Company type | discount department store |
---|---|
Industry | Retail |
Founded | 1957Lynn, Massachusetts [1] | in
Founder | Harold Sparks |
Defunct | 1978 |
Fate | stores sold individually to other chains |
Headquarters | , |
Area served | Boston and US Midwest |
Products | Clothing, footwear, bedding, furniture, jewelry, beauty products, electronics and housewares. |
Parent | Jewel |
Website | None |
Turn Style was a chain of discount department stores and was a division of Chicago-based Jewel, the parent company of the Jewel Food Stores supermarket chain. Some mid-western Turn Styles had an Osco Pharmacy, at the time very uncommon for a discount store in the 1960s and 1970s. [2] At its peak, the chain comprised more than fifty stores throughout Chicago, as well as in downstate Illinois, Decatur, Illinois, Moline, Illinois; Davenport, Iowa; Omaha, Nebraska; Boston, Massachusetts; Merrillville, Indiana; Michigan, and Racine, Wisconsin.
Turn Style was a Brighton, Massachusetts-based discount department store chain that was founded by Harold Sparks who had open his first store in Lynn, Massachusetts in 1957. [1] [3] This was the first discount department store that had opened in the state of Massachusetts and the second in New England following the opening of Topps which had just opened 7 months earlier in neighboring Connecticut. Other locations were quickly open in Massachusetts in Brighton (1958), [3] [4] [5] Lawrence (1960), and Medford (1961). [6]
Jewel acquired the Turn Style brand in 1961 [7] and began rapidly expanding the chain. Sales for the 1961 year were listed as $14 million (~$109 million in 2023) U.S. dollars with four stores, with headquarters in Brighton, Massachusetts. [8] The first Turn Style Family Center was opened in Racine in March 1962. [9]
At its peak, the chain operated throughout the Midwest, as well as in the Boston, Massachusetts area. Within three years of opening a store in Racine, Wisconsin, profits as measured on a ROI basis were the highest within Jewel Companies. Rapid expansion, the corporate decision to incorporate a catalog type store within its four walls, and an unrealistic divisive venture into the "Hypermarket" business, all caused profits to suffer.[ citation needed ]
The economy also caused Jewel to rethink its growth strategy and the decision was made to sell Turn Style in order to concentrate its growth within its core businesses, which were food stores and drugstores. In 1978, 19 out of 22 of the existing stores were sold to May Department Stores and converted to the Venture format. [10] [11] Other stores were converted to large Osco Drug Stores, [12] [13] and some were closed entirely.
Jewel-Osco is a regional supermarket chain in the Chicago metropolitan area, headquartered in Itasca, a western suburb. In 2007, the company had 188 stores across northern, central, and western Illinois; eastern Iowa; and portions of northwest Indiana. Jewel-Osco has been a wholly owned subsidiary of Boise-based Albertsons since 1999. The company originally started as a door-to-door coffee delivery service before it expanded into delivering non-perishable groceries and later into grocery stores, and supermarkets. Prior to its 1984 acquisition by American Stores, Jewel evolved into a large multi-state holding company that operated several supermarket chains and other non-food retail chain stores located from coast to coast and had operated under several different brand names.
Osco Drug and Sav-on Drugs were the names of a pair of chain pharmacies that operated in the United States. Osco Drug was founded by the Skaggs family. Alpha Beta grocery store was purchased by American Stores in 1961. Skaggs Drug Centers bought American Stores in 1979 and assumed the American Stores name. Sav-on Drugs was a California-based pharmacy chain that was acquired by Osco's parent company in 1980. Both Osco and Sav-on stores eventually came under the ownership of American Stores, then Albertsons, and finally SuperValu before the stores were sold off.
Save A Lot Food Stores Ltd. is an American discount supermarket chain store headquartered in St. Ann, Missouri, in Greater St. Louis. It has about 900 independently owned and operated stores across 32 states in the United States with over $4 billion in annual sales.
Walden Book Company, Inc., doing business as, Waldenbooks, 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.
