A List of John Wanamaker's Retail Firsts

Date Published: December 20, 2020
Date Modified: June 21, 2021

These facts were taken from the Wanamaker advertisements of each year. These records constitute a series of “Wanamaker firsts.” They are probably without parallel in the evolution of store keeping (retail) and offer up John Wanamaker as one of America’s greatest merchant pioneers or merchant "princes" as they called them long ago.

Read the sidebar below to understand what you are reading, which might at first seem minor but wasn’t minor at the end of the 19th Century. Every first was a trailblazing episode in retail in America.

Even treating retail customers with respect was unheard of!

John Wanamaker's Firsts in the Retail Industry

​1876

• First restaurant in a general store.
• Summer vacations with pay extended to all employees with six months’ service.
• Mail order business inaugurated.
• Buyers first sent abroad to study foreign markets and “skim the cream.”
• Women’s and misses’ shoes, coats and furs, hosiery and gloves and trunks added to the stocks.
• “Annual lowering day” first announced— “to keep the stocks fresh.”

1877

• Formal opening of the New Kind of Store, with these stocks: silks, black goods, dress goods, ladies’ furnishing goods, woolens, flannels, and domestics, linens, white goods, women’s shawls, women’s suits, upholstery; boys’ and men’s suits, men’s and boys’ hats and caps, men’s furnishings, shoes, rubber goods, trunks, etc., men’s custom tailoring; all offered “under the regular Wanamaker guarantee,” the first time that dry goods had been thus definitely offered to the public.

• “Opportunity Sale”
• Midsummer Sale”
• “Early Fall Sale”
• “Lady-like costumes, coats, cloaks, and wraps from Berlin, Paris and elsewhere” announced.
• Laces added, including scarfs, tics, neckerchiefs, handkerchiefs.
• Books added.
• Grand Depot illuminated until 9 o’clock every evening until Christmas.

1878

• First White Sale: “Muslins at cost at Wanamaker’s.”
• “Employment of a regular buyer to go to Europe” announced stating that almost every steamer brings in goods from Europe where we have at present our own buyer.
• “Grand Celebration of the First Anniversary of the Grand Depot Dry Goods House, a magnificent opening of New Spring Goods.”
• Little children’s clothes added.
• China Store opens, installing the stock of L. Straus & Sons who had a store at 1229 Chestnut Street.
• Grand Illumination of Store (no goods sold) from 7:30 to 10 in the evening. It was “simply an opportunity to promenade and see the sights of the store”
• Second Grand Holiday Sale
• Store first lighted by electricity—28 large arc lamps of 3,000 candle-power; newspapers next day declare it a brilliant success, saying “the store was as light as in daytime”; people watch the lights throughout the day, some laying bets that the lights would not last.

1879

• Telephone (Bell) first used in store.
• Millinery and ribbons added.
• Announcement about general prices: “The more goods we sell the cheaper we can afford to sell. Our prices usually start at the beginning of the season at the low rates we find advertised two months later by the other stores having greatly reduced theirs. Reduced prices to commence and run through the season is a fundamental principle of our business.”
• “Lady manager made personal selections in Europe.”
• First full newspaper page advertisement used during General Grant’s reception.

1880

• First Spring Sale of China and Glass, and first Spring Sale of Silk.
• Advertising changed from display to what has since been called the Wanamaker style, the news being written in plain straightforward paragraphs and set in clear, readable type.
• Furniture stocks added, occupying “the upstairs.”
• First Shoe Sale.
• Sporting goods and refrigerators added.
• “Bargain Room” opened.” It is a place where remainders of lots arc sold at smaller prices—forerunner of basement bargain salesrooms and the Downstairs Store.
• Pneumatic tubes first installed as cash carriers.
• Carpets added.
• Jewelry added.
• “Mr. Andrew Butler sails today to open an office in Paris as a permanent facility in buying goods and executing commissions within the scope of our business.”

