It's that time of year, and the streets outside our office near Sydney Town Hall are thronged with shoppers trying to find the perfect present. New to the Dictionary are a brace of articles on Sydney's historic shops, to give you a selection of the shopping experiences available to the Sydneysiders of the past. Department stores Mark Foy's, Grace Brothers and Marcus Clark  helped to shape Sydney's shopping experiences from the late nineteenth century, moving out into the suburbs in the mid-twentieth century, and losing ground to others by the turn of the millennium. For furniture and homewares, well-heeled shoppers flocked to Beard Watson and Bebarfald's. At the other end of the scale, Lassetter's offered lower prices and a huge range, as well as promising 'No bogus sauce at Cheapside!'.