Department stores are an established retail format globally. The format has origins in France, the United Kingdom and United States, among many others.
Americas
Argentina In Buenos Aires, upscale department stores came during the early years of the 20th century. Gath & Chaves opened in 1905 and Harrods Buenos Aires was established in 1912. The Chilean department store Falabella was one of the most prominent in the country, with branches in Buenos Aires, Córdoba, San Juan, Mendoza, and Rosario. Falabella left the Argentinian market by closing all its stores in 2021, due to COVID-19 effects, the economic crisis and the country's poor business situation, leaving the country without any department stores.
Brazil Traditional department stores such as Mesbla and Mappin practically disappeared from Brazilian landscape in the 90s, with the upscale Daslu surviving until the late 2000s. Brazil's economic instability and the growing dominance of the internet in the retail market make it difficult for a wide variety of department stores to exist in the country, with only more consolidated chains such as Lojas Americanas, Magazine Luiza and Havan prevailing.
Canada
Historically, department stores were a significant component in Canadian economic life, and chain stores such as Eaton's,Joy L. Santink, Timothy Eaton and the rise of his department store (U of Toronto Press, 1990) Charles Ogilvy Limited, Freiman's, Spencer's, Simpsons, Morgan's, and Woodward's were staples in their respective communities. Department stores in Canada are similar in design and style to department stores in the United States.Abbott, A. C. (1974), "Canadian Retailing: Trends and Prospects", in V. Kirpalani and Ronald Rotenberg, ed. Cases and Readings in Marketing (Holt, Rinehart and Winston of Canada Ltd., pp. 185–192.) Before the 1950s, the department store held an eminent place in both Canada and Australia, during both the Great Depression and World War II. Since then, they have suffered from strong competition from specialist stores. Most recently the competition has intensified with the advent of larger-scale superstores (Jones et al. 1994; Merrilees and Miller 1997). Also, the changing structure of cities affected them.
From its origins in the fur trade, the Hudson's Bay Company is the oldest corporation in North America and was the largest department store operator in Canada until the mid-1980s, with locations across the country.David Monod, "Bay Days: The Managerial Revolutions and the Hudson's Bay Company Department Stores, 1912‑1939." Historical Papers/Communications historiques 21.1 (1986): 173–196. It also previously owned Zellers, another major Canadian department store which ceased to exist in March 2013 after selling its lease holdings to Target Canada. Other department stores in Canada are: Canadian Tire, Ogilvy, Les Ailes de la Mode, Giant Tiger, Co-op, Costco and Holt Renfrew. Grocery giant Superstores carry many non-grocery items akin to a department store. Woolco had 160 stores in Canada when operations ceased (Walmart bought out Woolco in 1994). Today the low-price Walmart is by far the most dominant department store retailer in Canada with outlets throughout the country.Kenneth G. Jones, and Michael J. Doucet, "The big box, the flagship, and beyond: impacts and trends in the Greater Toronto Area." The Canadian Geographer/Le Géographe canadien 45.4 (2001): 494–512. In northern or isolated communities The North West Company (named after the historical North West Company fur trade company) operates smaller department stores.
Chile Albeit relatively small, the domestic Chilean retail market has proved fiercely competitive with several department stores sprouting in Santiago and then expanding north and south of Santiago. Leading department stores today include Falabella, Ripley, Almacenes París and La Polar. Falabella, founded in 1889, has opened branches in Colombia, and Peru, with París – its main Chilean competitor – coming on its heels.
Colombia In Colombia, upscale department stores came in the mid-20th century when Sears entered the country. Today, the Chilean department store Falabella is one of the most prominent in the country, with branches in Barranquilla, Cali, Bogota, Medellin, Pereira and Bucaramanga. Falabella is one of the most popular stores in Colombia today.
Cuba
Large department stores lined Havana's Galiano and Reina streets, including La Época, El Encanto, Fin de Siglo (founded 1897), and Almacenes Ultra, and largely resembled their equivalents in large U.S. cities. In 1960-1, one to two years after Fidel Castro came to power, the Cuban state nationalized all of them without compensating their owners. Western goods were replaced by a far inferior selection of Soviet Bloc and domestic goods. The state rationed goods and imposed a new distribution system. Without investment, or even new paint, the buildings gradually deteriorated. Eventually, the stores came to display what essentially were displays of what to the Western eye appeared to be odds and ends of whatever was available, with for example, mismatched assortments of tools, bolts or screws next to bras or spools of cloth. La Época operates today as state-run retailers, while El Encanto which was destroyed by fire in 1961 then razed, while the state closed Fin de Siglo and Ultra in the 2020s.
Mexico Mexico has a mix of traditional department stores founded in the 19th century on the French model, plus chains that came from the U.S. in the early 20th century, plus – far greater in number – strong, ubiquitous local discount chains like Elektra and Coppel.