Shaw's and Star Market are two American supermarket chains under united management based in West Bridgewater, Massachusetts, employing about 30,000 associates in 150 total stores; 129 stores are operated under the Shaw's banner in Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, and Vermont, while Star Market operates 21 stores in Massachusetts, most of which are in or near Boston. Until 2010, Shaw's operated stores in all six New England states, and as of 2021 Shaw's remained the only supermarket chain with stores in five of the six, after it sold its Connecticut operations. The chain's largest competitors are Hannaford, Market Basket, Price Chopper, Roche Bros., Wegmans, and Stop & Shop. Star Market is a companion store to Shaw's, Shaw's having purchased the competing chain in 1999.
Brigham's Ice Cream is a brand of ice cream and formerly a restaurant franchise. Brigham's is sold in quart containers throughout New England, and was served at franchised restaurants located in Massachusetts until 2013. It was founded in Newton Highlands, Massachusetts. Since the purchase by HP Hood, its offices are located at Kimball Lane, Lynnfield, Massachusetts. The company maintains a strong regional identity, using regional terms such as "wicked" (extremely) and "frappe", and makes reference to events with special significance to New Englanders, such as the Big Dig and the 2004 World Series. At one time, there were 100 Brigham's restaurant locations; the last was in Arlington, Massachusetts, and changed its name in August 2015. The ice cream is currently owned and manufactured by Hood.
Lucky Stores are a pair of American supermarket chains. The original chain was founded in San Leandro, California, that operated from 1935 until 1999. The Lucky brand was revived in 2006 and 2007 and is now operated as two separate and distinct chains by Albertsons in Utah as Lucky and Save Mart Supermarkets in Northern California as Lucky California.
Skaggs Companies was the predecessor to many famous United States retailing chains, including Safeway, Albertsons, Osco Drug, and Longs Drugs. The company owned several drugstore chains, but all of them were sold. Skaggs Cos. became American Stores in 1979.
American Stores Company was an American public corporation and a holding company which ran chains of supermarkets and drugstores in the United States from 1917 through 1998. The company was incorporated in 1917 when The Acme Tea Company merged with four small Philadelphia-area grocery stores (Childs, George Dunlap, Bell Company, and A House That Quality Built) to form American Stores. In the following eight decades, the company would expand to 1,575 food and drugstores in 38 states with $20 billion in annual sales in 1998.
Dominick's was a Chicago-area grocery store chain and subsidiary of Safeway Inc. Dominick's distribution center was located in Northlake, Illinois, while its management offices were located in Oak Brook, Illinois.
Star Market is a New England chain of supermarkets based in Greater Boston. It was owned by the Mugar family and started in 1915. The company was sold to The Jewel Companies, Inc. in 1964 and later to Investcorp, which in turn sold the chain to Shaw's Supermarkets. As stores were remodeled, many adopted the Shaw's name, leaving only a handful of Star Market stores operating by the late 2000s. In 2008, Shaw's began to revive the name, a trend which was expedited after the parent company of both chains was sold to Cerberus Capital Management. Today, both Shaw's and Star Market are administered as a single division.
Buttrey Food & Drug was a chain of grocery stores founded in Havre, Montana, and formerly headquartered in Great Falls, Montana. The company was founded in 1896 as a chain of department stores branded Buttrey Department Store. The company opened grocery stores in 1935 and sold off its department store division following a 1966 acquisition by The Jewel Companies, Inc. Jewel was sold to American Stores in 1984, and later Buttrey was sold off as a separate company in 1990. The company was sold to its main competitor, Boise, Idaho–based Albertsons, in January 1998 and the Buttrey name was retired. At that time, Buttrey was operating 43 stores in Montana, Wyoming, and North Dakota with a revenue of US$391.4 million.
Omni Superstore was a chain of supermarkets in the Chicago area and was owned by Dominick's. In 1997, Dominick's phased out Omni and converted the stores into Dominick's because the concept was not generating enough revenue compared to other Dominick's stores.
