La Samaritaine Department Store, Paris

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La Samaritaine, Paris

 

The La Samaritaine was a department store in Paris. It closed down in 2005 for renovation and security reasons. It can be found in the city’s First Arrondissement, and the metro station nearest to it is Pont-Neuf. Ernest Cognacq and his wife Marie Louise Jay opened La Samaritaine in 1869. Ironically, Marie Louise Jay was the first to sell clothing at Le Bon Marche, which was a competing department store.

Cognacq started establishing his trade with the opening of a small boutique on the Rue de la Monnaie. The husband and wife team decided to expand operations by 1900 by putting up the Grands Magasins de La Samaritaine.

Cognacq sought inspiration from the commercial techniques of Le Bon Marche and Aristide Boucicaut. From them, he learned how to organize and manage the ideal department store. La Samaritaine was so designed by Cognacq such that it became an assembly of individually owned shops. Each of the stores are managed by their respective “petits patrons” who operated autonomously, but in accord with one another.

As time passed, Cognacq expanded his enterprise by acquiring the neighboring buildings. Soon, his property was too big to be considered a “boutique”. He commissioned architects such as Frantz

Jourdain and Henri Sauvage to design the eleven-storey building, which is now regarded as a historical monument in Paris.