1881

• Weather indications first printed—original observations made by the store, and a carefully kept record showed about 80% of the predictions were correct.
• “Wanamaker Insurance Association” formed—with a “nest egg” of $1,000 from John Wanamaker.
• Antique furniture added.
• Art Gallery opened.
• Optical goods and spectacles added.
• Gas stoves added.
• Store begins making its own mattresses—because “we found in cutting open some mattresses from a manufacturer that they were filled with excelsior and fine shavings between layers of hair.”
• Engraving business added.
• Holiday crowd so tremendous that the doors have to be closed at certain times to prevent those inside being troubled, the advertisement saying: “We hope never again to have to close the entrance doors for the protection of those within.”

1882

• Instruction of store employees begins.
• Ventilation system installed.
• More buildings added on Chestnut Street.
• Book News first issued.
• Reading and resting rooms opened.
• First soda fountain installed.
• Employees now number 3,292 in December—business has doubled in two years.
• Elevators first installed

1883

• Ten more buildings on Chestnut Street occupied.
• Forty-six departments in store.
• Two and a fourth million dollars of stock.
• Eight acres of floor space.
• Ten buyers off to Europe.
• Mail order department receiving and answering 1,000 letters a day.
• Dairy-basement restaurant opens, with pastry and ice cream made on the premises.
• Rolling chairs for those visitors who could not walk around announced.
• Ventilating system enlarged and perfected.
• Candy being made in the store-to insure purity.

1884

• Great Reduction Sale organized by Mr. Wanamaker personally, to make certain immediate changes in the business with a view to further extension and improvcments.
• In 1876 not a merchant in Philadelphia was sending a single buyer to Europe; now this store alone has 10 who make annual or more frequent trips.
• Bureau of Information and Post Office opened in Arcade, where 50,000 people pass in a day. Questions answered, postage stamps sold, parcels mailed, telegraph, telephone available.

1885

• A million dollars’ worth of goods going into the January Sale for what they will fetch—First Million Dollar Sale
• Store closed at 12 :30 because of funeral of General Grant.
• Investigation shows that store is now selling one-seventh of all the pure linen handkerchiefs that come across the see.
• People begin calling store “Wanamaker’s,” dropping the name Grand Depot

1886

• Closed for half day-New Year’s.
• First exhibition of fashions after manner of Paris stores.
• A New York merchant says: “Wanamaker’s is on the right track-telling the truth about goods; we’ve all got to come to it yet.”
• Thirteenth Street side of store is built up to six stories during summer of 1886, to give space for the wholesale trade—new portions opened; “when the business stops growing we shall know when to stop building; there seems to be plenty of room in the sky.”

1887

• “We have proved that truth-telling is not only right but politic.”
• Saturday closing at 1 begins.
• Celebration of the Centennial of the adoption of the Constitution of the United States. On the first floor looms are making silks, knitting machines, stockings, women are dressed in Revolutionary costumes spinning flax, and there are old-time shoemakers and other industrial exhibits
• 4,735 employees on pay roll.
• Hotel Walton (named after R. S. Walton, head of men’s hat section) opened for the women employees of the store.

1888

• Half-column line cuts first used in advertising—suggested by Rodman Wanamaker.
• Full-page merchandise announcements begin.
• Berlin office opens at No. 15 Kur Strasse.
• Full-page announcement of House Beautiful—nearly 100,000 people visit it in 5 days.
• First Penny Savings Bank established by John Wanamaker.

1889

• Miniature carpet loom exhibited.
• February 1 made stock taking day instead of January 1
• Floor space now 15 acres.
• 3600 on normal non-Christmas-time payroll.
• 121 horses in stable.
• First parade of delivery wagons in honor of the Pan-American Congress then meeting in Philadelphia.
• Nine buyers in Europe.
• Largest private electric plant in the country.
• Collection and forwarding of supplies for the Johnstown Flood sufferers.

1890

• Reference made to plagiarism of Wanamaker advertising—seventeen quotations found in the east and the whole advertisement copied bodily in the west.
• Eleven thousand pairs black stockings for women sold before 3 p.m. in one day.
• Sale of antique furniture and clock.
• August Sale of Furniture inaugurated
• Paris House moved.

