The Bon Marché

The Bon Marché, whose name means "the good deal" or "the good market", was the name chosen for a department store launched in Seattle, Washington, United States, in 1890 by Edward Nordhoff. The name was influenced by Le Bon Marché, the noted Parisian retailer. In 1929, The Bon Marché was acquired by Hahn Department Stores and reorganized as Allied Stores, a few years later. A solid middle-range store, The Bon served largely working-class Seattle well; branches were added in several Northwestern cities. Among them were Spokane, Tacoma, Yakima, Kennewick, Longview, Walla Walla, Olympia, and Bellingham, Washington, Missoula, Montana, and Boise, Idaho. Commonly known to customers as The Bon, the company dropped the Marché from their name in the late 1970s before returning it in the mid-1980s.

The Bon was known for their catchy jingles, such as the following to the tune of "The Banana Boat Song": "Day-o, One Day Sale, One day only at The Bon Marché! Save 20, 30, 40 percent (example savings)! Saturday only at the Bon Marche. Prices are down in every department! Saturday only at the Bon Marche!..." This jingle continued after the name was changed to Bon Macy's, with the appropriate changes.

Earlier, in the 1960s, The Bon also used some cuts from PAMS' Series 23 jingle package, "Ani-Magic".

Allied Stores was merged into Federated Department Stores in 1989. As part of its national rebranding program, Federated changed the name to Bon-Macy's in 2003. On March 6, 2005, the Bon-Macy's name was eliminated, with the stores renamed as the Macy's Northwest division of Federated. On February 6, 2008, the Macy's Northwest division was merged with the Macy's West division, based in San Francisco.

As of April 2011, Strategic Marks, LLC has obtained 'The Bon Marche' trademark and plans on re-introducing the famous department store name as part of a virtual mall, along with other nostalgic stores such as The Broadway, Joseph Magnin, Robinson's, Filene's, Abraham & Straus and many others. The goal is to bring back the great department stores of the 20th century, with the hopes of re-opening the actual brick and mortar stores throughout the US.