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or more than 150 years, Marshall Field's reigned as Chicago's leading department store, celebrated for its exceptional service, spectacular window displays, and fashionable merchandise.

Few shoppers recalled its origins as a small dry goods business opened in 1852 by a New York Quaker named Potter Palmer. That store, eventually renamed Marshall Field and Company, weathered economic downturns, spectacular fires, and fierce competition to become a world-class retailer and merchandise powerhouse. Marshall Field sent buyers to Europe for the latest fashions, insisted on courteous service, and immortalized the phrase "give the lady what she wants." The store prided itself on its dazzling Tiffany mosaic dome, Walnut Room restaurant, bronze clocks, and a string of firsts including the first bridal registry and first book signing.

Relive the history of Hudson's department store, a fixture in downtown Detroit , when retailing was an event and the department store ruled the shopping scene and was a Detroit icon.

The J. L. Hudson Company redefined the way Detroiters shopped and enjoyed leisure time. Many Detroiters share memories of times spent shopping and enjoying spectacular events sponsored by Hudson's. A solid and lofty icon built by businesspeople who believed in their passion, Hudson's defined Detroit's downtown, creating trends and traditions in consumer culture that still resonate with us today. Now and in the future, as Hudson's boxes, shopping bags, and artifacts are discovered in closets, attics, basements, and flea markets, many will remember that it was once as solid a civic fixture as the City-County Building or the Detroit Public Library.

Located on the site of the original Sears Tower, the historic Sears, Roebuck and Company catalog plant is one of the nation's most unique landmarks. Representing American ingenuity at its best, Richard Sears and Julius Rosenwald combined technology, commerce, and social science with bricks and mortar to build "the World's Largest Store" on Chicago's West Side. Completed in 1906, the plant housed nearly every conceivable product of the time: clothing, jewelry, furniture, appliances, tools, and more. The complex employed 20,000 people, and merchandise orders were processed and delivered by rail--within the same day. During the first two decades of the 20th century, almost half of America's families shopped the over 300 million catalogs published in that era. WLS (World's Largest Store) Radio broadcasted the Gene Autrey show from the top of the tower, and the first Sears retail store opened here on Homan Avenue and Arthington Street. In 1974, Sears moved to the current Sears Tower. Thanks to many individuals who fought to save these architecturally and historically important treasures, the administration building, the original Sears Tower, the catalog press-laboratory building, and the powerhouse remain today. There are currently plans for redeveloping these buildings into housing, office, and retail space. A new Homan Square Community Center stands on the site of the merchandise building.

For over a century, the J.L. Hudson's Department Store was more than just a store - it was a Detroit icon and a world-class cultural treasure.

At 25 stories, Hudson's was the world's tallest department store, and was at one time home to the most exceptional offerings in shopping, dining, services, and entertainment. The store prided itself on stocking everything from grand pianos to spools of thread. In addition to regular department store fare, the original Hudson's store featured an auditorium, a circulating library, dining rooms, barber shops, a photo studio, holiday exhibits, a magnificent place called Toytown, and the world's largest American flag. As a legendary symbol of urban and entrepreneurial American history, the J.L. Hudson's Department Store earned a permanent place in Detroit's collective memory. Although "the big store" no longer graces Woodward Avenue, its legacy lives on in the hearts and minds of generations, and in the remarkable photographs that preserve its reign.

Shopping has always been big business. Learn all about the golden age of Cleveland's department stores by retail historian Christopher Faircloth.

Originating as simple storefront operations, Cleveland's department stores grew as population and industry in the region boomed throughout the late 19th century and the first half of the 20th. They moved into ever larger and elaborate structures in an attempt to woo the shopping dollars of blue-collar and genteel Clevelanders alike. Stores such as Halle's, Higbee's, May Company, Bailey Company, Sterling-Lindner-Davis, and others both competed with and complemented one another, all the while leaving an indelible mark on the culture of northeast Ohio and beyond. From the humble origins of Halle's horse-drawn delivery wagons to Christmas favorites like Mr. Jingeling and the massive Christmas tree at Sterling-Lindner-Davis - it is all here in crisp, black-and-white images, many of which have not been seen in print for decades.

Downtown Gary: Millrats, Politics, and US Steel provides a glimpse of the Gary of yesteryear when downtown was the social, cultural, and political center of the community.

Before the era of gigantic shopping malls, big-box stores, and online shopping, the commercial centers of major American cities were located in areas often referred to as downtown. From the 1920s through the 1960s, people from throughout the Calumet Region flocked to the Steel City's popular stores, theaters, and restaurants by car, bus, and the South Shore Railroad. For many, Gordon's, Lytton's, Sears, and Goldblatt's bring back memories of window-shopping, making layaway plans, visiting Santa, and being asked "May I help you?" by courteous employees. Downtown Gary: Millrats, Politics, and US Steel provides a look at the stores, politics, churches, schools, and of course, United States Steel Corporation and the millrats of forgotten Gary.