1891

• Spring sale of furniture established—now the February Sale.
• Store schools regularly established.

1892

• Paris Salon paintings first brought to America for exhibition in the store.
• Exhibition of shoe-making.
• Paris lingerie and corset sections opened.
• Supplies collected and forwarded to Russian famine victims.

1893

• Exhibition of Pierre Fritel’s colossal painting, “The Conquerors”
• Fashion presentation of style epochs begins.
• A miniature world’s fair in the store, with exhibits later shown at the Chicago Exposition.

1894

• First full day closing on New Year’s
• “We will put our organization at the disposal of Philadelphia manufacturers to distribute Philadelphia-made goods of the grade we sell, whenever we can get back the bare cost.” Policy implemented to bridge the prevalent dull times and keep labor employed.
• Exhibition of Napoleon relics, visited by hundreds of thousands of people

1895

• “The greater Wanamaker’s” announced to “make you thankful for life, health and Wanamaker’s in this year of grace.”
• Store begins making its own down quilts.
• Exposition extraordinary of the Monarchs and Beauties of the world-large paintings and between 500 and 600 miniatures.
• Friendly Inn, a rescue house for men, founded by John Wanamaker on Ninth Street.
• Main Aisle arrayed as a reproduction of the Rue de la Paix, Paris-as it was during the recent visit of the Czar of Russia.
• Formal opening of the Anna E. McDowell Library for store employees.
• John Wanamaker Commercial Institute [for education] formally established
• Military training established for the store boys.
• Store of Hilton-Hughes Co. in New York City taken over to be established as “John Wanamaker, formerly A. T. Stewart & Co.”

1896

• Twentieth Anniversary celebrated
• First of the Semi-annual Houseware Sales.
• Christmas bonuses announced: “Every cent of profit on the excess of the whole month’s business over that of December 1896, shall be set aside for division among our salespeople. This is not a profit-sharing nor an eking out of salaries, for salary lists here are the one thing we are liberal with—it is actually turning a lively business over to the benefit of our helpers for a part of the days.”
• 94,658 sales-slips and 36,616 parcels mailed on the Monday before Christmas.

1898

• In Cuban War Wanamaker’s supplies linen for transport service and heavy duck for Marine Corps uniforms. Employees who enlist in U. S. service kept on full pay.
• First Semi-annual Sales of china and glass.

1899

• Pianos placed on sale at a fixed price—unusual then in the piano trade to ensure one price to all, no favoritism, the lowest possible price, and music in as many homes as possible.

1900

• Supplies collected and forwarded to Galveston Hood sufferers.
• Brotherhood Settlement House built, and John Wanamaker branch of Free Library established.
• Opening of Seashore Camp at Island Heights for the boys of the store.
• Store closing hour fixed at 5 in the summer and 5:30 in winter.
• First private telephone exchange installed in the store.

1901

• Silver Anniversary celebrated with industrial displays and publication of daily store newspaper.

1902

• John Wanamaker Commercial Institute Military Band organized.
• Ground broken for new Philadelphia Store.
• Women’s League organized by the women of the store for study and mutual improvement.

1903

• Store guarantees Ford automobiles against loss by threat of trust over Selden patent, thus paving the way for Ford’s success and fortune.
• Imported from the Paris Salon of 1903 the largest single collection of French paintings ever brought to America—250 in all. Three hundred paintings, representing the entire studio collection of Vacslav Brozik, who died in 1901.
• Students’ Art Exhibition inaugurated.

1904

• Radium first exhibited in the United States.
• First steel pillars of new Philadelphia Store set in place by John Wanamaker.
• Subway stations opened within the store—in New York in 1904 and Philadelphia in 1908.
• “American Week” inaugurated for the exploitation of American made goods—telegrams of congratulation from many U. S. Senators and Governors of States.
• Publicity given to the Louisiana Purchase Exposition at St. Louis.
• Marking of actual yardage on spools of silk inaugurated.

