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152 stories matching retail
- The Seattle Produce Squeeze of 1892
Farmers accuse local retailers and wholesalers of a price-fixing boycott that left growers fighting for scraps.
- Seattle's Meat Market Price War
Local retailers and jobbers are locked in a cutthroat battle over meat prices that threatens to drive shops out of business.
- Tacoma Merchants Declare War on 'Dead Beats'
Fed up with unpaid tabs, Tacoma retailers organize a boycott committee and a $20 fine system to discipline customers who buy on credit.
- The Price of Heat: Challenging the Seattle Coal Monopoly
An editorial analysis exposes how a concentration of control in the coal industry is gouging Seattle residents while stifling competition.
- The City's Sudden Morality Raid Targeted the Wrong Women
A Yakima letter-writer asks why licensed saloons kept their protection while women were fined $5 a month in police court.
- Who Really Sets the Price of Meat? A Puget Sound Monopoly Under the Knife
A Tacoma investigation finds that one middleman firm and a handful of Eastern Washington cattle kings hold the whole Sound's beef and mutton trade — and the dealers admit they are all getting rich while customers pay.
- The Public Caught in the Meat Strike's Crossfire
As packinghouse workers and beef trusts battle for profit and wages, the Tacoma Times laments the rising cost of living for everyday families.
- Seattle’s ‘Palace of Trade’: 10,000 Crowd the Rialto’s Opening Night
A Boston-backed department store at Second and Madison threw open four floors of retail spectacle, declaring Seattle had arrived on the Pacific Coast.
- The Mayor's Battle Against the Saloon
Mayor J. T. Ronald vetoes a retail liquor license, charging the council with 'gerrymandering' and favoring special interests over the well-being of residential neighborhoods and schools.
- Seattle's Building Boom Hits the Streets
High rents and a rapidly growing population drive a citywide rush to build one-story retail stores.
- Seattle’s Liquor Dealers Form Defense Association
Saloon keepers across Washington state organize to fight prohibition and regulatory pressure.
- Tragedy at the Star Clothing House
A lonely tradesman takes his own life in a downtown Seattle retail shop, leaving behind a note of despair and a request to reach out to his estranged wife.
- Fifty Shingle Men March Up the Hill—and Back Down Again
Seattle's shingle manufacturers spend a full day fixing prices, then panic and rescind the whole scheme in the final five minutes.
- The $2,000 Apple Lesson: A Walk Down Seattle's Produce Row
A farm columnist tours Seattle's commission houses on Western Avenue, where a single packing mistake cost one grower a season's profit — and offers a cautionary tale for every farmer shipping to the city.
- The Great Butter Fraud: Seattle’s First Taste of Food Safety
A local grocer is fined for selling imitation butter, while city inspectors uncover a wave of adulterated vinegar and baking powder in retail stores.
- The 'Habitual Drunkard' List
A proposed law would have forced Seattle barkeepers to publicly post a list of 'habitual drunkards' in their establishments, effectively blacklisting them from purchasing alcohol.
- The Great Seattle Retail War of 1886
As Seattle merchants faced an economic downturn, a fierce 'price war' erupted between downtown clothiers, with competing shops slashing prices and using aggressive marketing to survive the season.
- The Meat Cartel and the Working Man’s Supper
When local butchers formed a monopoly to inflate the price of beef, Seattle’s working class turned to fish and bacon—and the local press took notice.
- The Rising Cost of Living and the Local Monopoly
A representative of a regional retail chain faces local anger over accusations of price-gouging and lack of competition in White Bluffs.
- Retail Clerks Demand 6:00 PM Closing Time
Unionized clerks in Everett are threatening action against merchants who refuse to close their stores by 6:00 PM on weekdays.
- Counterfeit Yakima Potatoes on the Sound
A Tacoma paint dealer tells the valley's paper that Puget Sound merchants were passing off second-grade Western Washington spuds as Yakima's prized crop — and that in a full year he got the genuine article only three times.
- Rising from the Ashes: A Retail Giant’s Rebirth
After the Great Seattle Fire destroyed their store, Toklas, Singerman Co. pledges to build a new retail empire in a city still cleaning up the soot.
- After the Great Fire: A Retail Giant Rises from the Ashes
How Seattle merchant Toklas, Singerman & Co. leveraged the trauma of the Great Seattle Fire of 1889 to expand and dominate the regional market.
- A Family Feud Closes the Shop
A retail liquor dealer in Toledo, Washington, finds himself locked out of his own business after a bitter domestic and business dispute.
- The Labor Council Tackles Wage Rumors
Everett labor leaders confront local management over alleged wage cuts at a downtown retail store.
Also about this, in other words
- The Department Store Revolution in Pioneer Square
Before the mall, there was the 'mercantile establishment'—a 19th-century retail behemoth that promised the modern consumer everything from tailor-made suits to beaded capes under a single Seattle roof.
- The Great Retail Panic of 1900
Facing a glut of inventory and the pressure of a 'flood-tide' of retail competition, a major Seattle department store launched a desperate, city-wide clearance event to move stock.
- The Price of a Pioneer Wardrobe
A look at the retail landscape in 1886 Seattle, where department stores were the primary civic meeting grounds and symbols of progress.
- The Price of Survival: The Rise of the Cash-Only Store
In an era of credit-heavy frontier commerce, a Snohomish general store forces a shift to a 'cash-only' economy.
- The Retail Empire of Front Street
How Toklas, Singerman & Co. transformed a Seattle storefront into a massive, booming mercantile powerhouse at the dawn of 1891.
- The End of an Institution
Seattle's iconic Arcade dry goods store closes its doors, marking the end of a remarkable partnership.
- The End of the Ledger: Coulee City Merchants Go 'Cash Only'
Local business owners announce a shift away from credit-based commerce to lower prices and eliminate accounting headaches.
- The Price of a Business Failure
A telegram from creditors forces a frantic, 'regardless of cost' liquidation sale of R. Simon's men's clothing store in downtown Seattle.