Frederick Marquis, Chairman of Lewis’s Department Store.
Chapter Three
Behind the Scenes of Retailing 1918-1936
Introduction
This chapter will examine consumerism from a business point of view and how economic growth in retailing helped to empower the workforce of Lewis’s department store. Discussion is brought forth from the biography of Frederick Marquis, the chairman of Lewis’s, who was also skilled in economics. Marquis details the transformations in the mass production of consumer goods and how his business improved the employment sector at the store. Gaps within the scholarship can be found here with the lack of primary sources from other businessmen debating the rise of consumerism in Liverpool. However, discussions from scholars such as Jefferies and De Grazia criticise the decline of department stores during the interwar period. Although Marquis argues that consumerism from department stores increased during the interwar period in Liverpool because the city reinvented itself as a place of consumerism. Chapter Two helped explain how the mass production of clothing transformed consumerism in Liverpool. This chapter goes a step further by explaining how businesses achieved these manufacturing changes, which made clothing affordable for working-class customers. Discussion will also be given on the creation of a welfare department by Lewis’s who introduced a two-week holiday and healthcare to their workforce. In detailing these transformations in consumerism, the biography of Marquis is a valuable primary source for this thesis.
Frederick Marquis – Chairman of Lewis’s and his Redesigning of the Department Store 1918-1936
The end of the 1930s saw Liverpool’s city centre fully invested in the retail trade. With the help of Frederick Marquis, Lewis’s was transformed in all retail areas, Marquis used his ability as an economist to improve productivity and profit margins, which allowed the store to trickle this success down to the workforce through pay and welfare reforms. Marquis claimed in his biography that ‘capital risk-taking and productivity in management were creating better employment conditions and improving the general public’s standard of living’.[1] However, this was not always the case because, during the Victorian era department store shopping was a limited experience for the middle and upper classes to enjoy.[2] Coz and Hobley support the claim by Nava suggesting that other than as workers working-class women were excluded from retailing encounters within city centres.[3] Jeffreys though, argues that after World War I, shopping habits changed with consumer behaviour favouring chain stores and cooperatives rather than department stores.[4] With De Grazia claiming that during the interwar period department store retailers in Britain struggled to adapt to the needs of their customers and the increase of the chain store.[5] From this analysis the general understanding in the scholarship is that after World War I consumerism surrounding department stores was fading from the once luxurious sites of shopping they once were.
Nevertheless, Liverpool was the exception and store managers like Marquis were able to redevelop their shops into populist retail centres that offered economic stability from the financial instability of the Great Depression.[6] Store managers in Liverpool understood that by creating an enticing consumer experience by taking advantage of the layout of their stores, such as the architecture and interior design they could attract customers into their stores. With stores restaurants and cafes bringing more customers in to department stores managers were able to encourage customers to devote more of their time and spend more of their disposable income at their businesses.[7] In Liverpool the importance of bringing about such an inviting consumer experience helped to safeguard department stores from the devastation of the economic downturn that the 1930s brought with consumers taking advantage of the leisure and entertainment facilities that stores were able to provide. These strategies helped department stores thrive despite the economic crash of the 1930s and helped Liverpool’s consumer economy flourish.
Marquis was able to use his economic acumen to bring a level of stability to Lewis’s department store during such uncertain times. For the people living during the Great Depression in Liverpool, there was a need for a reduction in the cost of living and a greater necessity for an increase in job stability. According to Marquis Lewis’s, was able to achieve within these areas despite the financial uncertainties of the time.[8] However, as discussed in previous chapters, department stores were able to lower the price of their consumer goods through advances in manufacturing, but for many families, the price of essential items such as food created a drain on family expenses. Although consumer culture did increase for the working-class shopper, there were still high levels of poverty within Liverpool, so the changes that department stores made only impacted those who had access to disposable income. The adjustments that department stores made also brought competition to smaller retailers leading to the closure of many businesses across the city as they struggled to compete. With this in mind, department stores were able to monopolise economic control, which negatively impacted on the variety of shops within urban areas.
