8. The advent of tea rooms in department stores
In the civilized shops run by local merchants prior to the advent of the major department stores, it was common for shopkeepers to offer their customers tea or other refreshments, should it be an appropriate time of day to do so. It was a courtesy offered to customers to alleviate the tedium of their wait as orders were filled, or preceding customers were waited upon. As department stores grew in size and cast avaricious eyes upon their competitor’s customers, the idea of offering refreshments was expanded upon. It was also considered that offering food and drink to customers increased the chances that they would remain within the confines of the store, rather than straying into the street and through the doors of competitors. Tea Rooms and restaurants became important features of department stores, and in many cases a destination of their own.
The Detroit department store Hudson’s offers a case in point. When Hudson’s was at the apex of its fortunes more than 12,000 employees labored for the company, serving over 100,000 customers. The third largest telephone switchboard in the world was operated by the store, exceeded in size only by that of the Bell Telephone System and the Pentagon. Its tea rooms occupied an entire floor of its 25-story downtown Detroit flagship store. Today Duncan Hines is known as a brand name for cake mixes, but in the 1940s a food critic of that name plied his trade, and he wrote of Hudson’s tea rooms, “The food is at all times very tempting” and commented further on the “quiet elegance which adds so much to the pleasure of dining”. In some smaller Midwestern cities, the best restaurant in town was often considered to be in the local department store, where diners would often stop before or after a meal to peruse the latest fashions.