Department Stores
topic on 5 shows · 7 statements across 6 episodes
the Y Combinator Startup Podcast 
the Knowledge Project 
Masters of Scale 
Capital Allocators 
How I Built This
7 statements about Department Stores, every show
Mei Xu: Small retail boutiques outperform department stores
“Small boutiques are doing much better than department stores.”
Modern department store makeup counters originated with Estée Lauder
“Those makeup counters you see in every department store today with the dedicated chairs and beauty experts. That all started because Estee refused to let her first customer try products alone.”
Department store charge accounts unlocked impulse cosmetic purchases
“Beauty salons required cash. Limiting impulse purchases, but department stores offered something revolutionary. Charge accounts.”
Fisher: Department stores struggled to merchandise her early minimalist designs
“Department stores, they were just confused about us. We were too simple. Our clothes would sort of disappear or something in their stores, and they didn't quite understand it.”
Barry Beck: Internet retail disrupted department stores on convenience and selection
“I think that we, at some point, had a hypothesis that the department stores were really created for sort of two reasons, right? A convenience And breadth of selection. And that we saw a possibility that they could no longer be convenient because of just travel…”
Kaluzny: Retail investors fatally mistake department store distributors for proprietary brands
“Many of the mistakes that are made are when people either confuse a distributor for a brand, leaving aside some of our own missteps in this area, but department stores valued as brands, when in fact they were distributors, as an example, and not thinking of th…”