RETAIL TRADE: Deal for Selfridge’s

In London financial circles, traders gossiped and wondered as the stock of Selfridge’s department store scooted from 31s. 9d. a share to 52s. 6d. in six months. Last week they heard the reason for the rise. Lord Woolton, chairman of the Conservative Party and of Lewis’ Investment Trust Ltd., which owns a big chain of provincial department stores, had put in a $9,500,000 (£3,412,000) bid for the store. When Lord Woolton offered 65s. a share, Selfridge’s Chairman Horace Holmes quickly advised his stockholders to sell. At the news, Selfridge’s stock jumped another IDS.

For 42 years, Selfridge’s great Portland stone facade with its massive Corinthian columns has dominated Oxford Street, one of the city’s greatest shopping centers; its aggressive merchandising and flamboyant promotions have changed the pace of British retailing. Second largest store in London,* Selfridge’s has little of the snob appeal of its competitors. Said one regular customer: “In Fortnum & Mason’s you feel ill at ease without a mink, at Harrods you feel uncomfortable without a hat, but at Selfridge’s you feel at home in a cotton dress and sandals.” It comes closer to being a big U.S. department store than any other shop in London.

Born Great. The reason is that Selfridge’s was founded by H. Gordon Selfridge, who wa’s born in Ripon, Wis., in 1857, made enough money in Chicago retailing (he was a partner of Marshall Field) to retire at 39.

But Selfridge, whose big spending and royal manner won him the nickname “King,” could not stay retired. He decided to open a store in London, because “London is the greatest and richest city in the world and contains six million discerning inhabitants.” When Selfridge’s threw open its doors in 1909, London newspapers hailed the $2,000,000 building as ushering in “an epoch in London life”; the Times was moved to reassure its readers that the store’s huge and wonderful plate-glass windows did not make the structure unsafe. Throngs marveled at Selfridge’s 130 departments, its vast restaurants, rest rooms, writing rooms and six acres of selling space. “Visitors, indeed, are guests in a palace,” burbled one news story, “with a thousand servants at their disposal.”

Boxing Kangaroo. To keep his palace in the public eye, “King” Selfridge grabbed all the publicity he could (Bleriot’s little plane was on display in the store the day after it flew the Channel), advertised as no London merchant had ever advertised before. Selfridge’s offered customers “101 unusual services,” including expert umbrella rolling, cricket bat oiling, pipe cleaning, wig-making, wart removing. The store’s “Great Luncheon Rooms” offered Southern U.S. cooking, such as “Fried Chicken, Maryland Cream Chicken, Corn

Bread . . . Corn Beef Hash, etc., etc.” In 1914 it opened a U.S.-style barbershop.

Selfridge also kept himself in the public eye. In the ‘203 all London society attended his fabulous champagne election parties on the top floor of Selfridge’s, danced the Charleston to the music of five bands. When things got dull the guests watched a boxing kangaroo.

For years, Selfridge drew a salary and expense account of some $1,200,000 a year until he ran into financial trouble. A merger with another department store (Whiteley’s) cost Selfridge’s about $3,600,000; depression and an ill-timed $21,000,000 expansion program cost the store still more.

Corner Turned. By 1938, profits were down 50% (to $800,000), and King Selfridge, deep in debt himself, was forced into the inactive post of president. By 1941, after Selfridge had retired on a pension of $8,000, the store faced a deficit of $6,800,000. Four years ago, when he died at the age of 90, King Selfridge’s millions had dwindled to $6,000. But the store, under the hand of able Yorkshireman Horace Holmes, had turned the corner; for the last few years its operating profit has averaged more than $2,200,600.

Lord Woolton plans to operate Selfridge’s as a link in Lewis’ chain, which has always boasted that in every city where it has an outlet, it has the biggest store. In London last week, the gossip was that Woolton planned to make Selfridge’s big enough so that Lewis’ boast would cover London too.

* Largest: Harrods (TIME, May 16, 1949).