Early history In 1838,
Au Bon Marché was founded in Paris by the brothers Paul and Justin Videau to sell
lace, ribbons, sheets,
mattresses,
buttons,
umbrellas and other assorted goods. The store originally had four departments, twelve employees and a floor space of . Entrepreneur
Aristide Boucicaut became a partner of the store in 1852, and changed the
marketing plan, introducing fixed prices and guarantees that allowed exchanges and refunds, the store also now offered a wider variety of merchandise. The use of fixed prices replaced the
haggling system which was then commonly used in dry goods stores. With Boucicaut's changes the annual income of the store increased from 500,000 francs in 1852 to five million francs in 1860. The store was expanded again in 1872 with the help of the engineering firm of
Gustave Eiffel, creator of the
Eiffel Tower. Boucicaut had become famous for marketing innovations, including a reading room where husbands could wait whilst their wives shopped. Boucicaut relied on extensive newspaper advertising, provided entertainment for children and six million catalogs were sent to customers. By 1880 half the employees of the store were women. Unmarried women employees lived in dormitories on the upper floors. In the 1920s, Louis-Hippolyte Boileau grandson of the architect Louis-Auguste Boileau who had designed the store in the 1870s worked on an extension of the store. On 31 August 1959, a branch store was opened in
Caen. This store was later closed in 1989 and sold to
Printemps. In 1974, the branch store in
Metz was sold to
Printemps.
Under LVMH In 1984,
Bernard Arnault purchased Bon Marché and in 1987 the company became a founding member of Arnault's group
LVMH. ==Operations==