Rowe & Co. department store originally was a British colonial department store established in Rangoon, Burma (now Yangon, Myanmar). in 1866 (as was Whiteaway, Laidlaw in Calcutta, Spencer's in Madras, Cargill's in Colombo and Lane, Crawford was in Hong Kong). In 1910 completed building was the third incarnation of the Rowe & Co. department store in Rangoon. The first had been on Moghul Street (now Shwe Bon Thar), around 1866. The building was a modern marvel, with a steel structural frame, ceiling fans, electric lifts and a basement – an unusual feature given the swampy foundations of the city. It was known as one of the expensively stylish shopping centers in Southeast Asia (and largest). This was the golden age of the department store. In London, customers browsed the crafts and goods of far flung British colonies. Indeed, British citizens were encouraged to support the empire through purchasing its products. Back in those colonies, department stores like Rowe & Co. brought British products to the world, and gave a comforting taste of home to the Europeans living there. These department stores and their enormous catalogues of goods hint at the incredible supply chains that spread across the world between British’s various colonial outposts. The premier shopping experience to be had in the city, Rowe & Co. was referred to by one famous customer as the 'Harrods of the East'; a reference to the famous London department store where given enough money and time, anything could be purchased. Rowe & Co. issued a quarterly illustrated catalogue of its goods and services, which was supposedly 300 pages long.