This is a list of defunct department stores of the United States, from small-town one-unit stores to mega-chains, which have disappeared over the past 100 years. Many closed, while others were sold or merged with other department stores.
Many United States department store chains and local department stores, some with long and proud histories, went out of business or lost their identities between 1986 and 2006 as the result of a complex series of corporate mergers and acquisitions that involved Federated Department Stores and The May Department Stores Company with many stores becoming units of Macy's, Inc. The following is a list of the affected stores, including some local and regional stores that earlier had been absorbed into chains that became part of Federated, May, or Macy's.
Ames. Bradlees was part of the Stop 'n Shop Companies which was a grocery chain also based in Mass. While there were Bradlees discount stores in the mid Atlantic region, with a buying office on Broadway in the garment center district in NYC; the grocery stores were only in the New England area. Caldor, Service Merchandise, Venture, Woolco, and Zayre were national discount stores that closed due to changes in shopping places and patterns, and/or large debt from mergers and acquisitions. [2]
Osco Drug and Sav-on Drugs were the names of a pair of chain pharmacies that operated in the United States. Osco Drug was founded by the Skaggs family. Alpha Beta grocery store was purchased by American Stores in 1961. Skaggs Drug Centers bought American Stores in 1979 and assumed the American Stores name. Sav-on Drugs was a California-based pharmacy chain that was acquired by Osco's parent company in 1980. Both Osco and Sav-on stores eventually came under the ownership of American Stores, then Albertsons, and finally SuperValu before the stores were sold off.
Broadway Stores, Inc., was an American retailer based in Southern California. Known through its history as Carter Hawley Hale Stores and Broadway Hale Stores over time, it acquired other retail store chains in regions outside its California home base and became in certain retail sectors a regional and national retailer in the 1970s and 1980s. The company was able to survive takeover attempts in 1984 and 1986, and also a Chapter 11 bankruptcy filing in 1991 by selling off most of its assets until August 1995 when its banks refused to advance enough additional credit in order for the company to be able to pay off suppliers. At that point, the company sold itself to Federated Department Stores for $1.6 billion with the acquisition being completed on October 12, 1995.
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.
The Paseo is an outdoor mall in Pasadena, California, covering three city blocks with office space, shops, restaurants, a movie theater, and 400 loft-style condominiums above.
Vons is a supermarket chain owned by Albertsons, with most of its locations in Southern California and the Las Vegas Valley. It is headquartered in Fullerton, California, and operates stores under the Vons and Pavilions banners. It was owned by Safeway Inc. and headquartered in Arcadia, California, before that company was acquired by and folded into Albertsons along with all of their subsidiaries, including Vons.
Bullocks Wilshire, located at 3050 Wilshire Boulevard in Los Angeles, California, is a 230,000-square-foot (21,000 m2) Art Deco building. The building opened in September 1929 as a luxury department store for owner John G. Bullock. Bullocks Wilshire was also the name of the department store chain of which the Los Angeles store was the flagship; it had seven stores total; Macy's incorporated them into and rebranded them as I. Magnin in 1989, before closing I. Magnin entirely in 1994. The building is currently owned by Southwestern Law School.
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.
Thrifty PayLess Holdings, Inc. was a pharmacy holding company that owned the Thrifty Drugs and PayLess Drug Stores chains in the western United States. The combined company was formed in April 1994 when Los Angeles–based TCH Corporation, the parent company of Thrifty Corporation and Thrifty Drug Stores, Inc., acquired the Kmart subsidiary PayLess Drug Stores Northwest, Inc. At the time of the merger, TCH Corporation was renamed Thrifty PayLess Holdings, Inc. and Thrifty operated 495 stores, PayLess operated 543 stores.
Bullock's was a chain of full-line department stores from 1907 through 1995, headquartered in Los Angeles, growing to operate across California, Arizona and Nevada. Bullock's also operated as many as seven more upscale Bullocks Wilshire specialty department stores across Southern California. Many former Bullock's locations continue to operate today as Macy's.
I. Magnin & Company was a San Francisco, California-based high fashion and specialty goods luxury department store. Over the course of its existence, it expanded across the West into Southern California and the adjoining states of Arizona, Oregon, and Washington. In the 1970s, under Federated Department Stores ownership, the chain entered the Chicago, and Washington, D.C., metropolitan areas. Mary Ann Magnin founded the company in 1876 and named the chain after her husband Isaac.