1905

• Continuous day and night telephone service inaugurated.
• Glee Club formed by the negro elevator operators, later developing into the Robert C. Ogden Association, named after Mr. Ogden because of his work for the negroes of the South.

1906

• Formal opening of the first section of the new Philadelphia building.
• French Revolution exhibit.
• Presentation of Empress Eugenic and Second Empire fashions.
• Supplies collected and forwarded to San Francisco sufferers in city fire.
• 2,000 telephones installed in store, with the world’s largest private branch exchange.

1907

• New York Store incorporated with the name John Wanamaker.
• Philadelphia Store incorporated with the name John Wanamaker.
• New building of New York Wanamaker’s formally opened.
• Howe Palatial—now Belmaison, opened in New York Store, visited by a million people the first year.
• Marconi wireless stations installed on roofs of both stores.
• Children’s Christmas Drawing Competition inaugurated.
• Schumacher Piano plant in Philadelphia taken over.

1908

• Auditorium opened in the New York Store.
• Egyptian Hall opened in Philadelphia.
• American Composers’ concert.
• John Wanamaker Commercial Institute Military band of girls organized.
• American University of Trade and Applied Commerce chartered and established within the store.

1909

• Cornerstone of new Philadelphia building laid by John Wanamaker.
• Competitive Choral Competition inaugurated.
• Store fashion magazine published-La Derniere Heure a Paris.
• Japanese House of John Wanamaker opened in Yokohama.
• Continuous full-page advertising used in five New York evening newspapers, changing the bulk of the city’s store advertising from morning to evening field.
• Presentation of Nattier and Watteau fashions in the spring and Russian fashions in the fall.
• Aeronautic motion pictures first shown and airplane first sold in the United States—replica of the plane used by Bleriot in flying across the English Channel.
• Second expedition of Rodman Wanamaker to the North American Indians-”Last Great Indian Council’’ in motion pictures, first shown in private view in Washington to President Taft, the Cabinet, the Diplomatic Corps, the Judiciary and both houses of Congress and later shown in the store.
• Indian Primer issued; also Lincoln Primer of which 225,000 copies were distributed mainly through the public schools.

 1910

• Capstone of new Philadelphia Store placed by the Founder, inscribed “Let those who follow me continue to build with the plumb of Honor, the level of Truth, and the square of Integrity, Education, Courtesy and Mutuality.”
• Store taxicab system inaugurated in New York and Philadelphia.
• First issue of Store and Home, a fashion and mail-order magazine.
• Full-page Wanamaker advertisement published in Paris edition of New York Herald.
• Wanamaker Stores made official Marconi Station.
• Free delivery of merchandise inaugurated within international postal limits.
• Motion pictures of the funeral of King Edward VII of England first shown in America-in the store.
• Children’s playground in the store first established.

1911

• Golden Jubilee celebrated.
• Great Crystal Tea Room opened in Philadelphia Store.
• Largest organ in the world installed in Grand Court of Philadelphia Wanamaker’s.
• Photographs and other exhibits of the Coronation of King George and Queen Mary.
• Completed new building in Philadelphia dedicated by the President of the United States, William Howard Taft.
• John Wanamaker made Officer of the French Legion of Honor.

1912

• Wanamaker Marconi Station on the roof of the New York Store receives first news in America of the Titanic disaster, received by David Sarnoff, then the Wanamaker wireless operator, now president and the general manager of the Radio Corporation of America.
• First continuous publication of John Wanamaker’s signed editorials in the store advertising.
• Formation of Robert C. Ogden Association composed of negro employees of the Philadelphia Store.
• Chambers of Commerce of 43 countries visit Wanamaker’s in Philadelphia.

1913

• Degree of Doctor of Laws conferred on John Wanamaker by Ursinus College.
• First parcel post package mailed under United States parcel post law, originally urged by John Wanamaker while Postmaster General.
• First free delivery by Parcel Post.
• The John Wanamaker Cooperative Banking Association formed.

