The Nightingale Olympic Department Store is the oldest department store in Bangkok. It opened in 1936 and today carries new-old stock. Some goods date from the 1960s! When it first opened, the store attracted the cream of Bangkok's elite, and was the place to be seen, especially when shopping for top-of-the-line cosmetics from America.
The first floor is laid out like a small, open-plan departmental store, with cosmetics and sporting goods occupying a large chunk of store space. The rows of wooden tennis rackets are a sight to behold, as are the dated brassiere styles and sanguine old women manning their stations.
The second floor is a 'museum.' There are no price tags on anything and nothing is for sale, not even the oddly-shaped treadmills that look primed to electrocute a jogger if ever they were switched on.
