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Type | Department store |
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Industry | Retail |
Founded | 1851 |
Defunct | 2003 2005 |
Fate | 2003: Merged with Macy's to form Lazarus-Macy's 2005: Acquired by Macy's |
Successor |
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Headquarters | Columbus, Ohio |
Products | Clothing, footwear, bedding, furniture, jewelry, beauty products, housewares |
Parent | Federated Department Stores, Inc. |
F&R Lazarus & Company (commonly known as Lazarus) was a regional department store with its retail chain operating primarily in the U.S. Midwest, and based in Columbus, Ohio. For over 150 years, Lazarus was influential in the American retail industry, particularly during the early 20th century as a founding partner in Federated Department Stores, and continued until the nameplate was retired on March 6, 2005, in favor of Macy's. [1]
Family patriarch Simon Lazarus (1808–1877) opened a one-room men's clothing store in downtown Columbus in 1851. By 1870, with improvements to the industry in the mass manufacture of men's uniforms for the Civil War, the family business expanded to include ready-made men's civilian clothing, and eventually, a complete line of merchandise. [2]
Sons Fred Lazarus Sr. (1850–1917) and Ralph Lazarus (1852–1903) joined the business and added many innovative marketing techniques. The company acquired the John Shillito Company of Cincinnati in 1928 (established in 1830), and a year later, was one of the four founding members of Federated Department Stores (along with Williams Filene's Sons Co. and Abraham & Straus). Bloomingdale Brothers joined the company in 1930.
Lazarus developed or was an early adopter of many shopping innovations such as "one low price" (no bargaining necessary, earlier implemented by the John Wanamaker Store [3] ), first department store escalators in the country, first air-conditioned store in the country, and Fred Lazarus Jr. successfully lobbied President Franklin Roosevelt to permanently fix Thanksgiving as the fourth Thursday in November, ensuring a stable timetable for the official beginning of the Christmas shopping season.
Those who worked at Lazarus were not called employees, but associates.
Fred Lazarus Jr. served as president of Federated Department Stores, Inc. from its founding until 1947, and thereafter, served as board chairman until his death. He was succeeded by his son Ralph Lazarus (1914–1988), who led Federated through the 1980s. Various Lazarus family members also held key positions on Federated's board and within its various divisions, namely, Foley's, Filene's, Lazarus and Shillito's. Robert Lazarus Jr. (1927–2013) was the last family member with an official role at Federated, serving as assistant to Ron Klein in 2002, then chairman and CEO of the Rich's/Lazarus/Goldsmith's operating unit of Federated, now a portion of Macy's.
Primarily operating in central Ohio, Lazarus dominated its market, driving the last of its traditional rivals out of business by 1982. Eventually expanding into Indianapolis, Indiana, in 1973 and Huntington, West Virginia, in 1981; in 1986 Lazarus merged with fellow Federated division Shillito–Rike's, itself the result of 1982 merger between Shillito's (John Shillito Co.) and Dayton, Ohio-based Rike's, acquired by Federated in 1959. The new division adopted the Lazarus nameplate, while assuming Shillito–Rike's headquarters in Cincinnati.
In 1987, Federated acquired William H. Block Company of Indianapolis, Indiana (including Wren's, Springfield, Ohio) and Herpolsheimer's of Grand Rapids, Michigan from Allied Stores and incorporated them into Lazarus. (The Grand Rapids Lazarus stores, converted from the Herpolsheimer's name in late 1987, were shuttered in September 1990.) In 1989, Lazarus' sprawling downtown Columbus flagship store became one of the three anchors of Columbus City Center mall, when developer Taubman Centers constructed a pedestrian skywalk to it over South High Street.
Federated experimented with several different formats in the Lazarus division. In 1967, Federated opened its Gold Circle discount department store division in Columbus, locating stores directly across from Lazarus stores at Northland, Eastland and Westland malls. In the mid-1970s Federated opened its "Capri" shops, off-mall Lazarus stores that budget store goods. Lazarus eventually opened three "Capri" shops, but they were later converted to limited-assortment Lazarus stores. Lazarus was the only Federated division to open full-line stores in tertiary markets such as Lima, Ohio; Huntington, West Virginia and Mansfield, Ohio. Federated also experimented with "Home Works at Lazarus" which was somewhat similar to today's HomeGoods or Bed Bath & Beyond stores. Finally, in the mid-1980s Lazarus experimented with small-market stores in Owensboro, Kentucky; and Lancaster, Newark and Zanesville, Ohio, all of which have since closed.
