Dimmeys Of Richmond: The Rise And Fall Of A Family Business
Australian History Local History Non-Fiction Cultural Studies Business Biography Retail Industry History Small Business Family Saga
Dimmeys Of Richmond: The Rise And Fall Of A Family Business is the only full-length history of the beloved Victorian discount store that once dominated bargain bins across Australia. In just 120 colour-illustrated pages, historian Samuel Furphy traces the Dimmeys saga from 1853—when a Scottish immigrant opened a tiny drapery in Swan Street—through its glory days of $2 Hawaiian shirts and midnight sales, to the 1990s receivership that ended 140 years of family ownership. Written for senior-school and adult readers, the book doubles as a concise textbook on Australian retail evolution, unpacking how one firm anticipated Target-style discounting a century before the multinationals arrived.
Collectors and nostalgia shoppers value this hardcover because it preserves the advertising art, catalogues and employee photos that were disappearing from op-shops even in 2007. Furphy interviewed former buyers, Richmond factory workers and the Dimmeys themselves, so the narrative is rich with first-hand anecdotes—like the annual “mad March” sales that saw police erect crowd-control barricades outside the store. Charts and period financials illustrate how the family rode boom-and-bust cycles, wars, tariff changes and suburbanisation, making the book a ready reference for anyone studying small-business resilience or Melbourne’s industrial heritage.
This particular copy is in very good condition: tight, clean, unmarked and free of the cracked hinges that plague most ex-library editions. Because the title was printed for a local audience and never reprinted, clean first-edition hardcovers now trade hands for multiples of the original RRP. Whether you’re a retail historian, a Richmond local who still calls the site “Dimmeys corner,” or a vintage-fashion hunter trying to date that iconic poly-cotton shirt in your wardrobe, this copy offers the definitive story without the premium price of a signed or scarce variant.
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