De Bijenkorf

De Bijenkorf (literally, "the beehive" ) is a chain of high-end department stores in the Netherlands, with its flagship store on Dam Square in Amsterdam. The chain is owned by Selfridges Group, owner also of Britain's Selfridges and Ireland's Brown Thomas and Arnotts.

It has been a member of the International Association of Department Stores from 1929 to 2012, with various CEOs acting as presidents of the Association over time.

History
De Bijenkorf was founded in 1870 by Simon Philip Goudsmit (1845-1889), starting as a small haberdashery shop at 132 Nieuwendijk, one of Amsterdam's oldest streets and to this day a main shopping street. Initially limited to yarn and ribbons, and employing a staff of four, the stock expanded gradually. After the death of Goudsmit in 1889, Goudsmit's widow expanded the business with the help of a cousin, Arthur Isaac, and her son Alfred, eventually buying adjacent buildings.

In 1909, these connecting shops were replaced by a new building. That same year, a temporary building was erected on the site of the demolished Beurs van Zocher, and construction of a new store started beside it.



In 1926, a second store was built in The Hague, designed by Piet Kramer, a notable example of Amsterdam School architecture.

A third store opened in Rotterdam in 1930, designed by renowned architect Willem Dudok. Some 700,000 people attended the opening festivities.

Toll of German occupation
The Rotterdam store was heavily damaged in the German bombing of Rotterdam of 1940 after Nazi Germany invaded (and preceded the occupation of the country 1940-1945), which resulted in the near-total destruction of the city's historic centre. The intact part of the store remained open for business until 1957, but was cleared in 1960 to build the Rotterdam Metro. A new store was designed by Hungarian-American architect Marcel Breuer (1902–1981).

After the invasion, the authorities confiscated the shares of the Jewish owners and German company Riensch & Held took them over. In November 1943, German businessman Herbert Tengelmann was placed on the Board as Wehrwirtschaftsführer. Of the 5000 employees in May 1940 around 1000 were of Jewish origin and of those 737 were murdered by the Nazis. The owners Isaac hid and Alfred Goudsmit escaped to the United States. The Jewish Dutch owners were able to reclaim their property after the liberation of 1945.

Stores
As of 2014, De Bijenkorf has 7 stores nationwide. The oldest and largest branches, situated in Amsterdam, The Hague and Rotterdam, have retail space ranging between 15,000 and 21,000 square meters. Smaller stores (7,500-10,000 m2 of retail space) can be found in Amstelveen, Eindhoven, Utrecht and Maastricht.

Branches in Arnhem, Groningen, Enschede, Breda and Den Bosch closed in late 2014/early 2015 as the parent group decided to focus up-market and online due to the new premium service strategy. The Arnhem building was taken over by Primark, a move seen by many Arnhemers as drastically reducing the attractiveness of Arnhem as a shopping centre.

Bijenkorf Wonen was a store format that carried home furnishings such as bath and bed linens, housewares, kitchen appliances, dishware, glassware, decorative accessories, et al.