R H Gordon
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The success of the business allowed Gordon to open a new, larger shop front in the city at 506-508 George Street in March 1903. And by 1907 a branch store opened in the inner-western suburb of Newtown. Gordon's city store moved down the road in August 1925 to occupy the Joseland & Vernon building at 569-181 George Street, the former home of drapers Ball & Welch. The move allowed Gordon to be part of a major precinct of furniture and furnishing retailers that had formed around the southern end of George and Pitt streets. Finally, when the next door business of competing furnishing retailer, A Hall & Co, moved to Pitt Street in 1934, Gordon bought the premises and extended his business along the road.
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Credit schemes and installment plans for home furnishings had existed in Australia for many years before R H Gordon & Co introduced its cash orders. However, large retailers of home furnishings were often reluctant to offer credit in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. The Anthony Hordern & Sons catalogue for 1894 stated its terms were 'spot cash' only though money could be remitted by various methods like cheque or postal order. However, the success of Gordon’s scheme led to the introduction of cash orders by a number of other home furnishing retailers and influenced the evolution by the 1920s of larger and more sophisticated companies such as that of Australian Cash Orders Ltd. By the late 1920s, the success of credit schemes meant that most retailers had no choice but to introduce new payment policies – the Anthony Hordern & Sons catalogue for 1928 outlines a proto lay-by system known as the DPS (or Deposit Purchase System). |
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Following the death of Robert Henry Gordon, a family connection was maintained in the company through his son, Henry James (1891-1959), and son-in-law Kenneth Thomas Hardy, who remained as directors of R H Gordon & Co. In 1960, R H Gordon & Co was taken over by rival retailer Waltons Ltd and the stock and building were sold off in early 1961. |
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