De Bijenkorf
 |
|
| Department store | |
| Industry | Retail |
| Founded | 1870 |
| Headquarters | Amsterdam |
| Products | Clothing, footwear, bedding, furniture, jewelry, beauty products, house wares |
| Website | www |
De Bijenkorf (literally, "the beehive") is a chain of high-end department stores in the Netherlands with its flagship store on Dam Square, Amsterdam. It was founded by Simon Philip Goudsmit (1845–1889).
De Bijenkorf is owned by the Weston family that also owns Britain's Selfridges, Canada's Holt Renfrew and Ireland's Brown Thomas.
De Bijenkorf was founded in 1870 by Simon Philip Goudsmit (1845-1889), starting as a small haberdashery shop at 132 Nieuwendijk, one of Amsterdam's oldest streets. Initially limited to yarn and ribbons and employing a staff of four, the stock expanded gradually. After the death of Goudsmit in 1889, Goudsmit's widow expanded the business with the help of a cousin, Arthur Isaac, and her son Alfred, eventually buying adjacent buildings. In 1909, these connecting shops were replaced by a new building.
That same year, a temporary building was erected on the site of the demolished Beurs van Zocher, and construction of a new store started beside it.
In 1926, a second store was constructed in The Hague. It was designed by architect Piet Kramer and stands as an example of Amsterdam School architecture.
A third store opened in Rotterdam in 1930, designed by Willem Dudok. Some 700,000 people attended the ceremony. The store was heavily damaged in the Rotterdam Blitz of 1940. The intact part of the store remained open for business until 1957, but was cleared in 1960 to build the Rotterdam Metro. A new store was designed by Hungarian-American architect Marcel Breuer (1902–1981).
...
Wikipedia