Promotional activity proved key to the success of department stores in fending off competition from the expanding chain stores by drawing in customers to their large, central, premises. This paper uses a combination of quantitative and qualitative archival data to examine the promotional methods...

Department stores represented one of the most advertising-intensive sectors of American inter-war retailing. Yet it has been argued that a competitive spiral of high advertising spending, to match the challenge of other local department stores, contributed to a damaging inflation of costs that...

Commercial bazaars were a short-lived retail innovation of the first half of the nineteenth century, mainly in London. Rather like fairs had done earlier, they offered a wide range of clothing, household and fancy goods and entertainment. Like fairs they were about both shopping and leisure....

Maintenance has not traditionally been considered an important factor in the firm's productivity and competitiveness - until the past decade at least - so this function offers organisations considerable potential for improvement. The use of benchmarking in maintenance could consequently help...

The article is a historical trip into the creation of the oldest kind of unspecialized store that exists in the modern commercial landscape and whose pioneering concepts transformed the way in which consumers shop up today. The paper is divided into three sections, each of them contributing to...

Describes ways and issues of recognizing skills learned in the workplace or through non-formal activities, as opposed to learning at formal educational and training institutions. Examines policies and practices carried out in five English-speaking countries.