In 1846 an Irish immigrant in New York named Alexander Stewart opened a business (0) called the Marble Dry-Goods Palace. By doing so, he gave the world something completely new – the department store. Before this, no-one (1) tried to bring together such a wide range of goods under a single roof. The business did very well. It expanded rapidly and soon had a staff of two thousand. For Stewart even that (2) not enough, however. In 1862 he moved to an eight-storey building nearby, (3) he renamed A. T. Stewart’s Cast Iron Palace. It was, and for many years would remain, (4) largest shop in the world.
     Others followed Stewart’s example and soon there were stores (5) his in many major cities in the United States. We don’t know when people started calling (6) department stores. The expression wasn’t used in print until 1893, (7) it appeared in Harper’s Magazine, but the way that it is used there makes it clear that it was already widely understood.
     What is certain is that department stores completely changed the shopping experience for millions (8) people. They offered not only an enormous range of goods, but also levels of comfort, luxury and excitement previously unknown to customers. Almost (9) the start they had restaurants, toilets and many other facilities, so (10) was no need to go elsewhere for anything.