Interpreting H. Pastermadjian’s The Department Store

Rethinking innovation in and the function of department stores

Abstract

Rather than innovations in sales methods and high turnover of products and capital, Pastermadjian’s The Department Store focuses on optimization in adapting to complex product series and market changes, and the function of coordinating sales personnel to adapt to these ebbs and flows of business activity. By combining these two retail operational functions and an “integrated management function,” this study proposes that The Department Store innovation is the first in the retail sector to create this function.