Le Bon Marche

I recently purchased an unopened container dating back to the 1800s. I was very excited to learn more about it. At first I thought it was makeup or some kind of body lotion. However, when I translated the writing on the packaging I discovered it was a type of salt for cleaning brushes.

The top of the lid carried the name ‘Mon Aristide Boucicaut.’This led me on a very interesting journey indeed!

Monsieur Aristide Boucicaut (1810 – 1877), was the son of a hatter who became a renowned entrepreneur. He was instrumental in creating the first modern department store, Le Bon Marche, in 1852. Located in Paris, Le Bon Marche aimed to serve the middle class.

Monsieur Boucicaut brought about many creative innovations. Before the opening of the department store, Parisian stores worked on huge margins and bargaining was expected with every transaction. Le Bon Marche suppressed bargaining, (which was eventually banned) and introduced the displaying of prices on labels.

The doctrine of the department store became “the customer is the king’. Customers had free access to the store without any obligation to purchase. This was a significant deviation away from what was considered normal practice.

Monsieur Boucicaut was also responsible for innovations such as home delivery, the ability to exchange a purchase, and most interestingly, the introduction of visual merchandising, in order to emphasise the fine quality of products in the store.

Truly a man of great foresight and creativity.