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Selfridges (Birmingham)
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 is 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
Trafford Park, 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.
The Birmingham store, designed by architects
Future Systems, is covered in 15,000 spun aluminium discs. Since it
opened in 2003, the Birmingham store has been named every year by
industry magazine Retail Week as one of the 100 stores to visit in the
world.
The current shopping centre at the Bull Ring is the
busiest in the United Kingdom with 36.5 million visitors in 2004. It is
also the UK's eleventh largest shopping complex and it houses one of
only four Selfridges department stores and the largest Debenhams
outside of London. Consequently, the centre has been a huge success,
attracting custom from all over the world, including New York.
Selfridges Official Website
Photo Gallery
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