Orosdi Back's - The famous Thessaloniki emporium

Amazing image of the advertisement for the famous Thessaloniki department store or emporium, Orosdi Back's, the "Harrod's of Thessaloniki". 

Famous throughout the Levant, it was frequented by the Anzac's and other Allied soldiers during the 1915-18 Salonika campaign. It was famous not only for its canteen but the fact that you could buy almost anything there - from scrambled eggs, toys, fashionable clothing to household goods. As one Australian soldier said during the First World War, you could buy all "'the oddments that make life bearable". As the emporium advertisement proudly says:

"We undertake any description of contract and what we have not bo ourselves we obtain for you free of charge..."

This was part of a chain of stores set up by a Austro-Hungarian businessman throughout the Ottoman empire in the 19th century. I love the fact that no address is needed.

The advertisement is from the back page of the newspaper of the British Salonika Force, The Balkan News, 10 December 1915, a copy held at the Wellcome Library, London.

More stories on Thessaloniki to come.

Jim Claven
Secretary
Lemnos Gallipoli Commemorative Committee