In 1994, Joseph Horne Co., Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, was acquired by Federated and its 10 locations absorbed by Lazarus. Lazarus moved into the 630,000 square feet (59,000 m2) Horne's building for one year before building a new more modern location.
Having absorbed several department stores itself over the years, in 1995 the chain was integrated into an Atlanta, Georgia-based division of Federated along with that city's Rich's and Memphis, Tennessee's Goldsmith's, while retaining its name in local markets.
In 2003, Lazarus was among Federated's five smaller nameplates absorbed into the Macy's brand, along with The Bon Marché, Burdines, Goldsmith's, and Rich's. The stores were branded as Lazarus-Macy's in 2003 and Macy's in 2005.
The converted former Lazarus stores initially were part of the Macy's South division. In early 2007, after systems integrations were complete, the stores comprising the former Lazarus franchise in Ohio, Indiana, West Virginia, Western Pennsylvania, and Kentucky were transferred to the Macy's Midwest division, based in St. Louis, Missouri. By February 2008, Macy's Midwest was merged with Atlanta-based Macy's South to form a newly constituted Macy's Central division.
The May Department Stores Company was an American department store holding company, formerly headquartered in downtown St. Louis, Missouri. It was founded in Leadville, Colorado, by David May in 1877, moving to St. Louis in 1905. After many changes in the retail industry, the company merged with Federated Department Stores in 2005.
Macy's, Inc. is an American holding company of department stores. Upon its establishment, Federated held ownership of the regional department store chains Abraham & Straus, Lazarus, Filene's, and Shillito's. Bloomingdale's joined Federated Department Stores the following year. Throughout its early history, frequent acquisitions and divestitures saw the company operate a number of nameplates. In 1994, Federated took over the department store chain Macy's. Despite a long history of preserving regional nameplates, with the acquisition of The May Department Stores Company in 2005, they were retired and replaced by the Macy's and Bloomingdale's brands nationwide by 2006. Ultimately, Federated itself was renamed Macy's, Inc. in 2007.
Macy's is an American department store chain founded in 1858 by Rowland Hussey Macy. It has been a sister brand to the Bloomingdale's department store chain since being acquired by Cincinnati-based holding company Federated Department Stores in 1994, which renamed itself Macy's, Inc. in 2007. It is the largest department store company by retail sales in the United States as of 2015.
Foley's was a regional chain of department stores owned by Federated Department Stores, later owned by May Department Stores (1988-2005) 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 Arizona, New Mexico, Colorado, Oklahoma, Texas and Louisiana. On September 9, 2006 Foley's and all the regional May Co. stores names were phased out and rebranded as Macy's.
Rich's was a department store retail chain, headquartered in Atlanta, Georgia, which operated in the southern U.S. from 1867 until March 6, 2005 when the nameplate was eliminated and replaced by Macy's. Many of the former Rich's stores today form the core of Macy's Central, an Atlanta-based division of Macy's, Inc., which formerly operated as Federated Department Stores, Inc.
Filene's was an American department store chain; it was founded by William Filene in 1881. The success of the original full-line store in Boston, Massachusetts, was supplemented by the foundation of its off-price sister store Filene's Basement in 1908. Filene's, in partnership with Abraham & Straus, Lazarus, and Shillito's, was an original member of the holding company Federated Department Stores upon its establishment in 1929.
Fred R. Lazarus Jr. was an American founder of Federated Department Stores, which became Macy's, Inc.
Goldsmith's was a department store founded in Memphis, Tennessee, in 1870 by German immigrant brothers Jacob and Isaac Goldsmith. It grew into a chain largely located in the Memphis metropolitan area, until 2005, when the nameplate was eliminated and replaced by Macy's. Goldsmith's stores were subsequently folded into Federated's Macy's Central division, reorganized into Macy's South, and today into a differently configured Macy's Central, the current division encompassing the stores.
Abraham & Straus, commonly shortened to A&S, is a defunct major New York City department store, based in Brooklyn. Founded in 1865, it became part of Federated Department Stores in 1929. Shortly after Federated's 1994 acquisition of R.H. Macy & Company, it eliminated the A&S brand. Most A&S stores took the Macy's name, although a few became part of Stern's, another Federated division, but one that offered lower-end goods than Macy's or A&S did.
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.
Allied Stores was a department store chain in the United States. It was founded in the 1930s as part of a general consolidation in the retail sector by B. E. Puckett. See also Associated Dry Goods. It was the successor to Hahn's Department Stores, a holding company founded in 1928. In 1935 Hahn's was reorganized into Allied Stores.
