This account of the New Zealand department store with its photographs will revive many memories, raise some smiles and remind us of the role of a cultural icon which was also a dominant player
in the urban economy. Helen Laurenson charts the historical pattern from the confident presence of the department stores in the 1920s, when expansion and consolidation marked their status as
major retailers in cities and provincial towns, to their rapid decline in the 1960s as shopping malls sprang up in the burgeoning suburbs. Her extensive research has uncovered many entertaining
stories and fascinating facts about stores like Kirkcaldie and Stains, Ballantynes, Farmers’ and George Court’s and she also includes much of interest about the layout of the stores, the people
who worked there, and the goods they sold.
