1976 THROWBACK: "BLOOMINGDALES"

Bloomingdale's Inc. is an American luxury department store chain; it was founded by Joseph B. and Lyman G. Bloomingdale in 1861. It became a division of the Cincinnati-based "Federated Department Stores" in 1930. In 1994 the Macy's department store chain joined the "Federated Department Stores" holding company. In 2007, "Federated Department Stores" was renamed Macy's, Inc. As of May 2, 2020, there are 54 stores (56 boxes), including 34 department stores (36 boxes, all full line), 1 furniture/other store and 19 outlet stores with the Bloomingdale's nameplate in operation throughout the United States. Its headquarters and flagship store are located at 59th Street and Lexington Avenue in the New York City borough of Manhattan.

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[@usofator]

RIP middle class. we're all poor now.

[@Gump-tion]

lol, Not laughing at you, just the way you worded your comment.

[@edwardr85]

Ain’t that the truth, who’s gonna make América great again????

[@fp5495]

It was 1976. The world was in a tizzy back then too. Watergate just ended and Carter was going to be the President before Reagan stepped in, applied his Reaganomics and THAT'S what killed the great American retailer.

[@comet3nb]

I hate being poor☹️

[@joenickell6323]

​@@fp5495You've got to be kidding

[@damayra37-ct6wu]

Love this store! Best place to work if you are a really hard worker. I've been more than 15 years working for them and i can't complaint the way they treat me. Always fear and the pay is awesome!

[@weekendhacker]

Oh the thrill to 'appear' to be someone you really aren't and parting with your hard earned for the privilege. The good old days.

[@heathertea2704]

Hope those DUMMIES woke up. 😄

[@davidmcfarlane9185]

Worked there in the early 2000s flagship store 59th and Lexington… Loved it !!!

[@Redytew]

Whenever my friend says he works at Bloomingdale’s at Roosevelt field mall people always side eye him. Is there something about Bloomingdale’s at Roosevelt field mall people should know about?

[@russellseilhamer4552]

The 70s had a great number of first gen college graduates, mostly white. This was the first generation of real prosperity for a great number of Americans, the term yuppie hadn’t been invented yet. I had no idea how cool Bloomingdales was. I was born in 1975. My parents worked in retail their entire lives. The consumer culture was not a baby anymore but had plenty of room to grow in the 70s.. The opening of a mall was an epic event and you couldn’t find a parking space on the weekends. People thumbed their nose up at KMart. Sears, Penney’s, and Bloomingdales dominated retail. Shopping back then was a social event, a common ground where people met, made friendships, hooked up. Shopping today is a lonely, detached experience; get in, get out and go home. Also, retail wasn’t everywhere back then. The pie was bigger and there was less competition. Then came fierce competition from Kmart, from Walmart, from TJMaxx and Ross. Everyone had to compete on price which made the Bloomingdales concept almost obsolete. The concept of best of everything and price be damned would end with the 80s

[@19SAVE69]

Think about what Amazon has done to stores/retail etc...

[@19SAVE69]

@bianca prince they are everywhere...

[@19SAVE69]

@bianca prince ur still shopping...lol

[@19SAVE69]

@bianca prince thank you...you made me watch this...

[@19SAVE69]

@bianca prince things will get better...they cant any worse...

[@TASconfidential]

Bloomingdale’s is the high end store that made shopping “hip”, “current”, and “fun”. During those times... the high end dept. stores were elegant, but stuffy.

[@miarobinson847]

Damn Bloomingdales been poppin

[@clockwork9825]

😂😂😂😂😂😂

[@TASconfidential]

I loved the era from the 80s through the 90s. Every store had their “niche” Bloomingdale’s was all about current & hip fashion. Nordstrom was all about shoes, Saks was elegant, Neiman Marcus was classy, Barney’s was cutting edge. They all had specialized brands only they sold, and they all had a different vibe.

[@fp5495]

The 90s? It was already over by then. There were so many department stores that closed by the late 80s that that niche was already gone by 1990. Not to mention, this segment was in the late 70s. The fact that people showed up for a black tie event at the newest Bloomies; it wasn't just a different level then, but the customers themselves were civil, intelligent people that were clients. Not that pigs that would have pushed through this door 1:04 wearing pajama bottoms and Crocks.

