The department store in the series was based on the real-life store Clements, the first department store in England. Clements was in Watford, just north of London, and closed in 2005.
All scenes in all the episodes were filmed entirely in television studios.
Producer Garry Marshall created a 1979 pilot for an American version of "Are You Being Served?" (1972). It was titled "Beanes of Boston", and was screened but never found a network buyer.
The "lift voice" heard during the theme song played in each episode is that of Stephanie Gathercole who plays Mr. Rumbold's secretary in the earliest episodes.
According to an interview with Mollie Sugden, who portrayed Mrs. Slocombe, the first season of the series was produced by the BBC, but the company eventually decided not to broadcast it. In the summer of 1972 however, the broadcasting of the live reports from the Munich Olympics had to be canceled due to the Black Monday incident. Seeing how they needed a show to fill in the gaps in the programming, 'Are You Being Served?' was "dusted off", according to Mrs. Sugden.