Back to School Filene's Ad

This back to school ad for “Filene’s of Boston” with its call to “why limit your vacation by rushing home to shop?” reminds us of a time when big department stores were in big cities, in this case Boston. Chain stores were a thing of the future, but Hyannis, Massachusetts this end of the summer in 1940 showed the promise of things to come. Filene’s had opened a branch store on the Cape, to service vacationers and summer residents. Not wanting to wait for the customer to come to them in Boston, Filene’s went to them. It may not seem like much now with a Wal-Mart in many suburban and rural communities, but in its day was revolutionary.