Introduction

          Aristide Boucicaut and Arthur Denny probably never met each other, much less even heard of each other, but their historical paths crossed in such a way as to leave a lasting mark in the form of the largest and most powerful department store consortium in the Pacific Northwest.[i] While it is conceivable that both men, Boucicaut with The Bon Marché in Paris and Denny with Seattle, began what they started in search of driving a dollar[ii], neither could reasonably imagine that these ventures would become intertwined. Boucicaut began The Bon Marché as the first real department store, "the only [store] specifically constructed and entirely intended for a great trade in nouveautés (dry goods)."[iii] Denny, an inexperienced traveler and upstart businessman himself, led a group of green pioneers to Puget Sound to start a lumber industry.[iv] What neither man anticipated were the aspirations of Edward Nordhoff, who thought very highly of The Bon Marché and decided to start his own emporium that modeled the successful business strategies of the Parisian original.[v] In 1890, Nordhoff would bring his ideas to a rapidly expanding Seattle populace in need of consumer goods. Although he would die before the turn of the century, what he had started would last indefinitely; unlike small family shops that have almost no way to continue after the owner's death, The Bon Marché in Seattle, following the new model of consumer driven marketing and sales, had the resources and ability to survive on its own merits. As Seattle's needs and population grew, from 37,000 in 1890[vi], to over 315,000 in 1920[vii], so did The Bon Marché's profits, as Nordhoff's original investment, his entire savings of $1200, turned into $8 million of sales by 1923.[viii] Clearly, the new consumer culture paradigm initiated by Boucicaut was not limited to that one department store in Paris. The model could be – and would be – successfully copied by entrepreneurs like Nordhoff to form retail sales businesses across the globe. In this example, combined with the local economic and population boom of the time, it is impossible to ignore the impact of The Bon Marché on the overall development of Seattle's economy and culture. The business models and techniques of the original Bon Marché laid the necessary foundation for Nordhoff's Seattle clone to become not only a long-term financial success, but also one of the most entrenched elements of Pacific Northwest consumer culture.