later the first proposed overseas locations for the chain were announced. A September 22, 2008, press release from Macy's, Inc. told of plans for two Bloomingdale's locations (a three-level 146,000 sq ft (13,600 m²) apparel and accessories store, as well as a separate one level 54,000 sq ft (5,000 m²) home store) to open in February 2010 in Dubai, United Arab Emirates. As is the case for rival Saks Fifth Avenue, the international presence for Bloomingdale's will be operated under license by a local interest — in this case, Al Tayer Group LLC, a leading UAE-based conglomerate. Bloomingdale's CEO announced that the Dubai store will most likely be the only store outside of the US since Bloomingdale's has no further plans to expand to other countries.

In August 2010, Macy's, Inc. opened their first Bloomingdale's outlet at Potomac Mills mall in Woodbridge, Virginia occupying the former space of the Sports Authority outlet. The store is the first of its kind for Bloomingdale's and the company has plans to open several more Bloomingdales Outlets across the country in the near future.

On January 4, 2012, Bloomingdale's announced it would close a total of four stores. The most significant closure is at the Mall of America in Minnesota where Bloomingdale's was one of the mall's first tenants. Additionally, a home store in Oak Brook, Illinois will close as well as full line stores in Perimeter Mall in Atlanta, Georgia and at White Flint Mall in North Bethesda, Maryland. Liquidation sales are scheduled to begin January 8 at most stores with store closures expected in early-to-mid March.

One year later on January 3, 2013, Bloomingdale's then announced that they will close its Las Vegas Home store at Fashion Show Mall in early spring.

Future

On November 3, 2011, Bloomingdale's announced it will open a new 120,000 sq ft. store in Glendale Galleria in Fall 2013 as part of the mall's remodeling plan.

Bloomingdale's announced that they will replace the Bloomingdale's store of 229,000 square feet in Stanford Shopping Center in Palo Alto, CA, with a new 120,000 sq ft store. The store is planned to open in 2014.

Photo gallery

• 
  Close-up of flagship store entrance
• 
  Flagship store during the Christmas season at night
• 
  Exterior of Bloomingdale's South Coast Plaza (Costa Mesa, California)
• 
  Exterior of Bloomingdales Boca Raton

External links

• Bloomingdale's official website
• Bloomingdale's Happening in San Francisco website
• Macys, Inc. (Federated Department Stores)