Kaufmann's Department Store (Images of America)

For those who lived in the area or visited in Pittsburgh, Kaufmann's was a favorite shopping venue. Quality merchandise, great value, interesting promotions and events, community activities, helpful sales associates--Kaufmann's was part of the fabric of the city. This book helps recapture the essence of that venerable department store. Through both vintage and more recent pictures, Melanie Linn Gutkowski invokes happy memories and illustrates a shopping experience that will never be enjoyed again. The arrogant executives at macy*s destroyed so many beloved local institutions and replaced them with a nondescript, bland, coast to coast cookie cutter imitation of JCPenney and Kohl's. Hundreds of stores were closed and thousands of loyal employees dismissed because of the misguided misguided blunder to convert everything to macy*s. There are numerous department store history books available on amazon.com; evidently shoppers supported and preferred Kaufmann's, Marshall Field's, Burdines, Lazarus, Famous-Barr, Filene's and other department stores with some affiliation with their home communities; macy*s is New York and that doesn't necessarily mean it's superior to every place else. The dropping stock values and sales at macy*s demonstrate that there's no much "magic" throughout the nation as they continue to contract their operations. Consumers today want an "experience" not just stuff; the old school department stores like Kaufmann's, Hudson's, Bambergers, hess's made shopping fun. Kaufmann's later shopping bags bore the tagline "Always something exciting."Luckily amazon.com offers a large assortment of department store history books which will transport the reader back to a time when shopping was fun.

This is a well written and researched history of a beloved department store in downtown Pittsburgh. There are so many happy memories contained in this book and it was a delight to read

Great book. It brought back lots of fond memories of the years that I worked for Kaufmann's.

Great assortment of rarely seen pictures of the store's interior, including the art decor first floor.

A nice picture book about a great store in Pittsburgh