 | |
| Wilson's | |
| Industry | Retail |
| Founded | 1947 |
| Founder | Huey John Wilson |
| Defunct | 1985 |
| Fate | Acquisition by Service Merchandise |
| Successor | Service Merchandise |
| Headquarters | |
Number of locations | 80 |
Area served | Southern United States |
| Products | Jewelry |
H. J. Wilson Co., also known as Wilson's, was an American catalog showroom chain based in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. Founded in 1947 as a jewelry store, it was acquired in 1985 by Service Merchandise.
The store was begun by Huey John Wilson in 1947 as a jewelry vendor in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. Ten years later, Wilson opened his first catalog showroom. By 1982, Wilson's was the third-largest catalog showroom chain in the United States. [1] At its peak, it had 80 stores in 12 states. In 1985, rival chain Service Merchandise purchased all 80 of the Wilson's stores. [2]
Wilson died on February 8, 2008, at age 80. [3]
Baton Rouge is the capital city of the U.S. state of Louisiana. It had a population of 227,470 at the 2020 census, making it Louisiana's second-most populous city. It is the seat of Louisiana's most populous parish, East Baton Rouge Parish, and the center of Louisiana's second-largest metropolitan area, Greater Baton Rouge, which had 870,569 residents in 2020.
Huey Pierce Long Jr., nicknamed "The Kingfish", was an American politician who served as the 40th governor of Louisiana from 1928 to 1932 and as a United States senator from 1932 until his assassination in 1935. He was a left-wing populist member of the Democratic Party and rose to national prominence during the Great Depression for his vocal criticism of President Franklin D. Roosevelt and his New Deal, which Long deemed insufficiently radical. As the political leader of Louisiana, he commanded wide networks of supporters and often took forceful action. A controversial figure, Long is celebrated as a populist champion of the poor or, conversely, denounced as a fascist demagogue.
Spencer Gifts LLC, doing business as Spencer's, is a North American mall retailer with over 600 stores in the United States and Canada. Its stores specialize in novelty and gag gifts, and also sell clothing, brand merchandise, sex toys, room decor, collectible figures, fashion and body jewelry, and fantasy and horror items. The company also owns and operates a pop-up seasonal retailer, Spirit Halloween.
Best Products Company, Inc., or simply Best, was a chain of American catalog showroom retail stores founded by Sydney and Frances Lewis in 1957 and formerly headquartered in Richmond, Virginia. The company was in existence for four decades before closing all of their stores by February 1997 and completely liquidating by December 1998. At the time of their second bankruptcy filing in September 1996, the company operated 169 Best stores and 11 Best Jewelry stores in 23 states, as well as a nationwide mail-order service. When in operation, Best Products was traded on the NASDAQ exchange as "BESTQ".
The Louisiana State Capitol is the seat of government for the U.S. state of Louisiana and is located in downtown Baton Rouge. The capitol houses the chambers for the Louisiana State Legislature, made up of the House of Representatives and the Senate, as well as the office of the Governor of Louisiana. At 450 feet (137 m) tall and with 34 stories, it is the tallest skyscraper in Baton Rouge, the seventh tallest building in Louisiana, and tallest capitol in the United States. It is located on a 27-acre (110,000 m2) tract, which includes the capitol gardens. The Louisiana State Capitol is often thought of as "Huey Long's monument" due to the influence of the former Governor and U.S. Senator in getting the capitol built. The building's construction was completed in 1931. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1978 and was designated a National Historic Landmark in 1982.
Service Merchandise was a retail chain of catalog showrooms carrying jewelry, toys, sporting goods and electronics. The company, which first began in 1934 as a five-and-dime store, was in existence for 68 years before ceasing operations in 2002.
The Huey P. Long - O.K. Allen Bridge is a truss cantilever bridge over the Mississippi River carrying US 190 and one rail line between East Baton Rouge Parish, Louisiana and West Baton Rouge Parish, Louisiana.
A catalog merchant is a form of retailing. The typical merchant sells a wide variety of household and personal products, with many emphasizing jewelry. Unlike a self-serve retail store, most of the items are not displayed; customers select the products from printed catalogs in the store and fill out an order form. The order is brought to the sales counter, where a clerk retrieves the items from the warehouse area to a payment and checkout station.
Brendle's was a chain of catalog showrooms based in Elkin, North Carolina, USA. Its showrooms carried jewelry, toys, sporting goods, and electronics. At its peak in 1990, Brendle's operated 58 showrooms in North Carolina, South Carolina, Virginia, Georgia, and Tennessee.
The Mall of Louisiana is a mid-scale shopping mall in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, between I-10 and Bluebonnet Blvd. It is the largest mall in Louisiana and contains the third largest indoor carousel in the world. It is the only regional mall in Baton Rouge. The anchor stores are 2 Dillard's stores, Main Event Entertainment, JCPenney, and Macy's.