1914

• Wireless telephone connections between the Philadelphia and New York Stores, “marking an epoch in the strides of human progress.”
• Airplane first built for trans-Atlantic flight.
• All Saturdays in July and August inaugurated as full holidays with full pay.
• Two ships chartered by John Wanamaker and laden with the help of the people of Philadelphia and vicinity for Belgium’s starving people.

1915

• Provost Smith of the University of Pennsylvania confers the degree of Doctor of Laws on John Wanamaker, “Philanthropist, Statesman, eminent in the councils of the nation, Christian leader, constructive genius who on the basis of the Golden Rule by thought and practice has revolutionized the business methods of the merchants of the world.”
• Governor Brumbaugh, Governor of Pennsylvania, in response to the Panama-Pacific Exposition Commission’s request to name Pennsylvania’s three greatest citizens, names John Wanamaker as one of them.
• Grand Prize for uplift work among the North American Indians awarded by the Panama-Pacific Exposition to Rodman Wanamaker.
• Athletic field opened on the roof of the Wanamaker Store in Philadelphia.
• London House of John Wanamaker placed by cable in the hands of Ambassador Page in London to succor the Lusitania sufferers.

1916

• The Downstairs Store, a new kind of lower-price store, with dependable merchandise, inaugurated.
• The Red, White and Blue Cross, Inc. formed to enable the store employees to render cooperative service during the emergencies of the Great War.
• Formal opening of “University Hall” dedicated to the educational work of the store.
• New store medical offices, with hospital equipment; physicians; specialists in eye, ear, nose and throat; dental surgeon; chiropodist; nurses-free to the employees.

1917

• Red, White and Blue Cross, Inc. made an official Red Cross Auxiliary for war work.
• Personal Service Bureau established.

1918

• Ten full pages of advertising contributed to aid in Liberty Loan publicity.
• Total gross receipts for five days in both stores turned over to the U. S. Government as subscription to war loans.
• Overseas Bureau established for the forwarding of goods to soldiers at the front, through the Wanamaker London and Paris Houses.
• Six-and-a-half hour store day inaugurated for a month during the coal shortage in the Great War.
• Inauguration of public singing of Christmas carols during the holiday season in the Grand Court of the Philadelphia Store.

1919

• Total subscriptions to the five Liberty Loans by and through the two stores announced as $39,239,550.
• Total number of men from the Wanamaker business in all branches of the World War service announced as 1414 with casualties of 143, of whom 33 made the supreme sacrifice.
• Welcome to General Pershing from the Philadelphia Store with a review of the J.W.C.I.
• First of the unique concerts in the stores by Monsieur Courboin, eminent Belgian organist, and the Philadelphia Orchestra under leadership of Leopold Stokowski.
• First use of the new “fanfold” machine for copying orders, invented in the store.
• Cardinal Mercier of Belgium welcomed in the Philadelphia Store.

1920

• Authors’ week celebrated.
• Twenty per cent deduction sale of the stores’ entire stocks (over $10,000,000) announced by John Wanamaker, leading the way for gradual deflation of prices and preventing an after-the-war panic; thousands of merchants throughout the country follow the plan-May and June.
• First permit, No. 1, secured by the Philadelphia Store for dispatch of mail without postage.

1921

• Celebration of the completion of 60 years of business life—the freedom of the city of Philadelphia tendered to John Wanamaker at Independence Hall, with the Justices of the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania adjourning their sessions to attend in a body; congratulatory letters and telegrams from the President and Vice-President of the United States, the Governor of Pennsylvania and the Emperor and Empress of Japan, and a resolution of congratulations adopted by the Pennsylvania Legislature.

1922

• First radio broadcasting from the stores in New York and Philadelphia inaugurated with an address by John Wanamaker, and organ concerts broadcast for the first time.
• First showing of the Clavilux, a “color organ,” producing a harmony of colors instead of sound.
• John Wanamaker dies on December 12.

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