Shoppers Fair

Last updated
Shoppers Fair
IndustryRetail
Founded1956 in Bridgeport, Connecticut
Defunct1975
FateChapter 11 bankruptcy
Area served
Northeastern and Midwestern United States

Shoppers Fair was an American discount department store chain. It was founded in 1956 in Bridgeport, Connecticut and owned by New York City-based Mangel, but primarily operated in the state of Michigan. The chain closed the last of its stores in 1975.

History

Shoppers Fair was founded in 1956 with a store in Bridgeport, Connecticut. By 1962, the chain was a subsidiary of New York-based Mangel and operated thirty-five stores in twelve states, with nine of those thirty-five being located in Michigan. [1] In 1971, Shoppers Fair reached an agreement with Borman's Inc., owner of the Yankee Stores chain, to acquire eight stores closed by Yankee in the metro Detroit area due to unprofitability. One of the eight, in Roseville, had never opened for business as Yankee. [2]

The Shoppers Fair chain was part of two lawsuits: one in 1960 against a department store in Flint, Michigan called The Fair, [3] and another four years later against an owner of an IGA store in Fort Smith, Arkansas also called Shoppers Fair. [4] Both cases ruled in the other stores' favors.

Mangel filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in March 1974. At the time, the company had 46 Shoppers Fair stores and 94 Mangels clothing stores. [5]

By December 1974, all of the Detroit stores were closed, [6] and by 1975, the ten remaining stores in the chain had gone out of business as well. [7]

Related Research Articles

Meijer American hypermarket chain

Meijer Inc. is an American supercenter chain throughout the Midwest, with its corporate headquarters in Walker, Michigan, which is a part of the Grand Rapids metropolitan area. Founded in 1934 as a supermarket chain, Meijer is credited with pioneering the modern supercenter concept in 1962. About half of the company's 253 stores are located in Michigan, with the other half in Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, Ohio, and Wisconsin. The chain was ranked No. 19 on Forbes magazine's 2015 list of "America's Largest Private Companies" and 19 in Fortune magazine's 2008 "The 35 largest U.S. private companies". Supermarket News ranks Meijer 15th on the list of Top 75 U.S. & Canadian Food Retailers & Wholesalers. Based on 2020 revenue, Meijer is the 21st-largest retailer in the United States.

Waldenbooks, operated by the Walden Book Company, Inc., was an American shopping mall-based bookstore chain and a subsidiary of Borders Group. The chain also ran a video game and software chain under the name Waldensoftware, as well as a children's educational toy chain under Walden Kids. In 2011, the chain was liquidated in bankruptcy.

Stop & Shop American chain of supermarkets

The Stop & Shop Supermarket Company, known as Stop & Shop, is a chain of supermarkets located in the northeastern United States. From its beginnings in 1892 as a small grocery store, it has grown to include 415 stores chain-wide.

Farmer Jack Supermarket in Michigan. U.S.

Farmer Jack was a supermarket chain based in Detroit, Michigan. At its peak, it operated more than 100 stores, primarily in metropolitan Detroit. In its final years, the chain operated as the Midwest subsidiary of the New Jersey-based A&P Corporation. A&P closed the Farmer Jack chain on July 7, 2007.

Jacobsons

Jacobson's was an American regional department store chain. Based in Jackson, Michigan, the chain operated primarily in Michigan and Florida, but also had stores in Ohio, Indiana, Kentucky and Kansas. Jacobson's focused on apparel, fine jewelry and home furnishings. The chain entered bankruptcy in early 2002 after 164 years of service. One store in Winter Park, Florida was re-established as Jacobson's in 2004, but closed in 2011.

History of Walmart

The history of Walmart, an American discount department store chain, began in 1950 when businessman Sam Walton purchased a store from Luther E. Harrison in Bentonville, Arkansas, and opened Walton's 5 & 10. The Walmart chain proper was founded in 1962 with a single store in Bentonville, expanding outside Arkansas by 1968 and throughout the rest of the Southern United States by the 1980s, ultimately operating a store in every state of the United States, plus its first stores in Canada, by 1995. The expansion was largely fueled by new store construction, although the chains Mohr-Value and Kuhn's Big K were also acquired. The company introduced its warehouse club chain Sam's Club in 1983 and its first Supercenter stores in 1988. By the second decade of the 21st century, the chain had grown to over 11,000 stores in 27 countries.

Genesee Valley Center Shopping mall in Michigan, United States

Genesee Valley Center is an enclosed shopping mall located in Flint Township, Michigan, outside the city of Flint, Michigan, United States. Opened in 1970, the mall is 1,272,397 square feet (118,209.5 m2) of leasable area. The mall has three anchor tenants: JCPenney, Macy's, and Play Big. It comprises more than 120 tenants, including a food court, and an external concourse called the Outdoor Village which also features a Barnes & Noble bookstore. The mall is located on Miller Road and Linden Road, near the junction of Interstate 69 (I-69) and I-75.

Food Fair

Food Fair, also known by its successor name Pantry Pride, was a large supermarket chain in the United States. It was founded by Samuel N. Friedland, who opened the first store in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania in the late 1920s. As of 1957, Food Fair had 275 stores, and at its peak, the chain had more than 500 stores. Friedland's family retained control of the firm through 1978, when the chain entered bankruptcy.

