 | |
| Type | Discount department store |
|---|---|
| Industry | Retail |
| Founded | 1874 |
| Headquarters | Chicago, Illinois |
| Products | Apparel, fabrics, furniture, sewing machines, baby buggies, toys and games for adults, inexpensive household items |
The Fair Store was a discount department store founded in 1874 in Chicago, Illinois. [1]
Founder Ernst J. Lehmann decided on the name "The Fair Store" as he felt "the store was like a fair because it offered many different things for sale at a cheap price." [1] Lehmann bought and sold goods on a cash-only basis; he offered odd prices (i. e., prices not in multiples of five cents) to save customers a few pennies on every purchase. The flagship store moved to the corner of State and Adams Streets in 1875; a modern twelve-story building for the store would be completed on that site in 1897. [2]
The Fair Store promoted itself as a discount department store in the early 1900s. In 1915, a booklet published by the store stated "The Fair Store is still, as it always has been and undoubtedly always will be, the store of the people, the down-town shopping center for the Savers, the market place for the Thrifty." In 1925 the business was sold to a syndicate headed by S.S. Kresge (predecessor firm of Kmart). Under its management, branches were opened on Milwaukee Avenue (1929), in Oak Park, Illinois (1929), at the Evergreen Plaza Shopping Center (1952), and at the Old Orchard Shopping Center (1956). [3]
In 1957, Montgomery Ward purchased the State Street flagship store, as well as the Oak Park, Evergreen Plaza, and Old Orchard locations, from the Kresge syndicate in a bid to expand its Chicago operations; unlike many other retailers, Montgomery Ward had not joined in the construction of branch stores immediately following World War II. Initially, these stores retained the Fair nameplate, and one more Fair Store would open, at Randhurst Mall in 1962. However, the Randhurst store would also be the first converted to the Montgomery Ward nameplate, in August 1963; the other locations would convert to the parent company's name plate in 1964. The flagship building on State Street was closed in 1984 and demolished in 1985. [4] [5] Though a new building was planned for the valuable real estate, none was constructed until 2001. [3]
Saks Fifth Avenue, originally A. Saks & Co., is an American luxury department store chain, with its origins in Andrew Saks' A. Saks & Co. store opened in Washington, D.C.'s F Street shopping district in 1867. Saks' flagship store is located on Fifth Avenue in Midtown Manhattan, New York City. The 1924 New York store on Fifth Avenue lent its street name to the chain which would be known by what was originally the moniker of its flagship store, Saks Fifth Avenue.
Montgomery Ward is the name of two successive U.S. retail corporations. The original Montgomery Ward & Co. was a world-pioneering mail-order business and later also a leading department store chain that operated between 1872 and 2001. The current Montgomery Ward Inc. is a national online shopping and mail-order catalog retailer that started several years after the original Montgomery Ward shut down.
A discount store or discounter offers a retail format in which products are sold at prices that are in principle lower than an actual or supposed "full retail price". Discounters rely on bulk purchasing and efficient distribution to keep down costs.
Del Amo Fashion Center is a three-level regional shopping mall in Torrance, California, United States. It is currently managed and co-owned by Simon Property Group.
Northland Center was a shopping mall on an approximately 159-acre (64 ha) site located near the intersection of M-10 and Greenfield Road in Southfield, Michigan, an inner-ring suburb of Detroit, Michigan, United States. Construction began in 1952 and the mall opened on March 22, 1954. Northland was a milestone for regional shopping centers in the United States. Designed by Victor Gruen, the mall initially included a four-level Hudson's with a ring of stores surrounding it. As originally built, it was an open air pedestrian mall with arrayed structures. The mall was enclosed in 1975 and expanded several times in its history. Additions included five other department store anchors: J. C. Penney in 1975, MainStreet in 1985, and TJ Maxx, Target, and Montgomery Ward in the 1990s. Managed by Spinoso Real Estate Group, Northland Center featured approximately 100 stores. Macy's, the last anchor, closed on March 22, 2015, exactly 61 years to the date of the mall's opening. There are 6 vacant anchor stores that were once Kohl's, Montgomery Ward, TJ Maxx, Macy's, Target, and JCPenney.
Uptown Janesville is an enclosed shopping mall located in Janesville, Wisconsin, United States. Opened in 1973, the mall has more than 68 tenants. The anchor stores are Dick's Sporting Goods, Ulta Beauty, and Kohl's. There are 3 vacant anchor stores that were once Sears, Boston Store, and JCPenney.
