Hammacher-Schlemmer
Encyclopedia
Mail order
Mail order is a term which describes the buying of goods or services by mail delivery. The buyer places an order for the desired products with the merchant through some remote method such as through a telephone call or web site. Then, the products are delivered to the customer...
dealer founded in 1848. They claim to be the oldest continuously published catalog in the United States, with a claimed annual catalog circulation exceeding 30 million. It is based in Niles, Illinois
Niles, Illinois
Niles is a village in Maine and Niles Townships, Cook County, Illinois, United States. The 2010 population from the U.S. Census Bureau is 29,803.The current mayor of Niles is Robert M. Callero.-History:Niles was first settled in 1827....
. The company is owned by the heir of J. Roderick MacArthur
J. Roderick MacArthur
John Roderick MacArthur was a U.S. businessman and philanthropist. The J. Roderick MacArthur Foundation, a philanthropic organization interested in Civil Liberties in the United States, and the MacArthur Justice Center at the Northwestern University School of Law are named after him. He is the...
, the founder of the Bradford Exchange
Bradford Exchange
The Bradford Exchange is a producer and marketer of collectible goods. Now part of the Bradford Group, it was founded in 1973 as The Bradford Gallery of Collector's Plates by J. Roderick MacArthur. The company created its first live price quotation market in 1983, but increasingly turned to...
, who purchased Hammacher Schlemmer in 1980.
History
Hammacher Schlemmer began as a hardware store specializing in hard-to-find tools in the BoweryBowery
Bowery may refer to:Streets:* The Bowery, a thoroughfare in Manhattan, New York City* Bowery Street is a street on Coney Island in Brooklyn, N.Y.In popular culture:* Bowery Amphitheatre, a building on the Bowery in New York City...
district of New York City in 1848. Owned by sole proprietor William Tollner, it became one of the first national hardware stores. In 1853, Tollner’s nephew and part of the company’s namesake, William Schlemmer, arrived from Germany and began to work at the store. It was also around this time that a German investor and friend of the family, Alfred Hammacher, decided to invest $5,000 into the company.
As the Civil War
American Civil War
The American Civil War was a civil war fought in the United States of America. In response to the election of Abraham Lincoln as President of the United States, 11 southern slave states declared their secession from the United States and formed the Confederate States of America ; the other 25...
spread across the country, a severe coin shortage in New York City made it nearly impossible for retailers to make change for their customers. In response to this shortage, the United States government allowed merchants to mint their own coins, known as "rebellion tokens" or "copperheads". The store, at that point called Hammacher & Tollner, began distributing their own copper coins until the shortage ended.
By 1867, William Schlemmer had purchased his uncle’s share of the business and became a partner in the company, whose name changed to Hammacher & Co. In 1878, Hammacher & Co. was among the first companies to install a telephone in their store, as well as one of the original subscribers to the Bell Telephone Company
Bell Telephone Company
The Bell Telephone Company, a common law joint stock company, was organized in Boston, Massachusetts on July 9, 1877 by Alexander Graham Bell's father-in-law Gardiner Greene Hubbard, who also helped organize a sister company — the New England Telephone and Telegraph Company...
Directory. Hammacher Schlemmer was also one of the first stores in the country to have electric lighting in the showroom.
The year 1881 marked the first known printing and distribution of the Hammacher Schlemmer catalog and by 1883, the present name, Hammacher Schlemmer, came into use. By the turn of the century, the business moved uptown to larger quarters.
Merchandise was added to meet consumer demand. With pianos the favored parlor instrument, Hammacher Schlemmer began selling piano parts to piano makers throughout the country — twenty boxcar loads a year went to one customer, Kimball Brothers. The store also opened up the first auto department and the first home delivery service via automobile, at a time when there were only 600 "horseless carriages" on the streets of New York City.
In 1912, Hammacher Schlemmer printed its largest catalog to date, spanning 1,112 pages. One hardbound edition is now housed in the Smithsonian’s permanent collection. By 1926, Hammacher Schlemmer moved once again, into its present location at 147 East 57th Street. This new location put the store in proximity to Manhattan’s most elegant residential neighborhoods. These new patrons wanted luxury items, so hardware was relegated to the basement and esoteric gadgetry and gizmos were added to the shelves.
The 1930s began Hammacher Schlemmer’s long history of showcasing new inventions in the pages of their catalog. Beginning with the first pop-up toaster
Toaster
The toaster is typically a small electric kitchen appliance designed to toast multiple types of bread products. A typical modern two-slice toaster draws anywhere between 600 and 1200 W and makes toast in 1 to 3 minutes...
and portable radio in 1930, Hammacher Schlemmer went on to garner a reputation for introducing products that were the first of their kind — oddities that went on to be regarded as household necessities.
In 1948, Hammacher Schlemmer celebrated its 100-year anniversary with the introduction of the first automatic steam iron and the amazing electric broom. After more than 100 years as a family-held business, Hammacher Schlemmer was sold in 1953 to a group of investors and eventually turned over to John Gerald.
In the 1960s, Hammacher Schlemmer offered products that had never been available for home purchase, including a regulation-sized bowling alley and restored London taxi cabs. However, the 1970s brought a return to the specialized gadgetry Hammacher is known for today.
In 1983, the Hammacher Schlemmer Institute was created as an independent but affiliated branch of the company, whose purpose is to comparatively test top-of-the-line products.
Later, in 1988, Hammacher Schlemmer became one of the first retailers to go on the Internet
Internet
The Internet is a global system of interconnected computer networks that use the standard Internet protocol suite to serve billions of users worldwide...
with CompuServe
CompuServe
CompuServe was the first major commercial online service in the United States. It dominated the field during the 1980s and remained a major player through the mid-1990s, when it was sidelined by the rise of services such as AOL with monthly subscriptions rather than hourly rates...
