1940s and they had paid vacation, disability pay, on-site medical and dental care, continuing education, hot meals ... pretty nice for retail sales employees.

I worked in Gimbels 33rd st NYC one Christmas period in late '60s...selling in mens shirt area...was great fun...a happy time....

Never see these days again

my friend Valerie Hawkins Godmother worked at Gimbels for 40 years....she retired in the early 80's.....she worked at the Gimbel's on 8th&9th Market Street in Philadelphia...Her name was Miss Margie Taylor.......she passed at the age of 92.....RIP Miss Margie!!!!!

I shopped at gimbals with my mom when I was a kid in the early 70 s it was so clean so nice! I can't believe it's gone

"Earning a livelihood." A livelihood. *Livelihood.* I can't make a livelihood these days working from retail. If I could, I'd be a lot happier working.

When you bought an item back in this time you bought quality. Now... quality is lost and replaced with quantity. Sad I love watching videos of the 30s and 40s. Thank you for sharing this video. 💖

Aaaahhh, the days before the "retail apocalypse" of late 2000s.

R.I.P. Grandmom they will never forget you and when you dressed every Christmas, Easter! So on! H. Winters Love you

Always loved that you could clearly see the 'Gimbel' on the roof of the store from the observation deck on the Empire State Building, barring that there wasn't thick fog lol. I have a pic of it that I took with my little Brownie camera in the early 60's.

Wonderful! I had no idea Saks was once a sister store to Gimbel's. So interesting! Thank-you for posting!!!

Thank you for showing this elegant shopping experience. I'm so jealous. Target has improved products but over half the employees are dressed so shabbily probably because they aren't treated well or don't get paid enough in wages and benefits.

This is amazing....Says a lot about the Store, the Family, and American Culture during one of its' most respected eras....Sad to see how far we have fallen.

One of the Gimbel heirs built a country home in my town. Our homes were built on the old estate back in the 70's. Beautiful old stone mansion Far View.

Thank you for posting this video. Grew up in Pittsburgh in the 60’s and 70’s. My mother worked across the street from Gimbels in the Oliver Building on 6th and Smithfield. Saks was on the 6th floor in Gimbels. Brass elevators.... miss those good old days 🙏🏼💔🙁

An old dear friend of mine always said that you could carve out a future in retail then and it led to many of their opportunities. She met the salesman for Marbro Lamps and her future began in 1947...They moved to Los Angeles and worked with Saks,k I. Magnin, Bullocks, and The May Company selling them beautiful lamps for home decor. Then they moved to Dallas and began an art gallery. What a story!

I didn't know there were this many Gimbel's stores, nor that Saks was part of the same company. The era when freestanding department stores of such size - one of these is 14 stories tall - dominated urban retailing is now gone.

Thank you for sharing. I loved it back when working in retail was a great job to have

Say no to the WALMART monopoly and those ridicules blue smocks and bring back the good old day stores!

What a lovely legacy of Adam Gimbel. And to know they weren't an "also ran" to Macy's, like in the Miracle on 34th Street movies. I see that Ellis A Gimbel was portrayed in those movies. And to know their underlying philosophy was from the Bible. Wonderful legacy. And to know that it continues to this day. And Saks Fifth Avenue continues to this day. They were more than an retail institution. To know they had daycare, and a radio station and a bank. What a great place it must have been back in the day.

Produced in 1944. Note the "War Bonds" signs in front of every Gimbel's store, and the "event notices" at 10:29.

Before computers it was required for people to be educated ,today's problems come from children growing up whit out a father or a mother and the violence on video games and movies and disrespect for authorities and the hate we see in the news media .

what a great place it was to work !!

I remember going to Gimbels in NY for years. Then I went to college in Milwaukee and was thrilled to find a Gimbels there!!! In NY, it was Gimbels and Macy*s....

Those who love this Nation are true Americans. Not Globalism but Nationalism!!!

The store in Milwaukee is still there. Among other things it's now a Planet Fitness and a Residence Inn. I like it, it's a nice building; Milwaukee has a lot of those still around, thankfully.

this is great..thank you for sharing

Such a great country we once were.

Wayne ovila I absolutely agree these his ty oth films on the great departments store form my childhood. Only focus on what was bough sold and lost not really the truth of it. Walmart I have heard said took their time growing and expanding slowly and that that was what started in art downfall expanding quickly. I GREW UP BBN IN A GARMENT FACTORY AND I SAW THE REAL TEUTH OF IT. wWalmart would build a store I. A town that had other stores and they would slash their prices below all the others no matter how low they had to go. This would in effect in a matter of months take the others stores devoted customers. And force them one by one to close and then walmart would be the only one left standing besides the dollar senerals and grocery store them walmart would slowly raise their prices to make the customers not notice. The layout of discount racks and such gives the illusion of items staying cheaper. By the time customers realize the prices arent as cheap as they believed there is no other store close to shop at so walmart has them stuck

This is awesome thanks for this :-)

Thank you for this excellent footage. Unfortunately American mercantilism has deteriorated since the days of Gimbel's. Big box stores like Target and Walmart are like shopping in a third world ghetto. Employees don't know product, and are barely literate or interested in helping the customer. People dress like slobs, and have lost the arts of courtesy and manners. I mourn for this country, and how so much has been lost due to avarice and greed. I would have preferred to live during this time when things were fair

I remember when Gimbels closed down on Long Island

Your logo is rather large and kind of takes up a bit too much space in the upper left hand corner, distracting, but love the video. :)

awesome

I don't have any opinion other than what a shame, we still need it. The bridge between the buildings. I crossed it once as a messenger.

I live here in Vincennes and the original store burned down a few years back. It's now planned to be a park called Gimbel Corner

Anyone know what the Gimbles 100 club was?

What happened to Gimbels...Lord& Taylor....B.Altmans.....J.Kleins?

"Back to gimbels basement"

saaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay, i need a name for a department store annnnnnnd, gimbels is a great name

I wish it was still open. Too bad you have all that stuff on the screen, would be better without it.

Wow the whole QC department to check product, you will never see that again.

Bring that backs

I worked at Gimbels in the 1960s

Whos here after watching ELF

White Flowers/Red Flowers on management employees.

These stores survive only when wage earners can afford them… as wages declined… the foot print of these stores declined.

I had identified it as a philly store.. we have a Saks Fifth Avenue in Boston to this day but I did not realize the association..FDR &Wilson SUCKED.. who came up with the parade idea first?

Your "My Footage" tag is too solid and distracting. I like your content, but that's annoying and kept me from subscribing.

Executive Training Program.

Gimbels went out of business in 1987.

Wait? I thought Gimbels was made up for Elf movie

How wonderful...opening up with a scripture verse ! We certainly were a Christian nation !

And now it looks like Macy’s is on its way out, closing stores and death of the Mall anchor store concept. Malls, Walmart and now Amazon struck the final blow to department stores. Good bye Macy’s Parade, a part of America will die with these closings...only to be seen in these historical archive films, thank God!

Wanamakers rules.

Your footprint on this film makes it unwatchable!

why do these treat us like little children???and quote from the book burners book?