Bamberger's by Michael J. Lisicky

Author:Michael J. Lisicky [Lisicky, Michael J.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Business & Economics, Industries, Retailing, Biography & Autobiography, Business, Corporate & Business History, History, United States, State & Local, Middle Atlantic (DC; DE; MD; NJ; NY; PA)
ISBN: 9781439658369
Google: 9FVmDQAAQBAJ
Publisher: Arcadia Publishing
Published: 2016-11-14T15:54:50+00:00

A February 1962 newspaper advertisement proudly promotes the downtown Newark store with its nine selling floors, two hundred departments and two-level basement store. By the early 1960s, Bamberger’s Newark store was steadily losing customers to suburban shoppers, even though over 2,600 parking spaces were available to shoppers who arrived by car. Collection of the author.

Special events at the Newark store were not confined to the Christmas season. Bamberger’s presented classical concerts at Newark’s Symphony Hall that featured Arthur Rubenstein, Leonard Bernstein and Leopold Stokowski. The department store also sponsored jazz appearances by Ella Fitzgerald, Sammy Davis Jr. and many others. One unusual presentation displayed the resiliency of girdles with the store dressing a four-ton elephant in the world’s largest foundation. The department store even surprised customers with Jerry Lewis working sales registers and Bob Hope modeling clothes. Christmas events were also celebrated at the suburban stores, but they were meant to generate excitement and ultimately bring customers back to Newark. The company operated Bampark parking lots and a drive-in auto center on Raymond Boulevard to accommodate customers arriving by automobile. The Newark basement store was still an attraction in itself, with its incredible bargains and unique merchandise. Bamberger’s Newark was an imperfect business in an imperfect city. Bamberger’s did a larger volume of business than any department store in the state and claimed more than half of the department store sales in Newark. But even as its stores were taking the New Jersey suburbs by storm, Newark was still its home base.

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