 Videau was not comfortable with Boucicault's flamboyant style of salesmanship, and on 31 January 1851 he sold his share of the store to Boucicaut.Between 1852 and 1860, by a combination of deft pricing, public relations and customer service, Boucicaut increased the sales of the store from 500,000 francs to 5 million francs.Boucicaut introduced a number of marketing innovations; a system of fixed prices with associated discounts instead of the previous system of haggling over prices, then common in dry goods stores; a reading room for husbands while their wives shopped; prizes and entertainment for children; the first mail-order catalog, in 1867; and seasonal sales, including the "white sale," designed to sell sheets and bedding in the winter when sales were slow.