Helen Laurenson charts the historical pattern from the confident presence of the department stores in the 1920s, when expansion and consolidation marked their status as major retailers in cities and provincial towns, to their rapid decline in the 1960s as shopping malls sprang up in the burgeoning suburbs. Her extensive research has uncovered many entertaining stories and fascinating facts about stores like Kirkcaldie and Stains, Ballantynes, Farmers' and George Court's and she also includes much of interest about the layout of the stores, the people who worked there, and the goods they sold."--Jacket.