L. Strauss & Co.

Last updated
L. Strauss & Co.
Type Department store
Industry Retail
Founded1853
Defunct1993
Fate Bankrupt
Headquarters Indianapolis, Indiana
Productsmen's, women's and children's clothing, hats, footwear, jewelry, beauty products, and giftware.

L. Strauss & Co. was a distinctly upscale department store chain headquartered in Indianapolis, Indiana. The store was founded in 1853 and declared bankruptcy 140 years later in 1993. The store originally was named the Eagle Clothing Company. Eagle Clothing became one of the city's retailing leaders and reportedly pioneered in the use of fixed prices for customers. In 1879, Leopold Strauss acquired the store and later changed the name to L. Strauss and Company.

The main store for many years was located in the Occidental Building on the southeast corner of Washington and Illinois streets. In 1969, Genesco—a conglomerate based in Nashville, Tennessee, and owner of such stores as Bonwit Teller—acquired L. Strauss and hired Thad Larson as president. Seeking to return the store to local control, Larson purchased the store from Genesco in 1979. The Occidental Building was torn down in the 1980s in order to make way for Circle Centre Mall. The downtown store moved across the street to Claypool Court, atop which sits the Indianapolis Embassy Suites Downtown hotel. In the bankruptcy filing, one of the reasons listed for the bankruptcy was delays in opening of Circle Centre. The company's main competitors were L. S. Ayres, William H. Block Co., and H. P. Wasson and Company.

During the store's existence, winners of the Indianapolis 500 were presented, in addition to the Borg-Warner Trophy, the L. Strauss & Co. Trophy.

Related Research Articles

Saks Fifth Avenue Multinational department store chain founded in the United States

Saks Fifth Avenue, originally A. Saks & Co., is an American luxury department store chain, with its origins in Andrew Saks' A. Saks & Co. store opened in Washington, D.C.'s F Street shopping district in 1867. Saks' flagship store is located on Fifth Avenue in Midtown Manhattan, New York City. The 1924 New York store on Fifth Avenue lent its street name to the chain which would be known by what was originally the moniker of its flagship store, Saks Fifth Avenue.

Eatons Canadian retailer

The T. Eaton Company Limited, later known as Eaton's, was a Canadian department store chain that was once Canada's largest. It was founded in 1869 in Toronto by Timothy Eaton, an immigrant from what is now Northern Ireland. Eaton's grew to become a retail and social institution in Canada, with stores across the country, buying-offices around the globe, and a mail-order catalog that was found in the homes of most Canadians. A changing economic and retail environment in the late twentieth century, along with mismanagement, culminated in the chain's bankruptcy in 1999.

Genesco American footwear retailer

Genesco Inc. is an American publicly owned specialty retailer of branded footwear and accessories and is a wholesaler of branded and licensed footwear based in Nashville, Tennessee. Through its various subsidiaries, Genesco operates more than 1,455 retail stores throughout the United States, Puerto Rico, Canada, the United Kingdom, and the Republic of Ireland and wholesales branded and licensed footwear to more than 1,050 retail accounts. Founded as the Jarman Shoe Company in 1924 as a footwear manufacturer, the company changed its name to the General Shoe Company in 1931 and became a public company in 1939. The company took its current name, Genesco, in 1959. Genesco exited footwear manufacturing in 2002 and now contracts with independent, third parties located outside the United States to manufacture its branded and licensed footwear. In June 2011, Genesco acquired U.K. retail chain and web business Schuh. This was seen as a huge step for the business as it gave them an already well-established grounding in a market outside of the U.S.

S. H. Kress & Co. was the trading name of a chain of "five and dime" retail department stores in the United States of America, established by Samuel Henry Kress, which operated from 1896 to 1981. In the first half of the 20th century, there were Kress stores with ornamented architecture on "Main Street" in hundreds of cities and towns.

Foley's was a chain of department stores owned by May Department Stores and headquartered in Downtown Houston, Texas. On August 30, 2005, the division was dissolved and operation of the stores was assumed by Federated's Macy's West and Macy's South divisions. Foley's operated stores in Texas, Colorado, Louisiana, Arizona, Oklahoma and New Mexico. On September 9, 2006 Foley's and all the regional May Co. stores names were phased out and rebranded as Macy's.

GameWorks was a chain of location-based entertainment centers owned by ExWorks Capital, originally created in a joint venture by Sega, DreamWorks SKG, and Universal Studios. The venues featured a wide array of video game arcades, in addition to full-service bars and restaurants.

