Selfridges

Eight-floor London department store in Oxford Street opened by Harry Gordon Selfridge on 15 March 1909. For the first time shopping became an all-round experience: under a single roof you could buy everything from the useful to the ephemeral, from bargains to luxury goods in a single open space that was not divided by partitions. Customers could leave their children in a playgroup, while they shopped and perhaps make use of the credit system. Today Selfridges, which has also opened a store in Manchester, offers an enormous choice of goods in four main fields — fashion, furnishings, beauty, and food — and also offers a personal shopping service. Vittorio Radice has been Chief Executive since 1996.
&Quad;Vittorio Radice noticeably developed the Food Hall to include a huge selection of first-rate wines and 17 restaurants, bars, and cafés. The department store is one of the founding sponsors of London’s new Tate Modern at Bankside.
&Quad;2002, September. The second Selfridges opened in Manchester.
&Quad;2003, May. The Canadian food magnate Galen Weston, who already owned the luxury supermarket Fortnum & Mason, wished to buy the Selfridges Group for around 900 million euros.