Traditional department stores Traditional department store chains include: El Palacio de Hierro opened in 1891, sells high-end and luxury goods; an earlier incarnation called Las Fábricas de Francia opened in 1850. Its flagship store in Polanco, Mexico City, which the company calls "El Palacio de los Palacios" ("The palace of all palaces"), is the largest department store in Latin America."El Palacio de Hierro strengthens Mexico City standing, revamps flagship", NPR; November 3, 2015 Liverpool (upper-middle income, with origins dating back to 1847), with its mid-range sister store Fábricas de Francia (no relation to the predecessor of El Palacio de Hierro). Grupo Carso operates Sears Mexico. (and used to operate Saks Fifth Avenue when it had 2 stores in Mexico, in Mexico City) Wal-Mart operates Suburbia, a mainline department store for lower-to-middle-income shoppers, and competes with Chedraui in the hypermarket/supermarkets segments with its Walmart, Bodega Aurrera, and Superama chains. Dorian's, now defunct was long the well-known department store of Tijuana and other northwestern cities Cimaco is a 7-store chain in northern Mexico, based in Torreón, Coahuila state
Discount and variety stores Coppel, small department stores catering to the lower-middle and middle market, the second-largest retailer in Mexico with over 1700 locations, about 1300 of which also provide services of a full BanCoppel bank branch, Elektra, part of Grupo Salinas, 1200+ stores, with an average store size of – and easy credit facilities for the working and lower middle classes. Elektra absorbed its rival Salinas y Rocha in the early 2020s. Sanborns, also part of Grupo Carso, owns over 100 compact, midrange stores that carry an unusual combination of goods: giftable items such as decorative sculptures, cosmetics and perfume, pharmacy, electronics, televisions, small appliances, bakery, liquor and wine, apparel, luggage, books and magazines. But the chain began as a restaurant, and a restaurant area is the heart of almost all Sanborns, sometimes with a bar attached. Suburbia (department store) a chain of apparel-focused junior department stores with 170+ locations across the country. Like Liverpool, owned by El Puerto de Liverpool group Waldo's, similar to a U.S. dollar store, operates over 700 stores in all 32 states. PesoRama, similar to Canadian dollar store chain Dollarama, operates 23 JOi Dollar Plus stores in Mexico Woolworth operates several dozen Woolworth and Del Sol branded variety stores in Central Mexico. Hypermarkets include Walmart Mexico and Central America, and those of the main supermarket chains (which often anchor neighborhood shopping centers, sometimes along with multiplex cinemas): Soriana, Chedraui, Comercial Mexicana, and in northwestern Mexico, Calimax. Membership-based superstores include Bodega Aurrerá, Sam's Club and Costco.
Conglomerates Grupo Carso and Walmart have a very strong mark in the country, and particularly in Mexico City. Foreign chains such as J. C. Penney had previously entered the Mexican market, but they failed to gain popularity. Sears likewise originally had little success after it opened its first department store in Mexico City in 1947, despite its current success.William Brown, "Mass Merchandising in Latin America: Sears, Roebuck & Co.," Journal of Marketing, (1948), 13#1 pp. 73–77.
Panama Panama's first department stores such as Bazaar Francés, La Dalia and La Villa de Paris started as textile retailers at the turn of the nineteenth century. In the twentieth century these eventually gave way to stores such as Felix B. Maduro, Sarah Panamá, Figali, Danté, Sears, Gran Morrison and smaller ones such as Bon Bini, Cocos, El Lider, Piccolo and Clubman. Of these, only Felix B. Maduro (usually referred to as Felix by locals) and Danté remain strong. All the others have either folded or declined although Cocos has managed to secure a good position in the market.
Today, other major department stores include Steven's and Collin's. There are also many discount department stores such as Conway, which includes a furniture and decoration department named Conway Design. Others include La Onda, Dorian's, Saks, Madison Store and El Titan.
Paraguay Monalisa (1972)https://www.monalisa.com.py/mediaServlet/institucional.html Monalisa (Nuestra historia) is a department store in Paraguay. It has a vast variety of luxury and high end brands, all in one department store. It has a wine cellar with over 100,000 wine bottles, with the majority from France, as well as wine from Spain and Italy.
Peru Peru started with department stores in the 19th century, with the arrival of Oechsle in 1888. Then came other stores like Sears in 1952, acquired by Chilean group Falabella in 1995, which converted them into Falabella stores, followed by Ripley in 1997 and Paris in 2013.
Currently, the largest department stores are Falabella, Oechsle, and Ripley. Paris department stores operated in Peru from 2013 until his exit in 2020, due to the COVID-19 effects.
Puerto Rico