1 · Position
Ernest Cognacq and Louise Jay, both trained at Le Bon Marché, opened near the Pont Neuf in 1869. The store grew into one of the four great Paris houses and is now a division of Le Bon Marché within LVMH — the pupil bought by the master, a century and a half later.
2 · Why it is in the Library
It closed for sixteen years and came back. That is rare enough in this group to be the entry: department stores that shut generally stay shut, and the reopening is an argument about whether the form still works in a city that has every alternative.
3 · Candour
⚑ The closure and reopening dates, the restoration and the current operation were not established to the standard applied to Le Bon Marché, and this entry does not state them. It should be completed before it is cited.