Bloomingdale's

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Bloomingdale's

Type	Subsidiary
Founded	1860 (New York City, USA)
Headquarters	New York City, USA
Industry	Retail
Products	Clothing, footwear, bedding, furniture, jewelry, beauty products, and housewares.
Parent	Federated Department Stores
Slogan	"Like no other store in the world"
Website	www.bloomingdales.com

Bloomingdale's, Lexington Ave

Bloomingdale's is a chain of upscale American department stores owned by Federated Department Stores, which is also the parent company of Macy's. Bloomingdale's has 36 stores nationwide, with annual sales of $1.9 billion dollars. It competes on an average price level higher than Lord & Taylor and close to Nordstrom, and slightly below that of Saks Fifth Avenue and Neiman Marcus.

1 History
- 1.1 Beginnings
- 1.2 Expanding outside of New York
2 Current, future, and former locations
3 External links

[edit] History

[edit] Beginnings

Bloomingdale's started in 1861 when brothers Joseph and Lyman Bloomingdale started selling hoop-skirts in their Ladies Notions' Shop on Manhattan's Lower East Side. The pair were sons of Gerard Bloomingdale, a salesman who had lived in North Carolina and Kansas, and settled in New York City. The brothers opened their East Side Bazaar in 1872, selling a variety of garments and European fashions. As the store and its success grew, it moved in 1886 to 59th Street and Lexington Avenue, anticipating and capitalizing on the northern movement of New York's upper and middle classes. By the 1920s, the store covered the entire city block.

Its most famous location is still the Manhattan flagship store located on 59th Street and Lexington Avenue. During Queen Elizabeth II's visit to New York City in the 1970s, traffic had to be reversed on Lexington Avenue so the Queen could exit her vehicle on its right side and enter the store by its main entrance.

In 1961, the company started marketing itself with designer shopping bags. Bloomingdale's is known for its iconic "Brown Bag," prominently labeled in three sizes: "Little," "Medium," "Big," which was the first to debut, in 1973. The bags were designed by Michael Vollbracht, the current designer for Bill Blass Couture.

[edit] Expanding outside of New York

The exterior of a typical Bloomingdale's in Florida.

Bloomingdale's has expanded slowly from its New York base, moving into Washington, D.C., and Massachusetts in the 1970s; Pennsylvania, Texas, Florida, and Chicago in the 1980s; and establishing a presence in California in 1996. The company has carefully targeted affluent, densely populated areas in which to locate its stores.