Poziom: B1/B2 · Rozmówcy: Clare (radio presenter), Dr Peter Hale (business historian)
📄 To nagranie pochodzi z lekcji Let’s Talk: The Secrets of Selfridges (Lesson 2, Exercise 2) – pełny scenariusz z ćwiczeniami znajdziesz w naszym sklepie.
Transkrypcja nagrania
Clare: Good afternoon and welcome back. We’ve been talking about Harry Gordon Selfridge all week. Today we ask: were there other great sellers before and after him? With me is business historian Dr Peter Hale. Peter, welcome.
Peter: Thank you, Clare. And yes — Selfridge wasn’t the first, and he wasn’t the last.
Clare: Let’s start in the eighteenth century.
Peter: Then let’s talk about Josiah Wedgwood, the English potter. In 1765, Queen Charlotte ordered a set of tea things from him. Wedgwood was clever: he asked to call himself „Potter to Her Majesty”, and he named his cream-coloured pottery „Queen’s Ware”.
Clare: So — a royal endorsement.
Peter: Exactly. Later, Catherine the Great of Russia ordered a service of 952 pieces! And Wedgwood used ideas we think are modern: illustrated catalogues, showrooms, travelling salesmen, free delivery, even money-back guarantees and „buy one, get one free”.
Clare: In the 1700s? Amazing.
Peter: And he used his skills for a good cause, too. He produced thousands of small medallions for the campaign against the slave trade. People wore them as jewellery, so fashion helped to spread an important message.
Clare: Who’s next?
Peter: Madam C.J. Walker. She was born Sarah Breedlove in Louisiana in 1867. Her parents had been enslaved, and she started life with nothing. She worked as a sales agent for another hair-care businesswoman, and in 1905 she launched her own products for African-American women — a group the big companies ignored.
Clare: How did she sell them?
Peter: She travelled all over the country, giving demonstrations, and she trained thousands of women as sales agents. That was the brilliant part — her agents earned their own money and became independent. Guinness World Records lists her as the first self-made millionairess, although historians say her real wealth is hard to calculate.
Clare: And finally?
Peter: Estée Lauder. As a teenager in New York, she sold face creams made by her uncle, a chemist. She went from beauty salon to beauty salon and gave away free samples — she believed that once women tried the product, they would buy it. In 1946 she and her husband started their company, making every product by hand.
Clare: Didn’t she invent the „free gift with purchase”?
Peter: She’s credited with pioneering it, yes. And in 1953 she launched a bath oil called Youth Dew. It sold 50,000 bottles in its first year.
Clare: So what do these three people teach us?
Peter: That the tricks have hardly changed! Know your customer, let people try the product, give them a reason to trust you — and make shopping a pleasure. Mr Selfridge would agree.
Clare: Dr Peter Hale, thank you very much.