Marquis and his Thoughts on Poverty in Liverpool 1926-1938
Marquis detailed the poverty he experienced in Liverpool in his memoir and discussed the alarming unemployment rates in 1926. To Marquis, those who experienced high levels of deprivation between 1908 and 1910 still made up a considerable amount of those suffering in the late 1920s. For those who had experienced poverty at such high levels at the turn of the century, they had memories of the psychological and physical damage to their health that the hopelessness of those times caused. Marquis realised that during the deprivation he witnessed in Liverpool during the later years of the 1920s, something had to change to help the city’s economy. To support the lack of employment at the docks discussed in chapter one, Marquis details the lack of cargo at the port and with no ships sailing into the docks, Liverpool had to use other ways to increase their productivity in the city.[9] Marquis understood that the people living with such high levels of unemployment would rather work than rely on benefits, which brought a sense of shame to so many families within the city.
The aim for Marquis was to market Liverpool as a place for industry and business first. Trade leaders, including Marquis, created the Liverpool Organisation for Advancing the Trade and Commerce of Liverpool. The objective of establishing such an organisation, was to improve Liverpool’s association with industry and manufacturing. Liverpool Corporation invested in the project and offered £10,000 annually to market it. As discussed in chapter two, Liverpool benefitted from Civic Week celebrations, and this was made possible because of the trade association establishing the event. Civic Week brought many people to the city and was seen as a business triumph for Marquis. For those who could spend money, they did; however, not only did the city benefit economically, but the event also gave a sense of civic pride to the residents of Liverpool. Promoting the city in this way, those who attended the event wrote to family and friends in other areas of the country to spread the word about Liverpool as a centre for consumerism.[10] Civic Week, in this respect, brought free advertising for Liverpool with the spread of word of mouth from those who attended the festivities. Liverpool was now seen as a consumer hub and had come to represent the city’s economic wealth.
Mass Production from a Business Perspective 1924-1925
During the interwar period, technological advances in mass production helped create more affordable clothing lines. Because clothing could now be produced more economically and effectively, garments became more available to a wide range of potential customers.[11] According to Marquis, the aim of the improvements to the mass production of garments was to successfully change Liverpool into a place of consumerism by offering clothing from The United States of America to sell on to the customers of Lewis’s for one guinea. With this success manufacturers in Britain were confident that they could rival America in the quality of their designs. Marquis affirms that from the start of the mass production of clothing, Lewis’s acquired the copyright of specific designs. The cheaper resources in place to mass-produce garments helped make clothing more affordable for the working class. According to Marquis, such improvements in manufacturing allowed those employed to purchase such items.[12] The alterations in societal norms and attitudes towards fashion trends were also instrumental in the affordability of products. By 1924 factories could still use up their stock of Khaki coloured material that had been set aside for World War I. Skirts had become shorter in length and more comfortable owing to the lighter fabric that could be used.[13] The period between the war saw a change in fashion trends of a more causal and sensible approach to clothing, as opposed to the more lavish and costly trends before the advances in mass production had taken place. Simple and inexpensive clothing options were influential in enticing the working-class consumer to department stores.
Radical Changes in Lewis’s Department Store for Employees 1920-1928
The improvements made to Lewis’s department store were established by businessmen who understood the consumer needs. According to Marquis, the economic downturn of the 1930s saw the rise of the Labour Party, which arose with the need for greater pay and better working conditions. Marquis believed that Lewis’s as a company could facilitate these changes by offering their workforce a better standard of living.[14] The store hired men and women who had acquired a university education to set up a staff training division. By employing educated people, the store managers felt that training the educated staff in retail practices could enhance the shop worker’s ability and offer them promotions in the future. When it came to retailing, Lewis’s was always ahead of its competitors, and in 1921, it created a welfare section to deal with any concerns that arose within its workforce. A pamphlet aimed at the staff read that ‘female staff are provided with meals in the building and are entitled to forty-five minutes for dinner and twenty minutes for tea.[15] This was an innovative invention for the time because retail stores were not known for providing benefits to their workforce.