[@traceebrown442]

Thanks for the video! Brings back memories from my childhood & I'm still a customer.

[@arthurboehm]

The Bloomingdale's of this vid--gone, gone, gone! A mall store, now. Nothing you can get there now that you can't get in dozens of other stores. But few go there--thanks, Mr. Internet!

[@vernonnilesjr8752]

Holy shit queen Elizabeth came to hang out in bloomingdales didn't expect this😳😳😳😳

[@50Noreen]

My mother took me shopping there in the 50's and in the 60s and 70's I brought home lots of yellow shopping bags. Alas, on recent trips I found that all is not the same as are many things in NYC.

[@Autostade67]

"Bloomies' was sooo clever in the 70s - tying in their 'Gatsby' line (based on the designs of Ralph Lauren and Theoni Aldredge for the 1974 Redfor mega-pic) and shrewdly observant of the kind of success Biba was having in London with the then called 'revivialist' trend (what we would now call 'retro') for 1920s and 30s styles. And those damn brown bags that just said 'bag' in that lower case font - brilliantly chic.

[@afab777]

How times have change... Change is the only constant.

[@PajamasandMore]

Wow this is so cool. I love department stores and their history and the 70s as well. I wonder if that store in DC is still open. Thank you for posting.

[@StarksTheKing]

If they could see the price of sneakers (retail and resale) now. 🥴

[@emd1943]

Get hip to the trip

[@cindymaceda2999]

😂 So dated.😂

[@jamesmonroe7903]

Almost 45 years later-this store is STILL going strong long after most of its NYC competition went to the big shopping street in the sky! The GREAT survivor!!!

[@retroguy1976]

its a huge list too

[@jamesmonroe7903]

@@retroguy1976 Yes indeed-and it now sadly includes three NYC institutions-Barneys New York,Henri Bendel and saddest of all-the iconic Lord & Taylor!!!🏬🥲🏬🥲🏬🥲

[@cindymaceda2999]

⁠@@jamesmonroe7903 Whenever I was in NY every year, I would visit all these stores, which I called The Bs : Bloomies, Bergdorfs, Bendels, Barneys, and also Saks Fifth, Lord & Taylor. Like going to the Met or the MOMA.😊

[@jamesmonroe7903]

@@cindymaceda2999 Shopper’s paradise back in the day-too bad only three of those six retail gems 💎 are still around-they are ALL The Great Survivors!!! May they live on!!!🙏🙏🙏They are New York institutions!!!

[@KA-rp5uh]

“Rolling down the river..,”

[@luvitaq8284]

Them days are long gone 😄

[@tonyvargas368]

Blair Sabol I lived in Los Angeles and don’t like Bloomingdale’s. She can have it. I grew up in Los Angeles and I’ve been to Bloomingdale’s. While the clientele seems eclectic and upwardly mobile, the offerings were unimpressive when compared to Bullocks Wilshire or I Magnin. I wonder if Blair ever stepped foot in BW on Wilshire Blvd. Shopping there was an experience unmatched by anything else. The store was elegant in all its Art Deco finery and lunch in that tea room was an event. I Magnin was certainly no slouch either. It was revered for its elegant offerings and gracious service. Sadly, Robert Campeau and subsequently Federated Dept Stores destroyed two of the most revered west coast department stores. To this day, when I need to shop in person, my first choice is always Nordstrom or Dillard’s and then Macy’s but absolutely never is it Bloomingdale’s.

[@jliscorpio]

I too preferred Bullock's/Bullocks Wilshire & I. Magnin.

[@johnsain]

Both now defunct....Bloomy's still there....

[@TASconfidential]

Oh, Bloomingdale’s could never compare to I.Magnin. I would only compare very few stores to I. Magnin: 1.) Bergdorf Goodman (NYC) 2.) Garfinckels (Washington DC, which went out of business in 1990) Bloomingdale’s was more along the lines of a Nordstrom.

[@JOSHUASUTTON100]

I love that the upper east side was “upper middle class” in the 70s

[@johnsain]

Not any more?