, the first major commercial online service in the United States. In 1995, America Online built Hammacher Schlemmer a store on the Internet. By 1998 Hammacher Schlemmer launched their own website, Hammacher.com.
That same year, Hammacher Schlemmer celebrated its 150th Anniversary. As a tribute, Mayor Rudolph Giuliani renamed the block on 57th Street between Lexington and 3rd Avenue "Hammacher Schlemmer Way".
Retail Stores
Hammacher Schlemmer first began as a hardware store at 221 The BoweryBowery
Bowery may refer to:Streets:* The Bowery, a thoroughfare in Manhattan, New York City* Bowery Street is a street on Coney Island in Brooklyn, N.Y.In popular culture:* Bowery Amphitheatre, a building on the Bowery in New York City...
, where it remained from 1848-1859. It later moved to 209 The Bowery, remaining from 1859 to 1904.
The famous yellow fever
Yellow fever
Yellow fever is an acute viral hemorrhagic disease. The virus is a 40 to 50 nm enveloped RNA virus with positive sense of the Flaviviridae family....
plague of 1822, ascribed to impure water, desolated lower Manhattan and caused business and terrified inhabitants to move out of town to Greenwich Village
Greenwich Village
Greenwich Village, , , , .in New York often simply called "the Village", is a largely residential neighborhood on the west side of Lower Manhattan in New York City. A large majority of the district is home to upper middle class families...
. As there was no individual water supply, water was furnished by numerous wells with pumps — some in the middle of Broadway. “Choice” water was carted around in large casks by hucksters. At last an extensive “reservoir” was planned, and in 1836, a well one hundred and twelve feet deep and sixteen feet in diameter distributed water through twenty-five miles of mains to two thousand homes. It was located on the exact spot where Hammacher Schlemmer resided from 1904-1926 — 13th Street & Fourth Avenue.
The “New York & Harlem Railroad” passed the 13th Street location of Hammacher on the street that at the time was called the Bowery. The railroad continued to White Plains. The fashionable school of William Forrest (later known as Forrest and Quackenbos) — where many well-known New Yorkers of past generations were educated — was located down the street.
From here, the company moved into its present location at 147 East 57th Street, in 1926. Located on the site of the famous Huntington Stables and near Park Avenue
Park Avenue (Manhattan)
Park Avenue is a wide boulevard that carries north and southbound traffic in New York City borough of Manhattan. Through most of its length, it runs parallel to Madison Avenue to the west and Lexington Avenue to the east....
, the modern twelve-story building has housed hardware, gifts, housewares, bath, dressing room and closet furnishings, kitchen and fireplace equipment, furniture and a vast array of the gadget and gizmos that Hammacher Schlemmer is known for.
In the 1980s, two additional stores were added to Hammacher Schlemmer, one in Chicago and one in Beverly Hills.
Both were later closed.
In 1999, a store was added at The Shops at Sunset Place
The Shops at Sunset Place
The Shops at Sunset Place is an outdoor shopping mall in South Miami, Florida . The mall opened in 1999 and is owned and managed by the Simon Property Group....
in South Miami, Florida. It later closed.
The Hammacher Schlemmer Institute
In 1983, the Hammacher Schlemmer Institute was created as an independent, but affiliated, branch of the Hammacher Schlemmer Company whose sole purpose was to comparatively test potential Hammacher Schlemmer products. Products are tested under laboratory conditions; they are home- or field-tested according to rigid methodology and standards.From a reasonably wide range of competing products, analysts select the ones that are superior using a variety of test methods including their own expertise, nationally accredited laboratories, experts and consultants, and a customer testing group. After comparison testing of products within a specific category — personal care items, electronics, air quality items, home goods — the model receiving the highest rating based on function, ease of use and quality is awarded the Institute’s “Best” rating.
Firsts
| Year | First |
| 1862-1863 | Was one of the first companies to issue “Rebellion Tokens” during the Civil War |
| 1878 | Among first 271 subscribers listed in New York City Bell Telephone directory |
| 1896 | One of the first in the country to have electric lighting in showroom |
| 1899 | First home delivery service driven by automobile |
| 1930 | Pop-Up Toaster |
| 1930 | Portable Radio |
| 1931 | First houseware catalog (first for Hammacher, and first of its kind in the country) |
| 1934 | Electric Dry Shaver |
| 1934 | Waring Blender (in the 30s Fred Waring created this unusual device because his wife’s illness meant that she could only eat mashed foods)/Electric Food Processor |
| 1935 | Miss Palmer is the first female salesperson at the store on 57th Street |
| 1948 | Automatic Steam Iron |
| 1948 | Electric Broom |
| 1955 | First Electric Toothbrush |
| 1961 | Home Bowling Alley |
| 1961 | “Nothing Box” |
| 1968 | “Telephone Valet”- Answering Machine |
| 1968 | Radarange Microwave Oven |
| 1971 | Cordless Telephone |
| 1973 | Mr. Coffee |
| 1976 | Cuisinart Food Processor |
| 1977 | First full color catalog for Hammacher Schlemmer |
| 1994 | Integrated Caller ID & Digital Answering Machine |
| 1998 | Recordable Compact Disc Player |
| 2002 | 'Roomba' robotic vacuum cleaner |
| Hand-Held Paperless Fax Viewer | |
| Electric Can Opener | |
| Stainless Steel Kitchenware | |
| Schick Razor | |
| Salton Hotray | |
| Home Freezer | |
| Mechanical Ice Crusher | |
| Plug-In Intercom | |
| Card Shuffler | |
| Martini Mixer | |
| Battery-Operated Radio | |
| Battery-Operated Toothbrush |