Volume 2
Spring 2009

Wanamaker's Department Store

Letter from the Editors
Annotated Bibliographies

 

From the Editors

This issue of The Journal of Culture and Retail Image is our small tribute to the historical John Wanamaker’s Department Store.  Students were asked to write annotative bibliographies on various aspects of the store in order to create a research bank of information for future scholars to use.  This is our “time capsule” so to speak.  While many more opportunities for future research on Wanamaker’s remain, we felt it was time to bring a few sources together. From Arianna Riccioni’s research on the wonderful Wanamaker’s Christmas Light Show, to Heather Stewart’s discussion on the importance of the Architecture of the Wanamaker building, these bibliographies will allow future researchers a place to begin their topics about this historical Philadelphia landmark.  We hope that you find as many wonderful points of discussion as we did when we examined Monet Grant’s Wanamaker’s Commercial Institute or Kristen Alekna’s look at Wanamaker’s marketing and advertising.


Also in this issue, we are pleased to bring you the work of the Design & Merchandising programs STAR scholars.  With the help of their advisor Anne C. Cecil, both Meaghan Lynch and Amanda Comunale have written some two papers that coincide with today’s hot topics in retail and fashion. Comunale’s paper takes us on a conceptual branding journal of why we buy the things we do, while Lynch’s research on consuming in a  “green manner” might have you questioning your own shopping values. We hope you enjoy this issue and we hope you look forward to the next journal that will be focusing on the phenomenon of experiential retailing. 

-- Joe Hancock and Ann Keith Kennedy