Eastland Center (Michigan) Shopping mall in Michigan, United States

Eastland Center was an enclosed shopping mall located in the city of Harper Woods, an inner-ring suburb of Detroit, Michigan, United States. Opened in 1957, the mall has been expanded several times since. K&G Fashion Superstore and Shoppers World serve as anchor stores, with four vacant anchors left by Sears, Target, Burlington, and Macy's.

Hartfield-Zodys American department store chain

Hartfield-Zodys was an American retail corporation begun in 1960. It operated the Hartfield chain of women's ready-to-wear apparel in the Los Angeles area, and starting in 1960, the Zodys chain of discount retail stores (1960-1986), which operated locations in California, Arizona, Nevada, New Mexico, and Michigan.

Courtland Center Shopping mall in Michigan, United States

Courtland Center, formerly Eastland Mall, is an enclosed shopping mall in Burton, Michigan, a suburb of Flint, Michigan, United States. It opened in 1968, two years before the larger Genesee Valley Center on the other side of the Flint metropolitan area. Courtland Center includes four anchor stores: JCPenney, Dunham's Sports, Staples, and Jo-Ann Etc., plus an exhibit space operated by Sloan Museum.

Art Van Furniture Defunct American retailer

Art Van Furniture Inc. was an American furniture retail store chain, with stores across the Midwestern United States. Founded in 1959, the company was headquartered in Warren, Michigan, and was the largest furniture retailer in the Midwest at its peak. In 2020, the company filed for bankruptcy and closed all of its stores.

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

The Village of Rochester Hills is an upscale retail lifestyle center located in Rochester Hills, Michigan, a suburb on the northern outskirts of Metro 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 one anchor store: Whole Foods Market. The second anchor store, Carson's closed on August 29, 2018, and will be replaced by Von Maur in March 2022.

Xpect Discounts

Xpect Discounts was a retail chain which started as a drug store then expanding into a full grocery store, consisting of seven stores in western Connecticut operating from the 1980s-2016. Xpect Discounts was operated by Clevelander Marc Glassman, who previously founded Marc's, which currently has nearly 60 stores in the Cleveland, Akron, Canton, Youngstown and Columbus, Ohio areas.

Interstate Department Stores, Inc., was an American holding company for a chain of small department stores, founded in Delaware in 1928. After a very rapid expansion as the result of acquisition and expansion of two discount store chains acquired in 1959 and 1960 and also two toy store chains acquired in 1967 and 1969, the firm was renamed in 1970 as Interstate Stores, Inc., to better reflect its business. Increased competition and the changes in consumer buying habits eventually led to decreased sales in the late 1960s and early 1970s which forced the firm to file for bankruptcy in 1974. After shedding all of its non-performing units, the firm was able to exit bankruptcy with the entire toy division intact along with a small remnant of the department store division in 1978. The firm was renamed Toys "R" Us upon emergence from bankruptcy.

Hamady was an American supermarket chain based in Flint, Michigan, United States, which at its peak had 37 stores and 1,300 employees. Given the chain's pervasiveness in the area, paper grocery bags were known as “Hamady sacks”. The family business is best remembered for sending truckloads of food to the strikers in the famous sit-down strike in 1937 of General Motors' Fisher Body plant that led to the recognition of the United Auto Workers by the auto industry. They were also the first grocery retailers to introduce self-service.

Yankee Stores was an American discount department store chain begun in Flint, Michigan. Partners Joseph Megdell and Wilbert Roberts opened their first store in 1948 to sell military surplus under the name U.S. Surplus. By 1964, it had become a discount chain with 21 stores throughout southeastern Michigan, primarily around Flint. Many of its locations were paired with local supermarket chain Hamady Brothers. Some larger stores, including those in Lansing and Bay City, were called Yankee Stadium.

Dawn Donuts Chain food company

Dawn Donuts is a doughnut chain begun in Jackson, Michigan. Although most of the chain was sold to Dunkin' Donuts in 1991, the bakery for the company's donuts remains operational, as do two locations in the Flint area.

References

  1. "Shoppers Fair discount house opens doors tomorrow". Battle Creek Enquirer . May 22, 1962. pp. Section 3 Page 6. Retrieved March 14, 2018.
  2. "8 more Yankee stores sold". Detroit Free Press . December 23, 1971. p. 3B. Retrieved 14 March 2018.
  3. "Fair-South Flint Plaza, Inc. v. Shoppers Fair of Flint, Inc". Justia. Retrieved 14 March 2018.
  4. "Shoppers Fair of Arkansas, Inc., et al., Appellants, v. the Sanders Co., Inc., Appellee, 328 F.2d 496 (8th Cir. 1964)". Justia.com. March 9, 1964. Retrieved March 14, 2018.
  5. Barmash, Isadore (March 2, 1974). "MANGEL STORES TO FILE PETITION". The New York Times . Retrieved March 14, 2018.
  6. "Shoppers Fair units closing". The Detroit Free Press . December 28, 1974. p. 7B. Retrieved 14 March 2018.
  7. "Shoppers Fair here to close its doors". The Herald Palladium . June 27, 1975. p. A1. Retrieved 14 March 2018.