Macy's Central, headquartered in Atlanta, Georgia, is a division of Macy's, Inc. It has stores in Alabama, Georgia, Kentucky, Louisiana, North Carolina, Ohio, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, and Virginia. The divisional flagship store is located at Lenox Square in Atlanta.
The Rike-Kumler Company was an American department store in Dayton, Ohio. In 1959, Rike's became part of the Federated Department Stores conglomerate. In 1982, Federated merged Rike's with its Cincinnati unit, Shillito's, in order to form Shillito–Rike's. In 1986, Federated merged Shillito–Rike's into the Columbus-based Lazarus chain, which, in 2005 was consolidated with most other Federated chains under the Macy's brand.
John Shillito & Co. was Cincinnati's first department store. In 1817 John Shillito arrived in Cincinnati. The nine-year-old lad was soon working for the Cincinnati business Blatchley & Simpson. In 1830 he left to form a partnership with William McLaughlin, selling dry goods. A year later, McLaughlin left the company, and was replaced with Robert W. Burnett and James Pullen.
Castleton Square is an enclosed shopping mall in the Castleton neighborhood on the northeastern side of Indianapolis, Indiana, United States. Built by Edward J. DeBartolo Corporation and Homart Development Company in 1972, it is owned and managed by Simon Property Group. It is the largest mall in the state of Indiana, and has remained so since its construction. The center's original anchor stores were JCPenney, Sears, Lazarus, and Woolworth. Expansions in 1990 and 1998 added to the total number of anchor and inline stores, while also adding a food court. The anchor stores are JCPenney, Forever 21, H&M, AMC Theatres, Dick's Sporting Goods, Macy's, and Von Maur; the former location of Sears has been vacant since 2018. Overall, Castleton Square consists of over 130 inline stores.
Tri-County Mall was a shopping mall located on State Route 747 just south of Interstate 275 in the city of Springdale, Ohio, a suburb of Cincinnati, Ohio, United States. Originally known as Tri-County Shopping Center, it opened in 1960 and has been expanded several times in its history. The original shopping center was an open-air property featuring H. & S. Pogue Company (Pogue's) and John Shillito Company (Shillito's) as the anchor stores. An enclosed wing anchored by Sears was added in 1969, followed by the enclosure of the rest of the mall. Shillito's was later known as Shillito-Rike's, Lazarus, Lazarus-Macy's, and then just Macy's; Pogue's was consolidated with L. S. Ayres and then converted to JCPenney. A mall expansion begun in 1990 and finished in 1992 added a second level of stores and McAlpin's as a fourth anchor store. The mall underwent a slow decline in the 21st century, owing mainly to the center's age and increased competition and lost all of its anchors. Both JCPenney and Dillard's relocated to newer shopping centers in the 2010s, while Sears closed in 2018 and Macy's closed in 2021. The mall itself closed on May 15, 2022. It is owned by MarketSpace Capital and Park Harbor Capital.
The H. & S. Pogue Company was a Cincinnati, Ohio based department store chain founded by two brothers, Henry and Samuel Pogue. They came from County Cavan, Northern Ireland, to Cincinnati and worked in their uncle's dry goods store. They later were able to buy him out and H. & S. Pogue Dry Goods Company was established in 1863 at 111 West Fifth Street. Brothers Thomas, Joseph, and William Pogue would eventually join the enterprise.
Florence Mall is an indoor shopping mall in Florence, Kentucky, United States. Built in 1976 by Homart Development Company, the mall originally featured Sears, Shillito's, Pogue's, and JCPenney as its four anchor stores. The mall features over 100 stores and a food court. Another notable feature of the mall is the Florence Y'all Water Tower on the mall property; this water tower originally bore the mall's name, but was altered prior to the mall's opening. The mall's anchor stores are JCPenney and two locations of Macy's, with the former location of Sears being vacant. Florence Mall is owned and managed by Namdar Realty Group.
Anderson Towne Center is a shopping mall in Cincinnati, Ohio, United States. Built in 1969 as Beechmont Mall, it originally included John Shillito Company (Shillito's) and Mabley & Carew as its major anchor stores, with Gold Circle joining in 1980. Each anchor store changed names twice during the original mall's history: Shillito's became Rike Kumler Co. (Rike's) and then Lazarus, Mabley & Carew became Elder-Beerman and then Parisian, while Gold Circle became Hills and then Kmart. Between 2002 and 2003, the center was demolished except for the Lazarus and Kmart buildings, and renamed to Anderson Towne Center. Following the conversion of Lazarus to Macy's at that point and the closure of Kmart in 2013, the center's present anchor stores are Macy's, Kroger, Sky Zone, and Crunch Fitness.