Sprouse-Reitz

Last updated
Sprouse-Reitz (Sprouse!)
Type Public (NASDAQ: STRS)
Industry Retail
Founded Portland, Oregon, United States (1909 (1909))
Defunct1994 (1994)
Fate Liquidation
Headquarters
Portland, Oregon [1]
Number of locations
Approx. 320 stores (max.) [2]
Area served
Western United States
ProductsGeneral Merchandise
Total assets $80 million (1991) [2]

Sprouse-Reitz is a defunct chain of five-and-dime stores based in Portland, Oregon, United States. The Sprouse-Reitz Company was founded in 1909 in Tacoma, Washington. [3] At its peak it had more than 470 stores in eleven states in the Western United States. [1]

Contents

Around January 1989, [3] the declining retailer tried to revive its business by rebranding its stores "Sprouse!". [2] In June 1990, with the store count at 287, CEO Robert Sprouse II, who controlled about 80 percent of the company's voting stock, said that chain would change its focus to six specific areas: toys, housewares, crafts, home furnishings, family apparel, greeting cards, wrapping paper, and other paper products. [4] In late 1990, the chain was sold for $22.9 million to SR Partners, Inc., a joint venture among realtors TransAction Financial Corp., acquisition specialists First San Francisco Holdings, Ltd., and individual investors. [5]

In December 1993, Sprouse-Reitz Inc. liquidated and closed its remaining 84 stores after failing to find a buyer. [6] The company estimated that the last stores would close in February. [7] As of late February 1994, the last stores were scheduled to close on March 20. [1]

Related Research Articles

Albertsons Companies, Inc. is an American grocery company founded and headquartered in Boise, Idaho.

The May Department Stores Company

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.

Safeway Inc. American supermarket chain

Safeway is an American supermarket chain founded by Marion Barton Skaggs in April 1915 in American Falls, Idaho. The chain provides grocery items, food and general merchandise and feature a variety of specialty departments, such as bakery, delicatessen, floral and pharmacy, as well as Starbucks coffee shops and fuel centers. It is a subsidiary of Albertsons after being acquired by private equity investors led by Cerberus Capital Management in January 2015. Safeway's primary base of operations is in the Western United States with some stores located in the Mid-Atlantic region of the Eastern Seaboard. The subsidiary is headquartered in Pleasanton, California, with its parent company, Albertsons, headquartered in Boise, Idaho.

<i>ampm</i> US multinational convenience store chain

ampm is a convenience store chain with branches located in several U.S. states, including Arizona, California, Nevada, Oregon, Washington and in several countries such as Costa Rica and Brazil. The brand pulled out of the Eastern United States in 2012.

Fred Meyer is an American chain of hypermarket superstores founded in 1931 in Portland, Oregon, USA, by Fred G. Meyer. The stores are found in the western U.S., within the states of Oregon, Washington, Idaho, and Alaska. The company merged with Kroger in 1998, though the stores are still branded Fred Meyer. The chain was one of the first in the United States to promote one-stop shopping, eventually combining a complete grocery supermarket with a drugstore, bank, clothing, jewelry, home decor, home improvement, garden, electronics, restaurant, shoes, sporting goods and toys. The western region of Kroger corporation is headquartered in Portland.

Vons American supermarket chain

Vons is a Southern California and Southern Nevada supermarket chain owned by Albertsons. 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.

Plaid Pantry is a chain of privately owned convenience stores based in Beaverton, Oregon, United States. Of 108 locations, one is in the Seattle, Washington area, eight are near Salem, and the remainder are in the Portland metropolitan area.

Washington Square (Oregon) Shopping mall in Tigard, Oregon, United States

Washington Square is a shopping mall in the city of Tigard, Oregon, United States. Located in the Portland metropolitan area along Oregon Route 217, the shopping complex is one of the top grossing malls per square foot in the United States, with sales of $716/ft². Opened in 1973, the mall is currently managed and co-owned by The Macerich Company, a real estate investment trust, and is anchored by Macy's, Nordstrom, JCPenney, and Dick's Sporting Goods.

Lloyd Center Shopping mall in Portland, Oregon, United States

Lloyd Center is a shopping mall in the Lloyd District of Portland, Oregon, United States, just northeast of downtown. It is owned by Arrow Retail of Dallas. The mall features three floors of shopping with the third level serving mostly as professional office spaces, a food court, and U.S. Education Corporation's Carrington College. There are currently no anchors in the mall. There are vacant anchor spaces left by Macy's, Marshalls, Nordstrom, and Sears. Junior anchors include Barnes & Noble and Ross Dress for Less.

Kaspien Holdings, Inc. is an American company that provides software and services for ecommerce. Kaspien Holdings operates on Amazon in the United States, Canada, United Kingdom, Spain, France, Italy, Germany, the Netherlands, Sweden, and India, as well as Walmart Marketplace, eBay, Google Shopping, and Target. Its interim CEO is Goldman Sachs veteran Brock Kowalchuk, who took over March 11, 2022.