Federal Employees' Distributing Company, known as Fedco, was a membership department store chain that operated in Southern California from 1948 to 1999.
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.
The Emporium, from 1880 to 1995 Emporium-Capwell, was a mid-line department store chain headquartered in San Francisco, California, which operated for 100 years—from 1896 to 1996. The flagship location on San Francisco's Market Street was a destination shopping location for decades, and several branch stores operated in the various suburbs of the Bay Area. The Emporium and its sister department store chains were acquired by Federated Department Stores in 1995, and many converted to Macy's locations.
May Company California was an American chain of department stores operating in Southern California and Nevada, with headquarters at its flagship Downtown Los Angeles store until 1983 when it moved them to North Hollywood. It was a subsidiary of May Department Stores and merged with May's other Southern California subsidiary, J. W. Robinson's, in 1993 to form Robinsons-May.
Akron Stores or The Akron was a Southern California–based imported goods and home decorating department store retail chain established in 1947 and was known to carry unusual merchandise, mostly imports. The chain had over 24 stores throughout Southern California from San Diego to San Francisco before it was forced to close in 1985.
CenterMark, formerly known as May Centers, was a mall development company owned by a consortium of Westfield Holdings Ltd., General Growth Properties, and Whitehall Street Real Estate L.P. III. And it was formerly owned by The May Department Stores Company until 1992, and Prudential Insurance until 1993.
Retail in Southern California dates back to its first dry goods store that Jonathan Temple opened in 1827 on Calle Principal, when Los Angeles was still a Mexican village. After the American conquest, as the pueblo grew into a small town surpassing 4,000 population in 1860, dry goods stores continued to open, including the forerunners of what would be local chains. Larger retailers moved progressively further south to the 1880s-1890s Central Business District, which was later razed to become the Civic Center. Starting in the mid-1890s, major stores moved ever southward, first onto Broadway around 3rd, then starting in 1905 to Broadway between 4th and 9th, then starting in 1915 westward onto West Seventh Street up to Figueroa. For half a century Broadway and Seventh streets together formed one of America's largest and busiest downtown shopping districts.
Asher Hamburger (1821–1897) was the founder of the A. Hamburger & Sons department store, at the beginning of the 20th century the largest department store in the Western United States, which would in 1923 became May Company California.
Shopping isn't the same without Zayre, Ames and Woolco.
Korvettes Inc. has closed its 17 remaining department stores, a company spokesman said. The chain, which operated 50 stores a year ago and which pared its staff to less than 3,000 from 11,000, shut down its remaining outlet on Christmas Eve.Alternate Link (subscription required) via ProQuest.
So far 41 Topps discount stores have been closed, 11 are expected to be closed by July 1974 and the remaining nine will also be closed. Of its operating units, 25 are department stores, 43 are discount stores and 48 are toy supermarkets.Link (subscription required) via ProQuest.
"Government Employees Together" was a membership store open to city, state and federal employees that began in the 1950s in the Lakeshore Plaza Shopping ...
GET (Government Employees Together) 11 Lakeshore Plaza ... RANSOHOFFS san francisco SINCE 1902 sacromento San Francisco's Independently Owned Specialty Shop Traditionally Known For Quality And Fashion 259 Post ...
L. Prager , of the Prager Department Store ...
Volume 102, Number 72
Just Any Day at Scandalhoff's
The Beresford Club was probably located in San Mateo, California,and is now named Peninsula Golf & Country Club.
Lake Norconian Club and Golden Gate International Exposition
Printed by the Grabhorn Press
Block's, a chain of stores based here [Pocatello] for over 70 years, will close by June 21. The company, owned by Sy Block, president, is undergoing a liquidation sale and five of the 11 units are already closed. The chain's stores are in Idaho and Utah. At its peak, the chain had 14 stores.Link (subscription required) via ProQuest.
