Business | Features
Mastering the trade over 138 years
- Staff Report
- Published: 00:00 February 1, 2010
1872: Bloomingdale's was started by two brothers, Lyman and Joseph Bloomingdale, with the opening of Bloomingdale's Great East Side Bazaar in New York City. The receipts from the first day totalled $3.68 (Dh13.50).
1922: A printed anniversary message to thank its customers on the face of small brown paper bags is the first time the company uses what would become the iconic bag. The Brown Bags the stores use today weren't created until the mid-1950s. The first collector's shopping bag was produced in 1961.
1929: Bloomingdale's moves to its present location at the corner of 59th Street and Lexington and within two years covers the entire city block.
1949: The company expands outside of Manhattan for the first time, opening stores in the New York tri-state area.
1973: The store decides to stamp its nickname ‘Bloomie's on panties as part of the launch of an intimate apparel promotion. The success of the promotion made anything with Bloomie's printed on it the hottest souvenir in town. Bloomingdale's promotions became so popular that it helped coin the term ‘Retailing as Theatre'.
Mid-1970s: The company began by opening Bloomingdale's outside of New York for the first time, launching in Boston, Washington and Philadelphia.
2004: Blooming-dale's expansion finally reaches the West Coast with the opening of four stores in California. Currently the company has 40 stores in 12 states.
2010: Bloomingdale's opens it first international store in Dubai.
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