The Legendary Galeries Lafayette
Galeries Lafayette Haussmann is a major Parisian retailer located on boulevard Haussmann in the 9th district. It is the most spacious department store in Europe and the second largest in the world after Macy’s Herald Square.
With sales of 1.8 billion euros in 2014, it has overtaken Harrods in London, Bloomingdale’s in New York and Isetan in Tokyo to reclaim its position as the world’s leading department store in terms of sales. It is part of the “Grands Magasins” branch of the Galeries Lafayette Group.
Galeries Lafayette attracts an average of 37 million visitors a year, or more than 100,000 customers a day, across the store’s four interlinked venues (Coupole, L’Homme, Maison and Gourmet).
The store is served by the Chaussée d’Antin — La Fayette and Havre — Caumartin metro stations, and by the Auber RER A station. Saint-Lazare station is also nearby.
In 1893, Théophile Bader and Alphonse Kahn, two cousins from Alsace, teamed up to take over a novelty shop.
The pair launched Les Galeries Lafayette on the corner of rue La Fayette and rue de la Chaussée-d’Antin in 1894, over forty years after “Le Bon Marché”. The store is ideally placed near the Opéra Garnier, the Grands Boulevards and the Saint-Lazare train station. The store soon attracted office workers and the middle and lower middle classes.
The Company bought the whole of 1, rue La Fayette in 1896 and, in 1903, the buildings at 38, 40 and 42, boulevard Haussmann, as well as 15, rue de la Chaussée-d’Antin. Georges Chedanne and then Ferdinand Chanut were in charge of furnishing these new purchases. On October 8, 1912, the huge Art Nouveau dome is inaugurated (Art Nouveau is an artistic movement of the late 19th and early 20th centuries founded on the aesthetics of curved lines).
Every Achievement Leads to Another !
In 1900, the “Aux Galeries Lafayette” trademark was registered. In 1908, Lafayette opened its first store on Boulevard Haussmann. In October 1912, bigger store was inaugurated. It featured 96 departments, a tea room, a library and a hairdressing salon. It had five floors, balconies and a large cupola.
The roof at the peak of the building overlooks Paris and its new Eiffel Tower. The shop windows themselves take on an important role in this decor: they must inspire every desire and mood. It’s all about ensuring that shoppers get to feel good and feel compelled to shop.
Fashion and innovation were the watchwords of the store. The trend towards the democratization of fashion was taking hold, and success was in the air. Thus, the store began to diversify its range, adding men’s fashion, home furnishings, toys and tableware to its traditional departments.
The Key Years of the Galleries
In the years from 1952 to 1956, the first escalators were fitted, the interior halls were removed and two storeys were added. In 1969, a brand new store, dedicated to men’s fashion, was commissioned on the other side of Rue de Mogador. In 1974, the main staircase was removed and, in 1984, the central first floor was redesigned to allow the opening of prestige boutiques.
In 1980, the department store further strengthened its focus on fashion with the creation of the highly successful “Festival de la Mode” (Fashion Festival).
In 1996, Galeries Lafayette celebrated its 100th anniversary. To honor the milestone, a number of major brands reissued one of their classics.
2010 marked the opening of a Bordeauxthèque, the largest Bordeaux wine cellar in the world (1,500 references). Between 2019 and 2021, the surface area devoted to cafés and restaurants in the department store grows by 20%. Nowadays, the store is constantly evolving and modernizing. Chinese customers are now Galeries Lafayette Haussmann’s biggest foreign clientele, ahead of Americans and Japanese.
