England's Marks & Spencer department store chain has its beginnings in the Penny Bazaar ("Don't ask the price, it's a penny") opened at Cheetham Hill, Manchester, by Polish-born merchant Michael Marks, 31, in partnership with Thomas Spencer, 42, whose employer loaned Marks £5 in 1884 when the Pole arrived at Leeds penniless, illiterate, and unable to speak English. Marks started as an itinerant peddler, opened a stall in Kirkgate Market, Leeds, has since opened stalls in six other Lancashire street markets, and has innovated the practice of arranging wares according to price. By 1900 there will be a dozen Penny Bazaar stores (three of them in London), and by 1915 there will be 140 selling haberdashery, earthenware, hardware, household goods, stationery, and toys at the fixed price of a penny per item. Marks & Spencer will open their first store under that name at Darlington in 1922, and "Marks & Sparks" will grow to become Britain's leading retail enterprise.

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