Promotional card for the Department store, Au Bon Marché, advertising 'Les Grands Championnats', 1910...

The Bon Marché Department stores in Paris were the creation of the French entrepreneur, Aristide Boucicaut (1810-77), who, after 1852 and with his wife, Marguerite (1826-87) revolutionised shopping and retailing in France; they developed the first department store ('Grand Magasin') in Paris, by 1877 the largest in the world with 1788 employees; the Boucicauts were responsible for introducing the concept of shopping as an enjoyable experience with glamorous interiors; innovations included fixed prices, home delivery, large choice of goods, guarantees allowing exchanges or returns, catalogues , mail order and advertising; families were targeted by providing reading rooms for husbands while their wives made purchases and by giving balloons and attractively produced cards for children; the cards, usually in a series of six and published weekly were extremely popular and acted as an inducement to return frequently to the shops;