POI #2: Les Grands Magasins Dufayel



 


 


 


 

Location of Les Grands Magasins Dufayel

Description of Les Grands Magasins Dufayel

The Grands Magasin Dufayel was a monumental department store that had a very important cultural influence on Paris’s working class. It was founded by Parisian retailer and businessman, Georges Dufayel, who took over the business of the former “Le Palais de la Nouveauté” after the death of owner and close associate, Jacques François Crespin in 1890.[1] The previous store was renamed “Les Grands Magasin Dufayel,” and was located on Rue de Clignancourt in the Goutte D’or neighbourhood in Paris’s 18th arrondissement, which was also home to some of the most crowded and decrepit houses and streets in the entire city.[2] Dufayel used the location to his advantage, by creating a new urban space through the development of the largest and most impressive structure in the 18th arrondissement, that was often referred to as a “retail palace” or a “palace of consumption,” where the consumer is considered to be the “king.”[3] It contained many stunning and luxurious features, including glittering crystal chandeliers, huge mirrors, statues, paintings, pillars, stucco, and an elegant central staircase. The building is now home to BNP Paribas as well as a Virgin megastore. The development of such a luxurious and innovative department store in the Goutte d’Or encouraged workers to view shopping as a social activity, due to the fact that the store itself allowed visitors to participate in new forms of technology and entertainment while they shopped. This led to a new cultural form of consumerism in the late nineteenth century, where working class consumers could partake in similar experiences and activities as their middle and upper-class counterparts, which up until this point had not existed. Georges Dufayel was born into a humble family and never lost sight of his roots, which is why he was very sympathetic to the poor working-class Parisians, and was so driven to include them in the new consumerist craze that was sweeping over Europe.[4]

Not only could shoppers access a vast range of merchandise, they could also listen to phonographic demonstrations, have an x-ray taken of their hand or foot, view scientific exhibits, enjoy concerts, and watch films at the cinema.[5] Prior to this creation, the neighbourhood contained no parks or squares, and very few places to spend free time besides local drinking establishments, which shows just how important and influential the store would have been on the neighbourhood residents. The idea of turning shopping into a leisure destination was also created at this site, through the creation of non-commercial areas in the building, where visitors could stroll, visit the winter garden, view exotic plants, listen to the orchestra, or have a picnic. Consumption as a leisure activity made the overall experience of consuming more pleasant, which has had a long-term influence on the influence of this change in consumer habits, which can still be seen in current consumer society. Dufayel was also the founder of credit-based retail, which consisted of credit-based coupons that were sold to a working-class customer base, and could be redeemed at any stores that were participants in the credit program.[6]

While many bourgeois stores sought to conceal the existence of mass production and consumer culture, Dufayel celebrated the commercial nature of the store and its relation and reliance on both technology and mass production. It is often argued that the Grands Magasin Dufayel filled both a physical and cultural void in the Goutte d'Or, and that this interior space proposed a bright future for the working classes of Paris.[7]

The Grands Magasin Dufayel existed in the same neighbourhood that our fictional child would have grown up in, and been living in during the outbreak of the war. Before the war, this particular site would have largely impacted the child and her family, regarding not only their consumer and leisure activities, but also the ways in which they viewed consumerism as a whole. The Magasin Dufayel would have most likely been often frequented by this family for both

shopping and leisure, but once war was declared, the ways in which the store operated would have largely been changed. Production of luxury and commercial items would have slowed down or been cut off completely, due to the increase in mass production of war-related materials, which would have affected both the availability of goods, and continuation of entertainment and leisure opportunities. This new consumer culture brought on by the Grands Magasin Dufayel in the Goutte d'Or would have temporarily disappeared during the First World War, and changed the ways in which the working classes lived their lives.

End Notes

[1] Meakin, Anna. "Paris Past: Les Grands Magasins Dufayel." Bonjour Paris.

[2] Meakin, Anna. "Paris Past: Les Grands Magasins Dufayel."

[3] Meakin. "Paris Past: Les Grands Magasins Dufayel."

[4] Meakin. "Paris Past."

[5] Wemp, Brian. 'Social Space, Technology, and Consumer Culture at the Grands Magasins Dufayel,' Historical Reflections. Pg. 9

[6] Wemp, Brian. 'Social Space, Technology, and Consumer Culture at the Grands Magasins Dufayel,' pg. 6

[7] Wemp, Brian. 'Social Space, Technology, and Consumer Culture at the Grands Magasins Dufayel,' pg. 14


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