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More than 5000 entries on the history, culture and life of Britain (published in 1993 by Macmillan, now out of print)
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Marks & Spencer
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Britain's best-known high street retailer, with a reputation for reliable quality – originally in clothing, but in recent decades increasingly in food. The huge enterprise (nearly 700 stores worldwide in the early 1990s) derives from very small beginnings. In 1882 a Jewish immigrant from Poland, calling himself Michael Marks, began selling haberdashery from a tray around his neck in the villages of northeast England. Two years later he was confident enough to borrow £5 from a wholesaler, Isaac Dewhirst (the firm of Dewhirst is still a major supplier to Marks & Spencer) and to take a stall in Leeds market; his eye-catching notice said 'Don't ask the price – it's a penny'.
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In 1924 the company began a policy of buying clothes direct from manufacturers, rather than through wholesalers, making possible much greater control of quality; and in 1928 the St Michael trademark was introduced on all goods produced to Marks & Spencer specifications (an astonishingly large number of people in Britain now carry the two words St Michael on their underwear).
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The success of this approach led to a small chain of stalls called Marks' Penny Bazaar. The penny limit lasted until World War I, but by then the name had changed; in 1894, to enable further expansion, Marks took in a partner, Thomas Spencer, who had been a cashier with Dewhirst. In 1926 Marks & Spencer became a public company, with a price limit by then of five shillings.
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