[@kaspar_1982]

we were upper middle class on the upper west side. 3 bedroom apartment at 20w 64th st. Club with swimming pool on the roof. private school for 2 kids, a summer rental house on the beach in westhampton. my father was middle management at a top international corporation and made 60 thousand per year, mother worked for the history museum part time for far less. so less than 100 grand then and in today's money 500 thousand. i don't see a family of 4 with this lifestyle today. a single person yes, but NYC and our old building has become the place of single high earners without children, a life of the living dead. @@johnsain

[@lawriefoster5587]

John Wanamaker's was the same for Philadelphians. From the Tribout and Rittenhouse shops on Three, the Crystal Tearoom on Nine, Custom Men's Redleaf shoes on one, it was a marvelous store..the best. And I have been to most...from Bonwits, Altmans, Harrods and Galerie Lafayette.

[@Rainbow_in_the_dark75]

You had to be a high roller to be able to shop at Bloomingdale's and still do. You have to be making at least a 150 grand a year or more to shop there on a often basis

[@TASconfidential]

Bloomingdale’s has good sales tho.

[@crabstick250]

Bloomies has always been a status symbol...I worked a few blocks away. To be honest, I could never afford any of the clothes. I love this clip, the clothes and hair...ahhh I love the 70s, my misspent youth (that didn't include Bloomies 😉)

[@crabstick250]

Also it's not upper east side. It's midtown lol. However, this was the 70s, so that "hip" and "wealthy- appearing" was prob more apparent.

[@alfredbonnabel7022]

I sold the pet rock 🪨 at the NYC store the Christmas 🎄 of 1975...

[@19SAVE69]

I really don't know how you do it...but keep it coming your the best @ getting this stuff...can you do something about the good old days...like the beginning of Atlantic city...thanx

[@Sirfev2010]

masonic checkerboards ha

[@annaizrailova6261]

Oooo! Where we are now?

[@Autostade67]

To add to my comment below, Blooomies was something of a metaphor for the mid- to late 70s: the canny shift to luxury and almost luxury shopping fulfilled the aspirational and acquisitional drives of 'late stage capital that were to become a common zeitgeist in North America within the 3 to 5 years after this 60 Minutes story; the failure of the left to alter the social contract in the late 60s mingled with the collapse of American economic preeminence and military industrial assurety (The Oil crisis, the birth of the Japanese 'Bubble', etc.) on the right led to a deeply cynical and partially nihilistic mindset...and how does such a mindset exhibit itself? Not simply through conspicuous consumption, but through a particular kind which mixes radical chic (that jumpsuit, that sneaker bed) with rampant individualism (Look at me! Look what I can buy!) and the jettisoning of 'class' (ie; one doesn't have to act with noblesse oblige, one merely needs to dress like noblesse) for the sake of appearing over being. We are the monstrous children of this period (And before you jump on me, I LOVED the 70s, and love them...my whole amateur career is to try to understand them...when all you've got is K-mart in 1977, it stands to reason you are going to spend the rest of your life trying to get to the Oz of Bloomies, etc.)

[@crabstick250]

Blast from the past.

[@paulnelson7525]

Online shopping happened and the rest is history.

[@nspector]

Well, Bloomingdale's is still there

[@joenickell6323]

All White All Right

[@mesogeia3403]

Madam CJ Walker visited the Tiffany showroom on 5th Avenue in 1917, I don’t see why wealthy blacks in the 1980s wouldn’t have shopped at Bloomies

[@Bigreid92]

Wealthy Blacks especially in the 1980’s shopped at Bloomingdale’s, Saks Fifth Avenue and Lord & Taylor

[@TASconfidential]

@@Bigreid92 truth!!! Middle class and wealthy blacks love to shop. The black women in my family were affluent and couldn’t stay out of Bloomingdale’s, Nordstrom, Saks, Neiman Marcus, etc.

[@pistolpete8231]

Was this an all-white membership store?

[@areyoujelton]

This was.

[@DaveSCameron]

But of course yes, other than the black percentage we all clearly saw here that is...

If you had the cash or credit you could become a member.

[@russellseilhamer4552]

I didn’t know it was a membership thing like Sams club. Fashion back then didn’t cater to black folks at all or take into account the cultural differences between black and white people at all. It was still rare in 1976 to have a black man on the cover of an album even if it was his album! It wouldn’t even occur to a Bloomingdales in 1976 to even do a marketing campaign tailored to black folks, like they were invisible or they were just going to take interest in something because the white people did and that was a false assumption

[@djquinn11]

You mean All Jewish

[@babyrosepedal]

Cut it out