Department Store Shopping

Last week while in Vancouver I stayed in a downtown hotel. One evening with nothing to do, I decided to get out and found a blast-from-the-past treasure.  A real downtown department store - Hudson’s Bay or as it is known locally, “The Bay”. No, not the generic “Federated" model of a mall department store, but the real deal. A full-line department store housed in a  six-story cream terracotta building with Corinthian columns, built in 1927.
As I enjoyed walking through the departments and riding the escalators, floor-by-floor I could not help but remember shopping over the years. This is something I learned from my mother who was a world class shopper. Whenever we went to “town” a stop at our local department store “Leggett’s” was required.

Later, I went to college in Richmond Virginia and always enjoyed walking to the downtown Thalhimers and Miller & Rhoads. Both of these stores were downtown, multi-floor, all afternoon, shopping experiences. The downtown shopping area was about a 6-8 block walk from campus. I could look/wonder for hours, enjoying mainly the woman’s fashions.  

So my stop at The Bay brought back wonderful memories of stores lost in time.  Listed above are just a few that I remember, and every city seemed to have its flagship department store. Department stores have been so homogenized that they all seem to look the same and carry the same products - Uniqueness lost. A wonderful blog I found discussed North America’s independent department stores - A fun look.

What wonderful department stores do you remember? What was your favorite store? Any stories to share?