How Sidney Myer went from door-to-door sales to department store mogul

HE could speak little English, hawking his wares in the streets of Bendigo. But Sidney Myer managed to turn his horse-and-cart retail business into an empire. Here’s how the retail giant got its start.

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SIDNEY Myer managed to build a mighty retailing empire by trudging the streets of Bendigo and bringing shopping to the people.

Sure, he also became one of Australia’s largest property owners as his door-to-door business morphed into an impressive national chain of department stores, but the business was built on hawking his goods on the streets.

He was born Simcha Myer Baevski, the youngest of 11 children in a Russian Jewish family on February 8, 1878.

Retailing was in his blood.

Sidney Myer, third from left, outside the first Myer shop at Bendigo in 1910.

Myer still proclaims its origins in Bendigo. Picture: Jamie Duncan

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His mother had a drapery shop in his home town, Krichev in present-day Belarus.

In August 1899, Simcha followed his older brother Elcon to Australia. With little money, he began working with Elcon at Slutzkin’s, an underclothing manufacturer in Melbourne.

Within months, he and Elcon headed for Bendigo. Why Bendigo?

Bendigo Historical Society president Jim Evans says the gold rush had passed but mining deep leads helped sustain Bendigo through troubled times in the 1890s.

”Bendigo was the richest regional city in Victoria,” he says.

“The quartz gold mining underground made Bendigo a very rich city even though there was a depression in the late 19th century.

“The gold output cushioned the effect of the depression, and Sidney felt that there was plenty of money around for his drapery business in Bendigo.”

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Sidney Myer revolutionised shopping.

Myer pictured in 1927.

The Myer family at Sorrento 1929: Merlyn and Marigold, Neilma, Kenneth, Sidney Baillieu and Sidney.

The brothers opened a small drapery shop, Myer’s, in Williamson Street, Bendigo, in 1900, and while Elcon looked after the shop, Sidney hit the road, hawking a selection of fabrics, manchester and garments on the streets of Bendigo.

Sidney the hawker was a common sight on the streets of Bendigo and, even though his English was initially not strong, Mr Evans says he learned quickly and prospered.

“He was selling drapery goods — towels, sheets, fabrics, that kind of thing — the sorts of things that Myer still sells,” Mr Evans said.

Soon, the brothers invested in a horse-drawn cart, allowing Sidney to crisscross the goldfields around Bendigo.

Soon, the brothers established a second, larger shop in Pall Mall, the city’s bustling main street.

The business was a great success but the partnership broke down in 1902 because the brothers disagreed on trading on Saturday, the Jewish Sabbath.

Elcon, the more orthodox of the pair, resisted Saturday trading but Sidney was keen.

Sidney Myer place is in the heart of Bendigo’s historic city centre. Picture: Jamie Duncan

The Melbourne city Myer store in 1937.

Elcon left for Melbourne, where he established himself as a clothing manufacturer in Flinders Lane, with Sidney as his biggest customer. Sidney bought Elcon’s share of the drapery for £320.

Myer’s had lavish decor, innovative advertising and promotions and eye-catching product displays. For Bendigo shoppers, it was the place to be.

Sidney boldly proclaimed Myer as “Bendigo’s Busiest Drapers”. He understood fashion, how to best present his wares and how to market for women shoppers. His advertising drew crowds.

“He was very successful in his business operations. By 1907, the shop was Bendigo’s largest shop with a staff of more than 60.”

In 1908, Sidney took over a rival draper, Craig Williamson Pty Ltd, for £22,000 and, in a brilliant piece of marketing, held a “hurricane sale” of Williamson’s stock to clear the decks for his own. The money he made repaid his creditors straight away.

By now, the Myer Emporium was making profits of £15,000 a year — that’s a tick over $2 million today, from Bendigo alone.

Mr Evans says Sidney greatly influenced other Bendigo business owners and added to the gold city’s prosperity.

Even with his success, in a spectacular example of small town politics, Sidney was once booted from the local chamber of commerce.

Troops marching down Bourke St past Myer's Emporium in 1918.

Crowds outside the Myer Bourke St store at Christmas, 1980.

“He was admired for his entrepreneurial skills but Sidney Myer was banned from the chamber of commerce at one stage because if you missed three meetings, you were out, and Sidney Myer failed to attend three in a row,” Mr Evans says.

In Sidney’s defence, he was managing a thriving enterprise and dozens of staff across two stores.

Late in 1909, with an eye on bigger things, Sidney travelled to Britain and Europe to study merchandising methods and forge new relationships with manufacturers and exporters.

Sidney’s focus was changing. In April 1911, he bought Wright and Neil, a drapery firm in Melbourne’s Bourke Street, for £91,000. Elcon rejoined Sidney in the venture.

1926. A cable tram trundling past Myer's Emporium in the city in 1926.

Sidney raised staff wages immediately, closed for two weeks for stocktaking and restocking and held a phenomenal sale like his Bendigo “hurricane sale” to clear the old stock and introduce the new.

He also snapped up properties adjoining his store and another in Flinders Street which, in 1913, was opened as a temporary Myer as the Bourke Street site was rebuilt.

In May 1914, Sidney sold his Bendigo stores to a syndicate under the company name Myer’s (Bendigo) Pty Ltd.

Two months later, the iconic Bourke Street Myer Emporium opened with eight storeys of sopping nirvana.

It was the largest department store in the southern hemisphere and the fifth largest in the world.

Face of the brand Jennifer Hawkins at a Myer fashion event.

Myer is still a household name.

His direct connection to Bendigo ended, but Mr Evans says Sidney “retained a very fond memory of his staff in Bendigo itself” and left his mark on the city.

His philanthropic work, most famous today through the Sidney Myer Charitable Trust) (now the Sidney Myer Fund) that was established on his death in 1934, was already evident in his early business career in Bendigo.

A violinist, Sidney donated large sums to the Bendigo Art Gallery, where a section of gallery is still named in his honour and a modern sculpture has been erected acknowledging the Sidney Myer Fund’s ongoing support of the gallery.

On it, Sidney Myer is described as a “merchant, visionary, philanthropist and lover of the arts”.

Myer remains in Pall Mall in Bendigo, although on a different site. A window display proudly proclaims the Bendigo shop as the first in the chain. A plaque was unveiled there in 1999 to mark the centenary of Sidney’s arrival in Australia.

Nearby, a section of Williamson Street was renamed Sidney Myer Place in 2010.

While the rise of online players like Amazon has taken some gloss from Myer, at its peak the chain employed tens of thousands of people in more than 60 stores in every Australian state.

Jim Evans says Sidney Myer is still revered by some Bendigonians.

“He was greatly admired for his business acumen. People still boast that this man who was well known around Australia and, no doubt, in other parts of the world, started off in Bendigo.”

@JDwritesalot