Department Store Chimes

January 15, 2005 7:54 AM

Up until the late 80's, while shopping at a large department store, you'd often hear a series of chimes in different patterns. These chimes weren't related to the time, nor were they the door alarms you hear in stores these days. What was the purpose of these chimes?
posted by eschatfische to shopping (8 comments total)

Mostly for managers, or security, everyone had their own chimes that meant something, like call the office, or we're being robbed or some such thing.
posted by Blake at 7:59 AM on January 15, 2005

You can actually still hear this in some department stores. I think I encountered it the last time I was in the Nordstrom's downtown. And yes, each tone series is used to page a particular department to pick up the phone and do something.
posted by majick at 8:37 AM on January 15, 2005

Along the same lines, when they page someone at Nordstrom's it's always the same woman speaking in a dry, monotone voice...how do they do that?
posted by amandaudoff at 10:02 AM on January 15, 2005

when they page someone at Nordstrom's it's always the same woman speaking in a dry, monotone voice...how do they do that?

Um. With a computer?
posted by kindall at 10:39 AM on January 15, 2005

Blake and majick -- I do understand these chimes were meant to signal employees for various things at the store. I was hoping for more specifics -- whether there was ever a standard between stores, what signals took priority, how many different "codes" there were at each store, etc.

Given that PA systems were available long before these chimes were phased out -- and since PAs seem just as effective at doing this sort of thing at modern stores -- it seems strange that they persisted as long as they did. There's also very little public record of them (the only cite in any media I can think of is in Todd Haynes' film SAFE), and I find them something of a strange cultural artifact.
posted by eschatfische at 10:49 AM on January 15, 2005

"it seems strange that they persisted as long as they did."

The chimes were long perceived to be less intrusive to shoppers than a loud crackly cleanup-in-aisle-three voice.

In any case, I don't believe there was any standard for chime signaling. As a kid I paid keen attention to the chimes and found the codes varied widely from store to store.
posted by majick at 11:35 AM on January 15, 2005

They used chimes to send 'private' messages to specific employees in a way that's less distracting to customers than having "Gentlemen's Ready-to-Wear to the Red Phone" going over the PA twice an hour. It's protecting the atmosphere of an old-fashioned high-end store. Most old department stores never let the employees chat as much as at Grace Brothers, y'know.

On preview, what majick said. (I need to learn to type faster)
posted by wendell at 11:37 AM on January 15, 2005

I have been told that they train the "voice lady" in the same manner (i.e., to talk the same way) for all the different stores. Unable to corroborate in a 30 second Google search.
posted by RikiTikiTavi at 8:39 PM on January 15, 2005