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]
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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