The Sample

Last updated
The Sample
Industry Retail
Founded1928
Defunct1991
FateBankruptcy
Headquarters Buffalo, New York
ProductsClothing

The Sample, also known as The Sample Dress Shop or The Sample Shop, was a family-owned, high end department store specializing in upscale ladies clothing and furnishings based in Buffalo, New York. The original store was established by Anne W. Bunis on Hertel Avenue in North Buffalo in 1928. The company started when Mrs. Bunis returned from a trip to New York City with a set of 48 "sample" dresses, which she in turn sold for $12.75 each. Expansion occurred during the early 1950s with stores at Lancaster, New York; Lockport, New York; Thruway Plaza (later Thruway Mall) in Cheektowaga, New York; South Buffalo at 2182 Seneca Street; and Downtown Buffalo at 554 Main Street, the former home of Flint & Kent. The Downtown Buffalo store closed in 1959. In 1961, a store opened in Amherst, New York and in 1969, a store opened at Seneca Mall in West Seneca, New York. In 1971, a store opened at Eastern Hills Mall, with another store opening up at the Summit Park Mall in 1972, and in 1985, a store opened in McKinley Mall in Hamburg, New York. The last store in the then 11-store chain opened in 1988 at Walden Galleria in Cheektowaga, New York. In 1990, following the death of company chairman Maer Bunis, the company began a rapid descent into bankruptcy. On January 31, 1991, the flagship Hertel Avenue store closed.

The Sample was famous for its "Pup Sale", the semi-annual clearance sale heralded in the newspapers by detailed very funny advertisements which blamed the excess merchandise on their buyer's whims, poor taste or their supposed temporary insanity. The "pups" referred to the excess merchandise which was sold at very low prices. The Pup Sales were quite crowded and generally thought of as the most popular clothing sale of the year in all of Buffalo by its shoppers. The buying frenzy at a Pup Sale was considerable to say the least.

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Saks Fifth Avenue</span> Multinational department store chain founded in the United States

Saks Fifth Avenue is an American luxury brand associated with Saks, a luxury ecommerce platform, and SFA stores, a chain of high-end department stores in North America. Founded by Andrew Saks, it is headquartered in New York City. The original Saks opened in the F Street shopping district of Washington, D.C. in 1867. Saks expanded into Manhattan with its Herald Square store in 1902 and flagship store on Fifth Avenue in 1924. The chain was acquired by Tennessee-based Proffitt's, Inc. in 1998, and Saks, Inc. was acquired by the Hudson's Bay Company (HBC) in 2013.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Cheektowaga, New York</span> Town in New York, United States

Cheektowaga is a town in Erie County, New York, United States. As of the 2020 census, the town has grown to a population of 89,877. The town is in the north-central part of the county, and is an inner ring suburb of Buffalo. The town is the second-largest suburb of Buffalo, after the Town of Amherst.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">West Seneca, New York</span> Town in New York, United States

West Seneca is a town in Erie County, New York, United States. The population was 45,500 at the 2020 census. West Seneca is a centrally located interior town of the county, and a suburb of Buffalo. West Seneca, Orchard Park and Hamburg form the inner "Southtowns", a cluster of middle-class suburban towns.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Gimbels</span> Defunct American department store

Gimbel Brothers was an American department store corporation that operated for over a century, from 1842 until 1987. Gimbel patriarch Adam Gimbel opened his first store in Vincennes, Indiana, in 1842. In 1887, the company moved its operations to the Gimbel Brothers Department Store in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. It became a chain when it opened a second, larger store in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, in 1894, moving its headquarters there. At the urging of future company president Bernard Gimbel, grandson of the founder, the company expanded to New York City in 1910.

Ohrbach's was a moderate-priced department store with a merchandising focus primarily on clothing and accessories. From its modest start in 1923 until the chain's demise in 1987, Ohrbach's expanded dramatically after World War II, and opened numerous branch locations in the New York and Los Angeles metropolitan areas. Its original flagship store was located on Union Square in New York City. It maintained administrative offices in Newark and in Los Angeles. The retailer closed the Newark offices in the 1970s. Paul László designed the Union Square store as well as many of their other stores.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Filene's</span> Defunct department store chain in the northeastern US

Filene's is an American department store chain; it was founded by William Filene in 1881. The success of the original full-line store in Boston, Massachusetts, was supplemented by the foundation of its off-price sister store Filene's Basement in 1908. Filene's, in partnership with Abraham & Straus, Lazarus, and Shillito's, was an original member of the holding company Federated Department Stores upon its establishment in 1929.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Hens and Kelly</span>

Hens and Kelly, established in 1892 by Mathias J. Hens and Patrick J. Kelly, was a chain of department stores based in Buffalo, New York. They were early adopters of S&H Green Stamps as a promotional incentive for repeat customers. The downtown store was located at 478 Main Street at the corner of Mohawk Street. The first branch location opened in December 1950, in South Buffalo at 2262 Seneca Street. It closed in 1959. Other stores followed in the L.B. Smith Plaza in Lackawanna, New York; 2863 Bailey Avenue, in Buffalo; and the Transitown Plaza, in Clarence, New York.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Walden Galleria</span> Shopping mall in New York, U.S.

Walden Galleria is a regional shopping mall located in Cheektowaga, a suburb of Buffalo, New York located east of Interstate 90 and New York State Thruway exit 52 off Walden Avenue. The Walden Galleria comprises more than 1,600,000 square feet (150,000 m2) of retail space, with 170 stores on two levels, including a food court and a movie theater. In 2021, Walden Galleria was listed among the top 20 most visited shopping centers in America, attracting over 23 million visitors from the United States and Canada. The mall is owned and managed by The Pyramid Companies of Syracuse, New York, the same management firm which developed it. The mall features Macy's, JCPenney, Primark, Dick's Sporting Goods, Best Buy, in addition to a 16-screen Regal Cinemas which also features 4DX.

