The late 19th century gave us the five-and-dime store, where everything cost five or ten cents. Those are the ancestors of what we think of as a “dollar store” today. What you might not know is that dollar stores have been around for more than 140 years. It’s just that back then, a dollar could buy you a lot more, so they were rather swanky.
Here’s a relic of one such store in Albany, New York, resurrected by the history blog Hoxsie for our amusement. The ad’s style is typical effusive 19th-century, but who could resist a store that promises “An immence stock of beautiful and desirable articles” shown off by “POLITE AND ATTENTIVE YOUNG LADIES!” Especially when those “LADIES!” are promised to “show every attention to Visitors.”
Sources I’ve found differ regarding how much $1 in 1870 currency would be worth today, but around $20 is a good ballpark guess.
The store is long gone, as is the building. As far as I can tell, the office building now on that spot holds an Internet service provider, a Citizens Bank branch, and a Starbucks.
The Tweddle Hall Dollar Store [Hoxsie!]
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I bet my local Walmart’s detergent aisle is at least one hundred and forty feet in length.
Modern life has really redefined “immence.”
I’d buy THAT for a dolla!!!
POLITE AND ATTENTIVE YOUNG LADIES!
Yep, a lot of things have changed since 1870.
Yes, with today’s modern color printing and web technology, we can splash photos of the polite and attentive young ladies on nearly every advertisement. I especially love the polite attention I get from the imaginary headset hotties servicing all my online affairs.
Amusingly enough, 83 State St. currently houses a copy shop where you could produce such ads.
Yeah.. it’s so rare to find polite and attentive salespeople nowadays.
I love that “Polite and attentive young ladies!” is a tag now.
I’m going to find an excuse to use it again around the same time I get to reuse “Sweet Dryer of Mine,” I think.
This inflation calculator says that $1 in 1870 would buy $15.92 in 2010 (the latest year available).
http://www.westegg.com/inflation/infl.cgi
That’s funny, another Westegg inflation calculator calculated this number:
What cost $1.00 in 1870 would cost $17.03 in 2010.
Also, if you were to buy exactly the same products in 2010 and 1870,
they would cost you $1.00 and $0.06 respectively.
http://www.westegg.com/inflation/infl.cgi
That number is too low.
If you converted every twenty individual 1870′s dollars into double eagles you’d have about $1700 dollars smelt value for each gold coin today. That sure beats inflation.
Next time some old person tells me spelling was better “back then” I can point to the word “Immence” on this sign.
I think that some who speak the Queen’s English might take offence at that
There is “honour” in your statement.
I hear you can end up in gaol for that!
Spelling rules used to be more informal
I’m reading Emile Zola’s The Ladies’ Paradise right now. It’s all about the birth of a giant department store in Paris in the 1800s. It’s freaky how close to now the marketing, the price wars, and the big behemoth gobbling up the small neighborhood shops is. It’s almost like Zola had a future vision of an amalgam of Sears and Walmart. *shudder*
Off-topic, but Zola’s novels are awesome. His naturalistic writing is very readable even today, and descriptive as hell. I am a huge fan. I’m attempting to collect them all, and have amassed of Les Rougons-Macquart cycle, including this one, of which my absolute favorite is Nana. That was also my first Zola. He even has a Facebook page (don’t ask; I don’t know!). La Bete Humaine (another in the cycle) even has a serial killer in it!
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Les_Rougon-Macquart#List_of_the_novels
I was a French major in college and I still have my copy of Germinal. Do the novels in the cycle work better in context? Maybe I should whip my Amazon.fr account back out and start at the beginning.
Too many fonts on that flyer!
At least no comic sans.
No doubt the Walmart board wishes it could go back in time and CRUSH THEM
If that Starbucks was there in 1870, the coffee would cost $1.00, too.
But will it have polite and attentive ladies too?
Too bad we do not even remotely have customer service like that. Now you are fortunate to even get someone to even look your way let alone speak to you.
Sadly Tweddle Hall later burned down
On Jan 17, 1883.the NY Times reported that the historic Tweddle Hall building had burned.
The times did not mention the fate of the Dollar Store or polite and attentive ladies.
http://query.nytimes.com/mem/archive-free/pdf?res=9D03E4DA123BE033A25754C1A9679C94629FD7CF
(click the full article and scroll about halfway down. There appears to be a lot of white space, but the article is there)
Well, we’re not getting anything for a dollar at the stores that took over that building.
We used to have a 5¢ and 10¢
If you twist Google Street View around to look at the capitol, there’s a little tiny house in the middle of the street w/a person entering or exiting. I wanna know what’s in there. MiB? NSA? Affordable housing?
As a side note, hasn’t that cone zone been there for at least two years??
The little hut in the center of the street houses loudspeakers and controllers for Christmas lights. The cons are all cleared but yes, Stare Street underwent a major reconstruction.
Sweet! Thanks for that. I mean, it hasn’t been keeping me up at night, but it’s such a random building I was curious.
“Polite and attentive young ladies” Will show every attention to visitors”
I usually pay $50 minimum for that