The Grand Magazines Dufayel in Paris was unlike any other department store in France at the time. Dufayel was the largest department store in working class Paris located in the Goutte d'Or or the 18th arrondissement.[1] The Grand Magasins Dufayel also sported other non-commercial rooms and activities where citizens could spend their leisure time, something other Parisian bourgeois department stores lacked. There was an in-store cinema, scientific demonstrations, phonograph exhibitions, and concerts, elements that appealed to the working classes in particular as the Dufayel was a spot where families of all social classes could spend their afternoon.[2] Customers had free entry to the store itself and with spectacles such as a library, lectures, tea salons, and concerts they would be lured into spending money and buying more material goods.[3] These features and the classical facade of the large entrance to the store lured customers in, especially the sophisticated citizens. There was also a great importance on the exterior of the building as it had to imply the store's function from the street but at the same time appear visually pleasing. The central location in the Goutte d'Or drew in customers from not only in the centre of the city but from the outskirts as well.[4] By 1899 the store had taken up 18,760 metres and many called it "heavy and ostentatious," an attention grabber in a rougher area in Paris.[5]

[1] Brian Wemp. "The Grands Magasins Dufayel, the Working Class, and the Origins of Consumer Culture in Paris, 1880-1916." DigiTool Stream Gateway. August 2010. Accessed March 03, 2019, 3.

[2] Brian Wemp. "Social Space, Technology, and Consumer Culture at the Grands Magasins Dufayel." Historical Reflections 37, no. 1 (Spring 2011): 1–17. doi:10.3167/hrrh.2011.370101, 2.

[3] Meredith L. Clausen. "The Department Store: Development of the Type." Journal of Architectural Education (1984-) 39, no. 1 (1985): 20-29. doi:10.2307/1424824, 21.

[4] Ibid., 22.

[5] Brian Wemp. "Social Space, Technology, and Consumer Culture at the Grands Magasins Dufayel." Historical Reflections 37, no. 1 (Spring 2011): 1–17. doi:10.3167/hrrh.2011.370101, 4.

Due to the Grand Magasins Dufayel and other Parisian stores such as the Bon Marché and Le Printemps, shopping became an experience where families, especially the working class ones, could spend their newfound leisure time at these stores, which became a new social custom itself.[1] The Grand Magasins Dufayel realized the importance of its location in a working class area and took advantage of the opportunity, gaining local prominence in Goutte d'Or as no department store ever had. Dufayel had "broke from the mold of the bourgeois department store to create a new kind of urban space that combined consumption and entertainment in original ways."[2] Before Dufayel there was a lack in places where working class families could spend their new leisure time as author Zola writes about in his novel L'Assommoir in 1877. He envisioned in this book a place of entertainment for all levels of society and Dufayel was a prime example of a place to spend an afternoon, becoming a new urban space in itself.[3]

Many have dismissed Dufayel as "the plebeian counterpart of such grands magasins as the Bon Marché," though others would argue that the store was legitimate in that it was a new and fresh kind of public space where citizens of all social classes could be entertained and spend their leisure time and hard earned money.[4] This space projected consumer culture and Dufayel is viewed of as an emblem modernity.[5] In an article publish in The Times in London, a correspondent described each grand magasin as a city in itself, and are the "happy hunting grounds" for both men and women.[6] These stores became a fresh place where citizens could have a whole new and enjoyable shopping experience. Zola compares these spectacles to a church "where [women] go there to replace the hours they used to go to church" implying that with these stores came a change in values and priorities, with material goods trumping religion as the consumer culture explores onto the Paris scene.[7] This site is included in the walking tour because it finally offered citizens regardless of social standing a place where they could have a positive shopping experience and a free afternoon full of entertainment.

[1] Meredith L. Clausen. "The Department Store: Development of the Type." Journal of Architectural Education (1984-) 39, no. 1 (1985): 20-29. doi:10.2307/1424824, 21.

[2] Brian Wemp. "Social Space, Technology, and Consumer Culture at the Grands Magasins Dufayel." Historical Reflections 37, no. 1 (Spring 2011): 1–17. doi:10.3167/hrrh.2011.370101, 3.

[3] Ibid., 4.

[4] Ibid., 2.

[5] Proctor, Robert. "Constructing the Retail Monument: The Parisian Department Store and Its Property, 1855-1914." Urban History 33, no. 3 (December 2006): 393–410. doi:10.1017/S0963926806004044, 393.

[6] From A Correspondent. "Grands Magasins." Times, July 19, 1938, 47. The Times Digital Archive (accessed March 7, 2019), 47.

[7] William Lancaster. The Department Store: A Social History. London ; New York : Leicester University Press, 1995, 19.

Clausen, Meredith L. "The Department Store: Development of the Type." Journal of Architectural Education (1984-) 39, no. 1 (1985): 20-29. doi:10.2307/1424824. https://proxy.library.brocku.ca/login?url=http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=edsjsr&AN=edsjsr.10.2307.1424824&site=eds-live&scope=site.

From A Correspondent. "Grands Magasins." Times, July 19, 1938, 47. The Times Digital Archive (accessed March 7, 2019) http://gdc.galegroup.com/gdc/artemis/NewspapersDetailsPage/NewspapersDetailsWindow?disableHighlighting=false&displayGroupName=DVI-Newspapers&docIndex=1&source=&prodId=BBCN%3AAHSI%3ABNCN%3AECCO%3AILN%3ATTDA&mode=view&limiter=&display-query=OQE+grands+magasins&contentModules=&action=e&sortBy=&windowstate=normal&currPage=1&dviSelectedPage=&scanId=&query=OQE+grands+magasins&search_within_results=&p=GDCS&catId=&u=st46245&displayGroups=&documentId=GALE%7CCS789000947&activityType=BasicSearch&failOverType=&commentary=.

Lancaster, William. The Department Store: A Social History. London ; New York : Leicester University Press, 1995.

Proctor, Robert. "Constructing the Retail Monument: The Parisian Department Store and Its Property, 1855-1914." Urban History 33, no. 3 (December 2006): 393–410. doi:10.1017/ S0963926806004044. https://proxy.library.brocku.ca/login?url=http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=edsjsr&AN=edsjsr.44613653&site=eds-live&scope=site..

Wemp, Brian. "Social Space, Technology, and Consumer Culture at the Grands Magasins Dufayel." Historical Reflections 37, no. 1 (Spring 2011): 1–17. doi:10.3167/hrrh. 2011.370101. https://proxy.library.brocku.ca/login?url=http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=edsgao&AN=edsgcl.256365650&site=eds-live&scope=site

Wemp, Brian. "The Grands Magasins Dufayel, the Working Class, and the Origins of Consumer Culture in Paris, 1880-1916." DigiTool Stream Gateway. August 2010. Accessed March 03, 2019. http://digitool.library.mcgill.ca/webclient/StreamGate?folder_id=0&dvs=1552487456003~959.