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Concept
Le Bon Marché
Summary
Le Bon Marché (lit. "the good market", or "the good deal" in French; lə bɔ̃ maʁʃe) is a department store in Paris, France. Founded in 1838 and revamped almost completely by Aristide Boucicaut in 1852, it was one of the first modern department stores. It was a member of the International Association of Department Stores from 1986 to 2011.
Now the property of LVMH, it sells a wide range of high-end goods, including food in an adjacent building at 38, rue de Sèvres, called La Grande Épicerie de Paris.
In 1838 Au Bon Marché was founded in Paris as a novelty shop created by brothers Paul and Justin Videau to sell lace, ribbons, sheets, mattresses, buttons, umbrellas and other assorted goods. The store originally had four departments, twelve employees and a floor space of
Entrepreneur Aristide Boucicaut became a partner of the store in 1852, and changed the marketing plan, introducing fixed prices and guarantees that allowed exchanges and refunds, the store also now offered a wider variety of merchandise. The use of fixed prices replaced the haggling system which was then commonly used in dry goods stores. With Boucicaut's changes the annual income of the store increased from 500,000 francs in 1852 to five million francs in 1860.
In 1869 a much larger building was built for the store at 24 rue de Sévres in Paris's Rive Gauche (Left Bank) this new building was designed by Louis-Auguste Boileau with Alexandre Laplanche ornamenting Boileau's ironwork. Louis-Charles Boileau son of Louis-Auguste Boileau also continued designing for the store in the 1870s. The store was expanded again in 1872 with the help of the engineering firm of Gustave Eiffel, creator of the Eiffel Tower.
By Boucicaut's death in 1877 the stores income had risen from twenty million francs in 1870 to 72 million. After his death management of the store was taken over by his wife, Marguerite Boucicaut.
The floor space of the store had increased from in 1838 to and the number of employees had risen to 1,888 by 1879.
Official source
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