Kohl’s Food Stores was a Milwaukee-area grocery store chain and subsidiary of The Great Atlantic and Pacific Tea Company. Kohl’s Food Stores distribution center was located in Waukesha, while its management offices were located in Milwaukee, Wisconsin.
Perry Drug Stores was an American retail pharmacy chain founded in 1957 in the city of Pontiac, Michigan, United States. At its peak in the 1980s, Perry operated more than 200 drug stores, primarily in the state of Michigan, as well as 200 Auto Works auto parts stores and fourteen A. L. Price discount health and beauty aids outlets. In 1995, Perry Drug Stores was bought out by Rite Aid, a pharmacy chain based in Camp Hill, Pennsylvania. The Perry chain, which at the time comprised 224 stores, was the largest acquisition ever made by Rite Aid. In addition, this acquisition brought the Rite Aid name to the Detroit area for the first time.
Johnnie's Foodmaster, more commonly known as simply Foodmaster, was a chain of supermarkets in the Boston Metro Area. It had its headquarters in Chelsea, Massachusetts and all stores were located in the state. On November 18, 2012, all ten stores closed, with six leases being transferred to Austin, Texas–based Whole Foods Market, and two to Quincy–based Stop & Shop; the future of the remaining locations was unknown at the time of closure.
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.
Eisner Food Stores was a chain of supermarkets in Illinois and Indiana. It was acquired by The Jewel Companies, Inc. in 1957. The Eisner stores were rebranded as Jewel in 1985.
The Turnstyle department store, near the Edwards Bridge in Lynn, begins its first anniversary sale today.
Another branch of the Turn Style self-service department store has opened at Brighton. Harold Sparks opened the first Turn Style in Lynn in March 1957.
A Brighton firm, the Turnstyle Corp, celebrated its first anniversary yesterday with a store-wide sale. Sparks, now president of the corporation...
Turnstyle open its fourth department store yesterday in Medford. President of the firm is Harold Sparks who opened the first Turnstyle in Lynn in 1957, the second in Brighton in 1958, and the third in Lawrence in 1960.
Jewel Tea Co. Inc., the nation's 10th ranking supermarket chain, has reached an "agreement in principle" to acquire Turnstyle Corp., four self-service department stores in the Boston area. Harold P. Sparks, president of the Boston-area department store group, was elected a vice-president of Jewel Tea Co. Turnstyle would, in effect, become the third arm in Jewel's projected plans for self-service family centers combining supermarket, department store and variety-drug store units under one roof. The eastern firm will assist in the development of such combinations, the first of which is planned for completion next spring in Racine, Wis. In family centers, it will concentrate primarily on soft goods but also carry other products. Osco Drug Inc., a consolidated subsidiary of the Jewel Tea Co., Inc., is another major link in the family center concept as the food chain intensifies its diversification program in self-servicing. Osco will handle a line of general variety goods, including hardware accessories, small appliances, outdoor furnishings, and normal drug merchandise. Turnstyle opened its first store five years ago in Lynn, Mass., and also operates three other self-service department stores in that area.
The first Turnstyle Family center operated by the Jewel Tea company was opened last Wednesday at 4901 Washington av. in Racine. The 110,000 square foot center, as developed by Jewel, represents a new concept in retailing.
May Department Stores, Inc. and Venture Stores Division have reached an agreement in principle to acquire 19 out of 22 Turn Style department stores from Jewel Companies, Inc., the firms disclosed Tuesday... The transaction is expected to be completed no later than June 1.[ dead link ]
locations in Michigan, Iowa, Wisconsin, Nebraska, and Illinois.
Three Indianapolis Turn Style stores will be converted to Osco Drugstores, John Spurlock, vice-president and chief operating officer of Turn Style announced... Transition is scheduled to be completed in November.
Three Indianapolis Turn-Style stores will be converted to Osco Drug stores... Stores will remain open during the remodeling, which is scheduled for completion in November. Osco Drug and Turn-Style, along with Eisner, a food store chain adjacent to Osco Drug stores in Indianapolis, are subsidiaries of Jewel Companies Inc.