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William Filene established his first Boston
retail store in 1851. The family owned business prospered for many years,
and eventually became Filene's Department Store. Filene's Basement, the
discount outlet, was originally established in the basement of Filene's
downtown store in 1908. Filene's Basement is today an independent retail
chain, and the Filene's Department Store chain was absorbed into Macy's.
Filene's Basement can be considered the first modern off-price discount store
in history. The original purpose of the basement store was to sell
excess merchandise from the large Filene's Department Store above. The concept was so successful that manufacturers and other
retailers began to sell merchandise directly to the basement store. Filene's Basement
had also later developed the revolutionary Automatic Mark
Down System, where items were marked down in increments after
specific periods of time.
About the same time, F.W. Woolworth pioneered the Five and Ten Cent Store. Five and Dimes sold general merchandise that was displayed in accessible
bins throughout the store, as opposed to being on shelves behind a counter until then.
The new Filene's building (1912) had direct subway access to Summer Street
Station (now called Downtown Crossing Station). The original advertisements
called the store the Tunnel Bargain Basement. The photo above
shows an old display window in the subway in 1913. The photo below shows the
426 Washington Street building today, which is still the home of the original
Filene's Basement store.
426 Washington Street Building
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