Where Were Pens Sold Back In The Old Days?

[theexpanciluser]

Where would you go about buying a Sheaffer or Parker in the USA?

[Funkmon]

From what I understand, and someone may correct me on this: the same place you go now: office supply stores.

[Joe in Seattle]

Woolworth's 5 & dime, or Rexall Drug store - at least that is all our small town had.

[welch]

(1) High end, such as Parker 51 or Sheaffer Snorkel: the pen counter at a good department store. They were birthday gift pens, award pens for school graduation, job promotion.

 

(2) Mass market, such as Parker 21, Esterbrook, later the Parker 45 or Sheaffer School pen: 5&10, drug-store. That's where we got our school supplies, which included bottled ink or ink carridges (as long as the ink was Sheaffer or Parker!).

 

Note: this covers roughly late '50s through 1965. A decisive change: roughly 1960, when pen counters began to disappear from department stores, along with pen service centers. With the P45 and then the Parker 75, a customer expected to make most repairs themselves -- swap a nib, for instance.

[Funkmon]

Woolworth's 5 & dime, or Rexall Drug store - at least that is all our small town had.

You had Rexalls in Seattle?

[theexpanciluser]

Interesting thank you, I wish department stores had a pen counter these days.

[Joe in Seattle]

Funkmom

 

I grew up in Sunnyside, WA

[Plume145]

For most of the time fountain pens were popular (ie not in the beginning when they were a novelty or high-end item, and not after their popularity as a writing tool for anyone anytime began to wane and they began to transition to a high-end/niche item), and based on what I know from personal accounts and what I've seen in old pen ads and such: pretty much everywhere. Or at least, everywhere that sold stuff you needed to buy less often, not several times a week and the like (eg newsagent's, food shops, etc). Mainly:

- department stores (the heyday of FPs pretty much coincided with the heyday of the great department stores).

- large drugstores, or the equivalent depending on the area - wherever you could find the sorts of things you'd need several times a month, like sewing notions etc

- stationery shops. I think the concept of an 'office supply' store that sells everything from furniture and large machines to pencils and erasers is more recent than the period in question - before that I think you mostly had your stationery stores, that sold everything from pretty books and social stationery to school supplies and ledgers and forms, and then you had your specialist retailers like furniture shops and representatives for typewriter manufacturers etc.

Members who remember the '50s and earlier first hand will probably know more; don't know if we have anyone from that age group around?

[stilllo]

Ah, the department store. I'm 25, and I remember when I was very young going into some downtown with my mother, and they were all in 200 year old buildings which had all sorts of fancy stuff. The show "Are You Being Served" reminds me of these types of shops, where everyone wore nice suits and you could buy quality merchandise. Today, they've all been converted into Starbucks and sushi bars and restaurants. I miss those good old days.

 

But yeah I would imagine back from the '60s until the late 80's, a department store like that would be where you'd go to find Pelikans and Montblancs, on the floor above where you could get your Rolexes and Omegas.

[Steven]

Back in the 70's I bought a Pelikan Pelicakno, Parker 25 and Parker 45 from my college book store.

[MKeith]

Or maybe here.

 

http://www.shorpy.com/node/6676

 

http://www.shorpy.com/node/8277

 

Click on the photos to enlarge

[HandLikeAFist]

There were fabulous stationery stores, smaller ones in smaller town and cities, huge ones in larger burgs, like Schwbacher-Frey in San Francisco. That's where many people would shop for FPs. Grandma might buy from a department store pen counters; grandpa, a stationery store.

[Bo Bo Olson]

Being workers family, out side the family Snorkel; blister pack department stores for my yearly school fountain pen....Wearever or ugly pastel Esterbrook or cheap Sheaffer school pens.

We were so ignorant....didn't even know what F or an M was...they were all M's for the low grade as far as I can remember...could be we were a few days late having to wait for pay day for the back to school sales and all the F's were gone.

F&M's widths were never even a thought of mine.

When I bought my P-75 some seven or so years after I went to Bic @ 71, the woman asked if I wanted that in F or M, and I had no idea, asking what most bought, which was M.

 

Well the pen collectors of the day stole all of my school fountain pens...which was ok, who could afford cartridges and buy Spidy # 1, a big nickel Snickers or one of them new extra large 10 and later 12 oz Cokes.

IMO the high cost of cartridges was one of the reasons fountain pens almost died.

Hell a Jotter ball point refill was very expensive. Those too were collected. Every year for the start of school I got a new one. You could get 10 regular skinny ball point refills for 10 cents.

Clean a pen!!!! No one did that. Boys used only blue, blue black and black...why worry.

Girls used all the other colors...they may have know about that. At first a boy didn't talk to girls, later when one did, one didn't talk about pens.

I can remember using Pelikan ink in the states, it was cheaper.

Edited February 18, 2014 by Bo Bo Olson

[jar]

Pen Hospitals, Drug stores, Department stores, Stationary stores, mail order companies like Sears and Roebuck, J,C. Penny, Montgomery Ward. In the country I found fountain pens for sale in the local hardware store, once in a Feed & Seed.

[ANM]

Here is a Rexall Pocket Pen next to a 5¢ Coke. I believe some jewelry stores carried fountain pens. I also remember Jake the grocery over on the next block had Esterbrooks for sale next to the candy counter.

 

http://i262.photobucket.com/albums/ii101/matthewsno/DSCN1280_zps164e4649.jpg

http://i262.photobucket.com/albums/ii101/matthewsno/DSCN12802_zps93dbace3.jpg

 

http://i262.photobucket.com/albums/ii101/matthewsno/DSCN1281_zps6688c243.jpg

 

http://i262.photobucket.com/albums/ii101/matthewsno/DSCN1283_zpsf05fd9c6.jpg

Edited February 18, 2014 by ANM

[ANM]

PS. Notice the line on the glass? That is the syrup line. The soda jerk filled the glass to the line with coke syrup and then added ice and carbonated water to make your drink.

 

http://i262.photobucket.com/albums/ii101/matthewsno/DSCN1284_zps5287538f.jpg

Edited February 18, 2014 by ANM

[jar]

PS. Notice the line on the glass? That is the syrup line. The soda jerk filled the glass to the line with coke syrup and then added ice and carbonated water to make your drink.

 

http://i262.photobucket.com/albums/ii101/matthewsno/DSCN1284_zps5287538f.jpg

Is that a Belgian glass?

[ANM]

I don't know. I picked it up at an antique store the other day because it was the nickel size glass we had when I was a kid, and worked at a Rexall soda fountain. I didn't even notice the Gedep Merk until today.

Edited February 18, 2014 by ANM

[wastelanded]

I remember the Stationery counter at Simpson's: even the stores in the suburban malls had them (Eaton's and Hudson's Bay had them as well, I'm sure, but we shopped at Simpson's). The Targa I received for my 14th birthday came from Simpson's, I believe.

 

Grand & Toy was/is an office supply company in Canada. There used to be hundreds of stores across the country: most are gone now, thanks to Staples. But G&T always had a pen counter, where there were Watermans, Sheaffers and Parkers in all degrees of shininess. I always bought my Skrip at Grand & Toy on Bloor St. near the ROM.

 

I can't see the pen counter ever coming back to a dept. store near any of us. The masses will never again embrace what we here love so much: simply too much effort when you can thumb a note into your phone.

[alexander_k]

I don't know. I picked it up at an antique store the other day because it was the nickel size glass we had when I was a kid, and worked at a Rexall soda fountain. I didn't even notice the Gedep Merk until today.

 

It could be Belgian but more probably Dutch.