Fleischmann is a brand name that everyone recognizes, even if they have never baked bread from scratch, drunk a Fleischmann's gin and tonic, or used their vinegar and margarine. Charles Fleischmann, in fact, pretty much invented the brand name and this continued recognition is testimonial to his genius. At one time, teenagers around the country ate fresh yeast cakes by the millions to improve their skin, and corporate success was measured in pound of live yeast consumed per capita. And the great Fleischmann distilleries kept America jolly from 1870 to Prohibition and afterward. Charles Fleischmann and his brothers, sons, daughter, and grandsons amassed a fortune that would be easily equivalent to the billionaires of today--and it all started through the scientific husbandry of a tiny one-celled fungus known as yeast. Add sugar and water, and you get alcohol and more yeast--simply alter it slightly and you get vinegar. Multiply it times a million and you have the beginnings of the modern industrial food industry in America. This book is a snapshot of a unique family from Central Europe that changed the way America cooked. A family business from the Civil War until the start of the Depression, Fleischmann's created the giant food conglomerate Standard Brands, which was in-turn gobbled up by Nabisco in the 1980s. In its long history, it literally invented the coupon premium, the give-away recipe book, and state fair bake-offs. This is a story of a talented, generous, outrageously successful family, and of a brand name that still conjures up delicious memories of freshly baked bread and a most happy well being. The Fleischmann story is America at its finest.

Each year, millions of Swiss Colony mail-order catalogs featuring more than 30,000 items flow into American homes. Little did Raymond Kubly realize in 1926, when he had the goofy idea of selling cheese by mail, that his then-fledgling company would become a mail-order giant. In those first years, cheese wheels were cut and wrapped in consumer-sized pieces in the Kubly family basement and garage. Soon the company was selling not only cheese but sausages, meats, and pastry desserts, all from the pleasant, little southern Wisconsin city of Monroe. Today the ever-expanding Swiss Colony, having ventured into home furnishings, jewelry, apparel, and more, is one of the largest direct marketing companies in the United States.

Woodfield Mall opened on September 9, 1971. Built in the village of Schaumburg, Woodfield Mall was a major factor in the rise of that city and all of Chicago's northwest suburbs. At the time of Schaumburg's incorporation in 1956, approximately 130 people lived in the area. The mall opened with 59 stores on that fateful day in 1971, and actor Vincent Price served as master of ceremonies. By 1973, Woodfield Mall had grown to nearly 190 stores, and at 1.9 million square feet of retail, it was the largest mall in America at the time. Retailers and corporations began to flock to the area, and many top companies now call Schaumburg home, existing in the shadows of Woodfield Mall. Today Schaumburg holds a population of over 75,000 residents, and Woodfield Mall brings 27 million visitors per year to its 2.7 million square feet of shopping space, making it the number one visitor destination in Illinois. New stores continually reshape the shopping experience in this place where society and commerce collide.

Dayton's department store, grand in scope and company spirit, enjoyed a century in the limelight as one of the nation's leading retailers. Its disappearance has been a challenge to the community, but it is a sign of the times, as many other urban department stores have shared the same fate. Originally called Goodfellows, the store got its start in 1902 when real estate investor and banker George Draper Dayton became a silent partner in the business. He soon took over the company but had to learn the ropes of retail as he went along since he had never intended to become a merchant. The early years were not without struggles, but Dayton's department store was nevertheless an instant hit with its daylight-filled aisles, generous return policies, and quality merchandise. The Minneapolis store became a vibrant self-contained community with a post office, newspaper, infirmary, laundry, bakery, and even a college. "Daytonians" worked and played together around the clock, in baseball and bowling teams, glee clubs, and orchestras. Over time, the reach of Dayton's extended far into the upper Midwest, with stores in North Dakota, South Dakota, and Wisconsin, including the development of the nation's first indoor mall.

Herbst Department Store held sway on Fargo's Broadway for nearly 90 years. In 1887, a young merchant named Isaac Herbst came to Fargo to seek his fortune. He proved to be a dynamic salesman, and by 1892 he had founded Herbst Department Store. The business was destroyed a year later in the Great Fire of 1893, which wiped out most of downtown. Isaac rebuilt his business and expanded it until his death in 1910. The department store was continued by his widow, sons, grandsons, and a large group of loyal employees. The Herbst family took great pride in the community and was active in civic affairs. In the 1970s and 1980s, many customers abandoned downtown Fargo for West Acres Shopping Center and other large retail chains. Herbst was the last large department store remaining downtown until it closed in 1982. Images of America: Herbst Department Store shines a light on a business that had a great impact on Fargo's vibrant downtown and community.

Grand Rapids, Michigan was the center for shopping in western Michigan with department stores, five-and-dimes and more, until the advent of the shopping mall.

For decades, downtown Grand Rapids enjoyed a long run in the limelight as the epicenter of shopping in western Michigan. The vibrant Monroe Avenue corridor included three homegrown department stores, several chain department stores, five-and-dime stores, and scores of clothing and specialty retailers. It weathered mother nature, wars, the Great Depression, the advent of neighborhood shopping centers, and civil disturbances--but the one change it could not overcome was the regional shopping mall.