Interco made its first diversification move in 1964, when it bought for 337,679 shares P.N. Hirsch & Co., a chain of junior department stores. At the time, Hirsch had 105 stores. At the 1966 year-end, the division ran 210 stores, located in 16 states in the Midwest, Northwest and South. Last year eight stores were opened in the Midwest. The Hirsch division is also busily expanding in other ways. In January 1966, it purchased four department stores in northern California from W.R. Carithers & Sons, Inc., and in February, the unit acquired all the capital stock of Idaho Department Store Co., Caldwell, Idaho, a chain of 25 stores. In September, Interco acquired Central Hardware Co. and its subsidiary, Witte Hardware Co. Central operates a six-store chain of supermarket-type hardware stores located in Greater St. LouisLink (subscription required) via ProQuest.
Idaho Department Store Co. is taking over the operations of an allied chain, P.N. Hirsch Co., after the sale of 275 Hirsch's 351 stores.
gordon's department store in gary indiana.
Kennedy's: Boston's Largest, Livest, Leading Men's Store…an early slogan… The store had its humble beginnings in 1892 in a small shop in Hyde Park… blossoming in 1912 with the leasing of the large, handsome building on the corner of Summer and Hawley Streets built in 1873… By the late 1970's, Kennedy's was owned by the Van Heusen Corporation… The company was not making the profits [Van Heusen] deemed necessary and in early 1980 decided to close many of the Kennedy's locations including the Boston flagship.
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: CS1 maint: date and year (link)eight locations. Its store at Livernois and Seven Mile helped give that area its nickname: "the Avenue of Fashion."
Lauermans, which opened in 1904, - 1985 was the leading department store in the southern Upper Peninsula and a majority of its employees were women and . Upper Peninsula and to the south of Menominee across the river in Marinette, Wisconsin. The difference between the clothing or women's shop was that department stores were usually several stories in size and carried a variety of goods–groceries, clothing for women, men and children, undergarments, notions, yarn, cloth, linen, ready-made clothing, furniture, carpets, draperies, office supplies–to name a few housed in separate departments.
Lloyd's Department Store was built by Menominee millionaire inventor, industrialist, business and civic leader Marshall Burns Lloyd in 1926, after the city's only department store was destroyed by fire and not rebuilt.
The Nieman-Marcus of Ann Arbor .. Mack & Company was Ann Arbor's counterpart to downtown Detroit's big J.L. Hudson store. It sold everything from furniture and carpets to cosmetics and lingerie, from dry goods to insurance, from health food to postage stamps. It had its own pharmacy. And it even had its own bank.
Michigan's longest-serving governor was a Republican renowned for reaching across the aisle to Democratic colleagues, and for making Michigan's environmental health a priority. His collection at the Bentley reveals a breed of politician that's nearly extinct.
The owner of Mitzelfeld's department store says he will attempt to lease the space in Downtown once his store closes at the end of the month.
Alberta Muirhead in 1989 stands outside the department she founded in 1946 with her late husband, John Muirhead. January 17, 2011
Four Sears Hometown stores have announced permanent shutdowns in Michigan this month with closeout sales, leaving the storied retail name all but absent from the state. Stores in Escanaba, Houghton, Ionia and Sault Ste. Marie posted on their Facebook sites about the closings, which come less than a year after Michigan's last Sears department store, in Westland, closed in June 2021.
Remember Wonderland discount department stores in Dowagiac and Niles?
The company, which has a storied history, has abruptly shut down.
Younkers Inc., a unit of Equitable of Iowa Cos., said it agreed to buy J.L. Brandeis & Sons Inc. Brandeis, owned by Alan Baer of Omaha, Neb., operates 11 department stores in Nebraska and Iowa.Alternate Link (subscription required) via ProQuest.
J.L. Brandeis & Sons, Inc. has purchase Gold & Co. of Lincoln for an undisclosed amount of cash. The two largest family-owned independent department stores in Nebraska have joined, ostensibly to combat the inroads being made by chain competition. Brndeis, Nebraska's largest department store has six locations, all in Omaha. Gold's has a downtown store covering nearly a square block, plus a warehouse operation, It includes a supermarket and automotive service center. Brandeis owns the local Metropolitan Drug Co. Gold's was founded in 1902 by William Gold, grandfather of its president. Brandeis started business in 1880 by Jonas Brandeis, grandfather of it president.Link (subscription required) via ProQuest.
The Rudge & Guenzel has operated in Lincoln for 54 years. While official confirmation was not forthcoming at press time, it was reported that Gold & Co., Inc. have purchased only the stock and will not continue the operation of the store.Link (subscription required) via ProQuest.
Sterling Welch Cleveland.
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