Selfridges - Definition and Overview

Selfridges is a chain of department stores in the United Kingdom. It was founded by American entrepreneur Harry Gordon Selfridge who opened a large store in London's Oxford Street on 15 March 1909.

Selfridges Oxford Street

Credited with coining the phrase "The customer is always right", Selfridge used advertising extensively and also differentiated his London store by adopting a different internal layout. Instead of keeping items behind counters, he placed them on displays that were more accessible to customers. Such changes were soon adopted by other retailers.

For almost 90 years, Selfridges was a one-location business, but in 1998 it opened its first store outside London, at the Trafford Centre, on the outskirts of Manchester. By the end of 2003, Selfridges had four stores: two in Manchester and (the latest) one in Birmingham's Bullring shopping complex which opened in September 2003. The Birmingham store is covered in 15,000 spun aluminium discs and was designed by architects Future Systems. A further store is scheduled to open in Glasgow in 2007.

External link

• Selfridges (http://www.selfridges.co.uk)