The Game of Shopping (1879)

This very early shopping game was published in 1879 as an advertising vehicle by Philadelphia department store Strawbridge & Clothier. The board shows a circular track with 60 spaces. It is divided into four quadrants: blue, yellow, green and red. Each quadrant has spaces for three of the store's departments on the track, an elevator space inside the track, and a cashier's desk outside the track. Players spin and move around the track. When they land on a department, they must go to that quadrant's elevator. There they stay until they spin one of three numbers, which then move them to a department either ahead or behind the one they left. A player landing on the same space as another bumps that player to the cashier's desk for the quadrant, from which he can move to the beginning of the quadrant with a spin of 3, or to the end of the quadrant with a 6. No goods are actually bought or sold: the game is simply a race from the entrance to the exit with goods as distractions along the way. The game board is of thin cardboard, and was given away in an envelope rather than a box.