The history of de Bijenkorf begins in 1870, when Philip Simon Goudsmit opened a small haberdashery on Nieuwendijk in Amsterdam, which he called Magazijn de Bijenkorf. Business flourished, and in 1915 the store moved to the famous building on Dam Square. A second store in The Hague followed in 1926, and in 1930 the Rotterdam Bijenkorf opened its doors. Eindhoven, Utrecht, Amstelveen, and Maastricht followed. At one time, there were also several smaller stores in Groningen, ‘s-Hertogenbosch, and Arnhem, among other cities, but since 2014 the chain has consisted of seven stores.
