department store

a large retail store carrying a wide variety of merchandise and organized into various departments for sales and administrative purposes.

Origin of department store

An Americanism dating back to 1885–90

Did you ever see a school of salesmanship for department-store women employees?

The Women of Tomorrow |William Hard
The overwhelming majority of department-store clerks are girls under twenty-one.

What eight million women want |Rheta Childe Dorr
Actually being fitted in a department-store to a real imported dress!

Aunt Crete's Emancipation |Grace Livingston Hill
Non-comps are gleefully sloughed in the army, just as they are in a railroad-office or a department-store.

Little Journeys to the Homes of the Great, Vol. 13 |Elbert Hubbard

A duplicate of the department-store bargain rug in the other room lay on the floor.

Big Timber |Bertrand W. Sinclair

department store

a large shop divided into departments selling a great many kinds of goods