Pay 'n Save was a retail company founded by Monte Lafayette Bean in Seattle, Washington in 1940. Over the years, Pay 'n Save was the leading drugstore chain in Washington and was the owner of several Washington-based retailers including Lamonts and Ernst. A 1984 sale of the company to The Trump Group and a 1986 attempt to transform the retailer into a bargain-basement merchandiser resulted in a loss of nearly $50 million. By 1988, Pay 'n Save was sold to Thrifty Corporation who later sold the stores to PayLess Drug who retired the Pay 'n Save name. As a result, most of the retailer's divisions were spun off as separate companies or shuttered. As of 2020, Pay 'n Save's membership discount chain, Bi-Mart, is the lone surviving division of the company.

Longs Drugs is an American chain owned by parent company CVS Health with approximately 70 drugstores throughout the state of Hawaii and formerly in the Continental US.

Emporium, more formally known as Troutman's Emporium, was a chain of department stores founded in 1955 by Dallas Troutman in North Bend, Oregon. After 1977, Emporium's headquarters was located in Eugene, Oregon. At its peak, Emporium operated at least 34 stores, in Oregon, Idaho, Nevada, California and Washington. The company filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in 2002 and liquidated. The last stores closed in 2003.

Camera World

Camera World was a retailer of photographic equipment and photofinishing services based in Portland, Oregon, United States, and founded in 1977. It was an independent company until 2002, and then from 2002 to 2016 it was a brand of Ritz Camera & Image or C&A Marketing. In the mid-1990s, it was one of the largest mail-order retailers of photographic and audio equipment in the nation. The company's revenues totalled $80 million in 1998, of which $16 million were from online sales. Revenues grew to $115.7 million in 1999, and the company relocated its administrative offices and inventory to a new facility in Beaverton, Oregon, the following year. The company's only brick-and-mortar store, in downtown Portland, as well as its Internet business were sold in 2002 to Ritz Camera, which continued to operate them under the Camera World name. Ritz, in turn, was acquired by C&A Marketing in 2012, but retained the Camera World name as a Ritz brand, for both the store and the Internet business, until closure of the store. The store closed on January 21, 2016.

Rosauers Supermarkets, Inc. is a regional chain of supermarkets in the Western United States, based in Spokane, Washington. Founded in 1934 by J. Merton Rosauer, Rosauers was sold in 1984 to Spokane-based URM Stores, and it eventually grew to 22 stores under the Huckleberry's Natural Market, Rosauers, and Super 1 Foods brands. Its stores are located in Washington, Idaho, Montana, and Oregon.

Haggen Food & Pharmacy is a grocery retailer in Washington state.

G.I. Joes

G.I. Joe's was a privately owned retail chain for sporting goods, ready-to-wear clothing, and auto parts; that operated stores in the Pacific Northwest region of the northwestern United States.

Norm Thompson Outfitters is a privately owned catalog and internet retailer based in Middleton, Massachusetts that was previously based in Hillsboro, Oregon, United States until September 2016. The Norm Thompson offices were closed and consolidated due to Bluestem's acquisition of their parent company, Orchard Brands, in July 2015. Founded in 1949 by Norman A. (Norm) Thompson as a mail order business, it grew to annual sales of $200 million before it was sold to Golden Gate Capital Partners in 2006. The company sells clothing, gadgets, furniture, kitchen items, and gift items from its namesake catalog as well as from its Solutions and Sahalie brands. John Difrancesco serves as president and chief executive of the 500 employee company.

J. K. Gill Company

The J.K. Gill Company, also known as J.K. Gill and Gill's, was an office supply company specializing in books and school supplies, based in Portland, Oregon, United States. The company existed for about 130 years. Operating mainly in the Pacific Northwest states of Oregon and Washington, the company at its peak employed over 500 and had retail stores in four western states, including California and Arizona.

References

  1. 1 2 3 Hamburg, Ken (February 26, 1994). "End nears for Sprouse-Reitz stores". The Oregonian . p. D1.
  2. 1 2 3 Baker, Nena (September 22, 1991). "Tripp hopes to steer Sprouse-Reitz Inc. clear of troubled waters". The Sunday Oregonian . p. K1.
  3. 1 2 Moscow-Pullman Daily News - Jan 11, 1989 - Sprouse-Reitz Changes Name, Unveils New Look - Google News
  4. "Sprouse-Reitz seeks buyer, focuses market niche". UPI. June 5, 1990. Retrieved May 20, 2018.
  5. "Sprouse Reitz stores sold; Sprouse family members will remain as consultants". Discount Store News . December 17, 1990. Archived from the original on May 23, 2011.{{cite journal}}: CS1 maint: bot: original URL status unknown (link)
  6. "Sprouse-Reitz Stores to Sell Off All Assets". New York Times. September 3, 1993. p. D3.
  7. "Sprouse-Reitz Decides to Go Out of Business". The Seattle Times . Associated Press. December 22, 1993. p. D6.