Lewis’s department store was different from their competitors and offered health examinations to their female staff. If unwell, an employee would need to undertake a further examination upon their return. Sports and leisure facilities were expanded upon by promoting clubs and social groups. To go alongside all these changes, the Shop Assistants Union supported the changes that Lewis’s had brought about with a new earnings structure.[16] Lewis’s also protected their staff with the structure of proper working hours, paid holidays for two weeks a year was assured, health, dental and optical provisions were provided, and support for those who were interested in maintaining a pension with the store was given. The workers’ council that was created was seen as the most suitable forum to discuss any disputes within the workforce that arose. Store managers guaranteed the confidentiality of the workforce through the medium of the workers’ council. A joint council of store management and Lewis’s workforce also met often to put forward ideas and to resolve any concerns that arose within the store.[17] Such changes helped to establish good employer-employee relations and helped to establish Lewis’s as a business that looked after their workforce.
Conclusion With the support of Frederick Marquis and businessmen like him, they created a better standard of living through employment opportunities and ensured that their workforce was looked after. Academics such as Jeffreys discussed in his book Retail Trading in Britain 1850-1950 that department stores were less popular than they once were with the rise of the chain store dominating consumer culture. However, Liverpool became the exception, with department stores increasing in popularity through Marquis’ redesign of the department store into a site of leisure and entertainment. Civic Week also helped boost the department store’s appeal, with customers flocking to Liverpool to experience the festivities on offer. One of Marquis’ ambitions was to ensure that products were inexpensive for working-class consumers. Through improvements that were made to manufacturing, Lewis’s was able to supply clothing to its customers for a fraction of the cost. Lewis’s also invested in its workforce and was able to create a welfare department to take care of its staff with proper break times. Female employees were offered health care assessments, an annual two-week holiday was given to all staff, and a modern pay structure that benefited many employees, especially those with children to care for. Such transformations for the consumer and employees paved the way for the contemporary shopping encounters we see today.
[1] Marquis, The Memoirs of the Rt Hon. The Earl of Woolton, p. 93.
[2] Nava, ‘Modernity’s Disavowal: Women, the city and the Department Store’, p. 38-76.
[3] Pamela Coz and Annabel Hobley, Shopgirls: The True Story of Life Behind the Counter, (London, 2015), p. 50
[4] James B. Jeffreys, Retail Trading in Britain 1850-1950, (Cambridge, 1954), p. 335.
[5] Victoria De Grazia, Irresistible Empire America’s Advance through 20th Century Europe, (Cambridge, 2005), p. 70.
[6] Marquis, The Memoirs of the Rt Hon. The Earl of Woolton, p. 94.
[7] Sharon Zukin, ‘Urban Lifestyles: Diversity and Standardisation in Spaces of Consumption’, Urban Studies 35, no. 5-6, (1998), pp. 829-832.
[8] Marquis, The Memoirs of the Rt Hon. The Earl of Woolton, p. 87.
[9] Ibid., 109.
[10] Ibid., p. 112-3.
[11] Sharon Zukin, and Jennifer Smith Maguire, ‘Consumers and Consumption’, Annual Review of Sociology 30 no. 1 (2004), p. 177.
[12] Marquis, The Memoirs of the Rt Hon. The Earl of Woolton, p. 112.
[13] Elizabeth Gittus, ‘A Study of the Unemployed of Merseyside’, in Merseyside Social and Economic Studies, ed Richard Lawton and Catherine M. Cunningham, (London, 1970), p. 125.
[14] Briggs, Friends of the People the Centenary History of Lewis’s, p. 7-10.
[15] Ibid., p. 165.
[16] Ibid., 165-6.
[17] Ibid., p. 166.
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