Chapel Hills Mall is an enclosed shopping mall located in Colorado Springs, Colorado, United States, with 562,733 square feet (52,280 m2) of gross leasable area. The anchor stores are AMC Theatres, Dick's Sporting Goods, Dillard's, H&M, and Macy's. There are two vacant anchor stores that Burlington and Gordmans occupied before closing.
H. H. Gregg, Inc., is an American online retailer and former retail chain of consumer electronics and home appliances in the Midwest, Northeast, and Southeast United States, that operated stores in 20 states including Alabama, Delaware, Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maryland, Mississippi, Missouri, New Jersey, North Carolina, Ohio, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, Tennessee, Virginia and Wisconsin. Valor Group LLC purchased the brand from the company's bankruptcy trustee for $400,000 in 2017. H. H. Gregg closed all stores in liquidation and had been operating as an online-only retailer since August that year. Founded in Princeton, Indiana, in 1955, H. H. Gregg was headquartered in Indianapolis, Indiana, when it ceased operating. Its retail offerings included home entertainment video and audio products, computers, and other selected consumer electronics; home appliances, such as refrigerators, ranges, dishwashers, freezers, washers, and dryers; and other products and services, including mattresses. The company announced on November 24, 2008, that it would begin selling popular gaming systems such as Wii, Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3.
Cortana Mall was an enclosed shopping mall in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, and was at the intersection of Airline Highway and Florida Blvd. It was last owned by Moonbeam Equities of Las Vegas, Nevada. It opened in 1976 and was demolished in 2021.
K's Merchandise Mart, Inc. was a catalog showroom department store based in Decatur, Illinois. It offered furniture, jewelry, and general merchandise, including electronics, at 17 locations in 5 Midwestern states at the time of its closing.
Rouses Markets is a chain of grocery supermarkets in the U.S. states of Louisiana, Alabama and Mississippi.
The Hilton Baton Rouge Capitol Center is a historic hotel in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, originally built in 1927 as the Heidelberg Hotel. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1982. The Heidelberg Hotel was a favorite dwelling of Louisiana Governor Huey Long, who had a fourth-floor suite. For a time it was known as the Capitol House Hotel, when under the management of former State Representative Chris Faser, Jr. Huey P. Long, John F. Kennedy, Hubert Humphrey, Jimmy Carter, Will Rogers, and Fidel Castro were all guests of the hotel.
Buc-ee's Holdings, Inc., commonly referred to as Buc-ee's is an American chain of country stores, gas stations, and electric vehicle chargers created and owned by Arch "Beaver" Aplin III, headquartered in Lake Jackson, a city south of Houston. The chain was founded in 1982 in Clute next to Lake Jackson and began expansion with its first travel center in Luling south of Austin, Texas in 2003. The company began expanding outside of Texas in 2018 with the opening of a location in Baldwin County, Alabama and since opened stores in Georgia, Florida, Kentucky, South Carolina, Tennessee, Colorado, and Missouri with new locations planned for North Carolina, Mississippi, Ohio, Virginia, Louisiana, Arkansas, Arizona, Kansas, Wisconsin, and Oklahoma.
Greenwood Mall, formerly Crosscreek Mall, is a regional shopping mall located in Greenwood, South Carolina, United States. The mall opened in 1979 and underwent a number of expansions and renovations throughout its history. The original anchor stores were Belk, JCPenney, and Meyers-Arnold, with H. J. Wilson Co. joining in the 1980s. The latter two stores became Uptons and Service Merchandise respectively in the 1980s. Following the closure of those stores, the mall was purchased by a new owner in 2000 and renamed three years later to Greenwood Mall. Renovations beginning in 2009 added The Shoe Dept., TJ Maxx, and Michaels among other stores. Despite these additions, the mall continued to struggle with vacancy, compounded by the closure of JCPenney in 2019. The remaining anchor stores are Belk and TJ Maxx. Hull Property Group owns the mall.
NetPark Tampa Bay is a business park in the East Lake-Orient Park neighborhood of Tampa, Florida, United States. The complex, which primarily houses offices, is a redevelopment of the former East Lake Square Mall, a shopping mall built by Edward J. DeBartolo Corporation in 1976. The mall's anchor stores were JCPenney, Montgomery Ward, and Belk-Lindsey, with H. J. Wilson Co. joining in 1980. H. J. Wilson Co. became Service Merchandise in 1985, and Belk-Lindsey sold their location at the mall to Dillard's in 1992. After a period of decline in the 1990s which included the closure of all four anchor stores, the mall was closed entirely in 1998 and officially reopened as NetPark Tampa Bay a year later.