Tiffany & Company (known colloquially as Tiffany or Tiffany’s) is an American luxury jewelry and specialty retailer, headquartered in New York City.
Tiffany’s was founded by Charles Lewis Tiffany and John B. Young in Brooklyn, Connecticut in 1837 as a “stationery and fancy goods emporium”, the store initially sold a wide variety of stationery items, and operated as “Tiffany, Young and Ellis” in Lower Manhattan. The name was shortened to Tiffany & Company in 1853 when Charles Tiffany took control and established the firm’s emphasis on jewelry. Tiffany & Company has since opened stores in major cities all over the world. Unlike other stores at the time in the 1830s, Tiffany clearly marked the prices on its goods to forestall any haggling over prices. In addition, against the social norm at the time, Tiffany only accepted cash payments, and did not accept payments on credit. Such practices, fixed prices for ready money, were first introduced by Palmer’s of London Bridge in 1750, who employed the young Robert Owen, the later social reformer.
