Madrid-París Department Store 1920-1935
Authors: Díez García Rubén 
Published: June 2024

The official constitution date of Sociedad Madrid-París was January 14, 1920. This company was created with the aim of starting up and managing a department store in the capital of Spain, following the model of other existing store chains already working and established in prominent cities throughout Europe and the United States at that time. The most illustrative example of this kind of business can be found in the magasins introduced by the French shopkeeper Aristide Boucicaut in 1852. The son of a modest milliner who had settled in Paris, he co-founded Le Bon Marché store. His vision of the business and new ideas soon led him to become head of the establishment. It was then that he began to put into practice the basic principles that would be used by all department stores in the future, and which numerous shopkeepers of the belle époque would later imitate. Not only in France but in urban developments during the processes of economic modernization of the main Western countries since the mid-XIX century.The French connection was an important boost for Madrid-Paris Society. Executives from Société Paris-France offered to Madrid-Paris businessmen his support and funding from the beginning, thanks to their experience as managers of one of the most important department store chains located in the neighboring country, Les Dames de France.Three years before, on January 4, 1924, opened its doors Madrid-París Department Store, representing the style of the grands magasins in the Iberian country. The opening was announced almost daily in the press during the final days of December 1923 and right up until the inaugural day. Indeed, advertising and promotion expenses fell between 40,000 and 60,000 pesetas. The King and Queen, Alfonso XIII, and Victoria Eugenia were invited, along with other representatives in the local political and economic spheres. Also in attendance were the executives of Madrid-Paris and Paris-France companies. A sumptuous gathering was organized, with lunch included. The press was likewise present to document such a magnificent event: “Crowning the building is an enormous dome, the finest in the world, measuring 30 meters in diameter. Once inside the "Madrid-París" Department Store, the visitor will be amazed by the magnificent sight of the round foyer and the surrounding departments, each displaying a wide variety of goods. A beautiful staircase spirals upwards from this gigantic foyer to the galleries on the first floor, and from there, other stairways lead up to the floors above” (El Sol newspaper, 1924). Although, Madrid-Paris closed its doors during the turbulent years of 1934-1935, more than ninety years later, another department store opened in the same building, -after a cruel Civil War, a long dictatorship, and an accelerated modernization process in the country. On this occasion, it was an Irish company and leading low-cost clothing retailer, Primark, who came back to live the luxury and magnificence of Madrid-Paris on October 15, 2015. Inspiring his business in downtown Madrid and inducing desire and consumption with classical symbolic resources of the epoch of his predecessor and ornamental architectural elements of the founding department stores, a well-established trend among some new department stores built and started up in recent times.