"Department Stores and Retail Modernization in Socialist Yugoslavia, 1960s"

In this presentation, I intend to show that large department store chains were the key players in the modernization of the retail sector in Socialist Yugoslavia, which in the 1960s took place in large urban centers, primarily capital cities. By focusing on two largest Yugoslav department store chains—RK Beograd and Na-Ma—I will illustrate how the external and internal expansion of these chains through new department stores, technological advancements, innovations in retailing, and professionalization of the workforce shaped and were shaped by the urban environments of capitals Belgrade and Zagreb. In this process, an important role was played by a variety of professionals and experts-such as retailers, architects, urban planners, and technologists-who were employed in the chains and other expert and governing bodies, and participated in national, federal and transnational networks. The presentation will mainly focus on analyzing the chain’s external expansion through new department stores, which I understand as a modernizing process that intersected the retail sector with social and physical transformations of urban environments in capital cities impacted by decentralization and liberalization of the Yugoslav socio-economic system. In addition to external expansion, I will also address to a smaller extent the internal expansion of the chains vis-a-vis managerial practices and the workforce. These external and internal expansions powered the transformations of RK Beograd and Na-Ma into large department store chains, who left a significant physical and socio-economic mark on Yugoslav urban environments while improving and growing the Yugoslav retail sector. Consequently, department stores became institutionalized as the most ubiquitous, tangible elements of Yugoslav retail and consumption in large urban areas. By drawing on a variety of sources, from archival documents to periodicals and visual material, my presentation will connect business history with history of architecture, urban planning, and technology in order to bring forward a multifaceted urban history of modern retail in a European socialist regime during the Cold War.