McKinley Mall, which opened on October 7, 1985, is a shopping mall in Buffalo, New York, United States. The mall is located in Hamburg, New York at the intersection of McKinley Parkway and Milestrip Road immediately east of Interstate 90 and the New York State Thruway. McKinley Mall services the Southtowns of Erie County, New York.

Adam, Meldrum & Anderson Company (AM&A's) was a chain of department stores based in Buffalo, New York. It was an institution to generations of shoppers in the Buffalo area. The company remained family owned until its sale to The Bon-Ton in 1995.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Read's Department Stores</span> Now-defunct department store chain

Read's Department Stores was a Bridgeport, Connecticut-based retail chain founded in 1857 by D. M. Read. Known for its classy, upscale merchandise, the flagship store was once hailed as New England's largest department store. It expanded to several other locations in the 1950s and 1960s, but these closed progressively through the 1980s and 1990s.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">H. & S. Pogue Company</span> American department store chain

The H. & S. Pogue Company was a Cincinnati, Ohio based department store chain founded by two brothers, Henry and Samuel Pogue. They came from County Cavan, Northern Ireland, to Cincinnati and worked in their uncle's dry goods store. They later were able to buy him out and H. & S. Pogue Dry Goods Company was established in 1863 at 111 West Fifth Street. Brothers Thomas, Joseph, and William Pogue would eventually join the enterprise.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">New York State Route 952Q</span> State highway in New York State

New York State Route 952Q (NY 952Q) is an unsigned reference route designation for the portion of Walden Avenue outside of the Buffalo city limits in Erie County, New York, in the United States. The western terminus of the 14-mile (23 km) route is at the Buffalo city line in Cheektowaga, where Walden Avenue continues west toward downtown Buffalo. Its eastern terminus is at Genesee Street in Alden, where NY 33 and Genesee Street continue on the linear northeasterly path followed by Walden Avenue for most of its routing.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Oppenheim Collins</span>

Oppenheim Collins was a major women's specialty clothing store, headquartered in New York City, New York.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sattler's</span> Former department store chain in Buffalo, NY

Sattler's was a regional department store chain headquartered at 998 Broadway, Buffalo, New York, two miles (3 km) from the downtown core. They pioneered "bargain basement" retailing in the Buffalo area. Sattler's was founded in 1889 by 17-year-old John G. Sattler when he opened a one-room shoe store in his mother's home at 992 Broadway. That store would eventually become Sattler's main store which, by 1950, covered 6 acres (24,000 m2) and included the 365,000-square-foot (33,900 m2) flagship store. In the late-1920s the store introduced a number of innovative marketing and promotional schemes to attract customers such as weekly automobile giveaways and high wire walkers. They also resold the contents of bankrupt stores purchased in railcar lots called the "Bargain Train". Starting in 1947, they sponsored an annual Santa Claus parade.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">L. L. Berger</span> Former high-end department store in Buffalo, NY, USA

L. L. Berger was a high-end department store based in Buffalo, New York. The family owned store was started by Louis L. Berger in 1905, at 500 Main Street. The company grew through the next two decades and opened its flagship store at 514 Main Street on February 4, 1929. The first suburban branch opened in 1953, at Thruway Plaza in Cheektowaga, New York, followed in 1960, with a location at Sheridan Plaza, in Tonawanda (Town), New York. At the death of its founder in 1967, the L. L. Berger company was "compared in fashion retailing to Saks Fifth Avenue and Lord and Taylor in New York, I. Magnin in San Francisco, and Neiman Marcus in Dallas." Expansion continued with stores opening in 1969, at the Seneca Mall, in West Seneca, New York and 1970, at the Northtown Plaza in Amherst, New York. Additional stores opened in 1975, at the Lockport Mall, in Lockport, New York; in 1982 at the Transitown Plaza in Clarence, New York; in 1988 at the McKinley Mall, in Hamburg, New York; and in 1989 at the Walden Galleria in Cheektowaga, New York. A second Buffalo location opened at 510 Elmwood Avenue in the early 1980s. The company filed Chapter 11 bankruptcy in 1991. In the early 2000s the flagship store was renovated to be upscale apartments and commercial space.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Bond Clothing Stores</span> Mens clothing company

Bond Clothing Stores, Bond Clothes, Bond Clothiers, or Bond Stores, was a men's clothing manufacturing company and retailer. The company catered to the middle-class consumer.

The Shops at West Seneca was a shopping mall south of Buffalo, New York, United States. Built in 1969 as an enclosed shopping mall called Seneca Mall, it is in the Town of West Seneca at the intersection of Ridge Road and Slade Avenue immediately east of the New York State Thruway.

B. Forman Co. was a retail store in Rochester, New York, specializing primarily in high-end women's clothing. Once the largest store of its kind between New York and Chicago, the company, founded by Benjamin Forman in the first decade of the twentieth century, closed in 1994. B. Forman Co., along with McCurdy & Co., created Rochester's Midtown Plaza.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Colonial Plaza</span> Shopping mall in Florida, U.S.

Colonial Plaza is a shopping mall in Orlando, Florida, United States. Opened in 1956, it was the largest retail development in the state of Florida at the time of its construction. The original complex included two supermarkets and two variety stores, plus a Belk department store. It underwent multiple expansions in its history, the first of which added a Jordan Marsh department store and an enclosed mall concourse. Further expansion in 1973 added a second enclosed wing and a relocation of Belk, while Ivey's was added in 1983 and sold to Dillard's in 1990.

References