1. a large retail store carrying a wide variety of merchandise and organized into various departments for sales and administrative purposes.
Examples from the web for department store
- After four decades of decline, the department store has again become a destination for shoppers.
- department store managers direct and coordinate the activities in these stores.
- He worked as a department store clerk, and started his own small business manufacturing jewelry cases.
- Cosmetic companies provide prizes which are given at random to department store employees.
- The department store handles stocking of shelves and all aspects of the sale.
- The department store makes a charge to the paint supplier based on the space required to maintain the inventory.
British Dictionary definitions for department store
noun 1. a large shop divided into departments selling a great many kinds of goods
Word Origin and History for department store
n. 1878; a store that sells a variety of items, organized by department.
The "Department Store" is the outgrowth of the cheap counter business originated by Butler Brothers in Boston about ten years ago. The little "Five Cent Counter" then became a cornerstone from which the largest of all the world's branches of merchandising was to be reared. It was the "Cheap Counter" which proved to the progressive merchant his ability to sell all lines of wares under one roof. It was the Five Cent Counter "epidemic" of '77 and '78 which rushed like a mighty whirlwind from the Atlantic to the Pacific and all along its path transformed old time one line storekeepers into the wide-awake merchant princes of the present day. It was this same epidemic which made possible the world famed Department Stores of Houghton, of Boston; Macy, of New York; Wanamaker, of Philadelphia; and Lehman, of Chicago. ["American Storekeeper," 1885]