River Oaks Center is a shopping mall located at the southeast corner of River Oaks Drive and Torrence Drive in Calumet City, Illinois, an inner-ring suburb south of Chicago. River Oaks Center is the seventh largest in the Chicago metropolitan area totaling 1,379,824 square feet (128,190 m2). Today, there are over 140 stores and two anchors including JCPenney and Macy's with two vacant anchors last occupied by Carson Pirie Scott and Sears. Namdar Realty Group and Mason Asset Management manages and owns River Oaks Center.
May Company California was a chain of department stores operating in Southern California and Nevada, with headquarters in North Hollywood, California. 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.
Westfield Old Orchard, formerly Old Orchard Shopping Center, is an upscale shopping mall in the Chicago metropolitan area. It is located in Skokie, Illinois. Anchor stores include Bloomingdale's, Macy's, Nordstrom and Barnes & Noble.
Southgate Shopping Center is a shopping center located at the southeast corner of Eureka and Trenton Roads in Southgate, Michigan. Completed by 1958, it was one of the first major strip malls in the southern Detroit suburbs until the nearby Southland Center opened in 1970. At its peak, the center housed over thirty stores.
Wieboldt Stores, Inc., also known as Wieboldt's, did business as a Chicago general retailer between 1883 and 1987. It was founded in 1883 by storekeeper William A. Wieboldt. The flagship location was at One North State Street Store in Chicago.
Springdale Mall is a shopping center located in Mobile, Alabama, United States, directly across from Bel Air Mall. Opened in 1959 as an open-air shopping center, Springdale Mall was later redeveloped as an enclosed shopping center. Facing competition from larger shopping centers in the area, Springdale was demolished in stages in the 2000s, with most of the former enclosed mall being replaced with big-box stores.
The Plaza, formerly known as Evergreen Plaza, was a shopping mall in Evergreen Park, Illinois, United States. It was legally organized by Arthur Rubloff, who is also credited with coining the phrase "Magnificent Mile" describing the upscale section of Michigan Avenue north of the Chicago River to Oak Street. Rubloff secured the funding for the Evergreen Plaza from the Walgreen family who lived nearby in Beverly, Chicago. The Evergreen Plaza operated from 1952 to 2013. It featured over 120 stores, as well as a food court. The mall closed in 2013 and became an outdoor shopping center. Anchors include Whole Foods Market, and Burlington Coat Factory.
Ward Parkway Center, Ward Parkway Mall, or Ward Parkway Shopping Center is a shopping center located in Kansas City, Missouri on the Kansas/Missouri border line. The location surrounds the area on the North from 85th Terrace to 89th Street on the South and on the West from State Line Road to Ward Parkway on the East. Once a two floor mall with a food court it now has one floor with the first floor enclosed. The mall itself is currently in a redevelopment phase and has been in business since 1959. Former stores Sam Goody, Gap, T.G.I. Friday's, The Limited, and Winstead's. Ward Parkway Center is the location of the first modern movie multiplex, with its original two screens still operated by AMC Theatres. Originally a tiny two-screen theater located near Montgomery Ward, later expanded to the new complex.
Randhurst Village, previously known as Randhurst Mall and Randhurst Center or simply Randhurst, is a shopping mall located at the corner of Rand Road and Elmhurst Road in Mount Prospect, Illinois. The mall took its name from combining the names of these two roads.
Century Mall was an indoor shopping mall located on the southeast corner of Broadway and US 30 in Merrillville, Indiana, United States. The mall opened in 1979 with anchor stores Goldblatt's and Montgomery Ward. Competitive and economic factors sent the mall into steady decline and national retail chains left throughout the 1990s until the mall was ultimately sold for redevelopment in 2001 then closed and largely demolished in 2002. The mall's interior stores also suffered following Montgomery Ward's remodeling. Montgomery Ward removed their mall entrance and told customers that no stores remained, when in reality close to a dozen stores were still open. A strip mall development named Century Plaza now occupies the land and some of the former anchor store buildings.
Rogers Plaza is an enclosed shopping mall in Wyoming, Michigan, a suburb of Grand Rapids, Michigan. Opened in 1961, it was the first shopping mall in Western Michigan and the first enclosed one in the state of Michigan. The center features Planet Fitness, Citi Trends, and OfficeMax among its major stores.
Buzz Westfall Plaza on the Boulevard is a shopping center in Jennings, Missouri. Opened in 1955 as Northland Shopping Center, it initially featured a Famous-Barr department store as its anchor store. Extensive redevelopment of the property began in 2005, resulting in a strip mall anchored by Schnucks and Aldi, with a vacancy last occupied by Target.
Panorama Mall, in Panorama City, in the San Fernando Valley, Los Angeles, is an enclosed mall anchored by two large discount stores, Walmart, and Los Angeles-based Curacao, aimed primarily at a Hispanic customer base.