Similar Models Lead to Similar Problems

          Not everything was as perfect an image as The Bon Marché would have their customers believe, however. In an interesting twist of fate, both the Parisian store and its Seattle counterpart faced many of the same problems that Boucicaut's system had created. In Paris, Boucicaut's store faced labor troubles that had not been seen since before the founding of the revised store in 1869. For many weeks in 1919, four-fifths of the workers at The Bon Marché went on strike, protesting for higher pay, an eight-hour workday, and other additional benefits.[i] In Seattle, workers were rallying for many of the same changes; the only differences were The Bon Marché's stiff opposition to unions and additional racial issues within the workforce as many black workers had been limited to demeaning jobs such as floor scrubbing.[ii] Workers in Seattle's Bon Marché went on strike in January 1914, and although the strike was resolved by May, after caving in to many of the worker's demands, the success of a union organized strike against such a major business would lay the groundwork for future strikes.[iii] Only five years later, America's first general strike occurred in Seattle during February of 1919.[iv] Just as the business successes of the original store were easily transferred to Nordhoff's Seattle version, so to were the downsides, such as labor issues. The eventual spread of this methodology, in both business marketing strategies and the labor versus management struggles, demonstrate that the model set by The Bon Marché disseminated among retail and industry in general both quickly and easily. The ups, the downs, and the propagation of consumerism initiated by Boucicaut's system was limited not just to Paris or Seattle, but could reach anyplace that found potential recruits for the new consumer culture.