L. S. Ayres and Company was a department store based in Indianapolis, Indiana, and founded in 1872 by Lyman S. Ayres. Over the years its Indianapolis flagship store, which opened in 1905 and was later enlarged, became known for its women's fashions, the Tea Room, holiday events and displays, and the basement budget store. As urban populations shifted to the suburbs, Ayres established branch stores in new shopping centers in several Indiana cities. Ayres also acquired retail subsidiaries in Springfield, Illinois; Fort Wayne, Indiana; and Louisville, Kentucky. Ayr-Way, the Ayres discount store subsidiary, became the first discount store launched by a full-line department store. By the end of the 1960s Ayres had become a diversified merchandising business with retail department stores, a chain of discount stores, specialty clothing stores, a home furnishings showroom, and a real estate holding company. A long-time Ayres slogan, "That Ayres Look", promoted the company as a fashion leader, and by 1972 it had become the oldest continuous retail slogan in the United States.

Harris Company Former department store chain based in San Bernardino, CA

The Harris Company was a retail corporation, based in San Bernardino, California, that operated a chain of department stores named Harris', all in Southern California. Philip, Arthur, and Herman Harris - nephews of founder Leopold Harris of what was once the large Los Angeles-based chain Harris & Frank – started the company with a small dry goods store in 1905, and the company eventually grew to nine large department stores, with stores in San Bernardino, Riverside, and Kern Counties.

The Jones Store Company was an American chain of department stores located in the Kansas City area formerly operated by Mercantile Stores Company and the St. Louis, Missouri-based May Co.

Bonwit Teller Defunct American luxury department store

Bonwit Teller & Co. was a luxury department store in New York City founded by Paul Bonwit in 1895 at Sixth Avenue and 18th Street, and later a chain of department stores. In 1897 Edmund D. Teller was admitted to the partnership and the store moved to 23rd Street, east of Sixth Avenue. Bonwit specialized in high-end women's apparel at a time when many of its competitors were diversifying their product lines, and Bonwit Teller became noted within the trade for the quality of its merchandise as well as the above-average salaries paid to both buyers and executives. The partnership was incorporated in 1907 and the store made another move, this time to the corner of Fifth Avenue and 38th Street.

Associated Dry Goods American department store chain

Associated Dry Goods Corporation (ADG) was a chain of department stores that merged with May Department Stores in 1986. It was founded in 1916 as an association of independent stores called American Dry Goods, based in New York City.

The William H. Block Company was a department store chain in Indianapolis and other cities in Indiana. It was founded in 1874 by Herman Wilhelm Bloch, an immigrant from Austria-Hungary who had Americanized his name to William H. Block. The main store was located at 9 East Washington Street in Indianapolis in 1896. The company also identified itself as The Wm. H. Block Co., and Block's.

Garfinckels United States historic place

Garfinckel's was a prominent department store chain based in Washington, D.C. that catered to a clientele of wealthy consumers. Its flagship store at 14th and F in the city's F Street shopping district is listed on the National Register. It filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in June 1990 and ceased operations that year.

Circle Centre Mall is an indoor shopping mall located in Indianapolis, Indiana, United States. Circle Centre Mall was opened to the public on September 8, 1995, and incorporates existing downtown structures such as the former L. S. Ayres flagship store. The mall is anchored by Regal Cinemas and the offices for The Indianapolis Star. The space occupied by former anchor Carson Pirie Scott is vacant.

Elder-Beerman Defunct American chain of department stores

The Elder-Beerman Stores Corp. was a chain of department stores founded in 1883 and whose last stores closed in 2018. The chain, based primarily in the Midwestern United States, was composed of 31 stores in eight states at the time of its liquidation in 2018, and peaked around 2003 with 68 stores and $670 million in annual sales.

Crowley Milner and Company, generally referred to as Crowley's, was a department store chain founded in Detroit, Michigan, in 1909. After several years of financial difficulties, the company ceased operation in 1999 and its assets were sold.

Lids (store) American hat company

Lids Inc. is an American retailer specializing in athletic headwear. It primarily operates under the Lids brand with stores in the U.S., Puerto Rico, Canada and the United Kingdom. The majority of the stores operate in shopping malls and factory outlet centers.

H. P. Wasson and Company American department store chain

H. P. Wasson and Company, aka Wasson's, was an Indianapolis, Indiana, based department store chain founded by Hiram P. Wasson. Its flagship store, the H. P. Wasson & Company Building, was built in 1937 and is listed on the U.S. National Register of Historic Places.

The Village of Rochester Hills Shopping mall in Michigan, United States

The Village of Rochester Hills is a lifestyle center located in Rochester Hills, Michigan, a northern suburb of Detroit. Built in 2002, the center replaced a former enclosed shopping mall called Meadowbrook Village Mall. The Village of Rochester Hills features more than forty inline tenants as well as two anchor stores: Whole Foods Market, and Von Maur.

References