Industry | Candles |
---|---|
Founded | 1968 |
Defunct | 2006 (as a company) |
Fate | Bankruptcy |
Headquarters | Houston, Texas |
Wicks 'N' Sticks, often written as Wicks n' Sticks, was a chain of mall-based candle and later home decor stores in the United States.
Wicks 'N' Sticks began in Houston in 1968, and by 1971 had grown to 18 locations in 11 states. [1] The store offered a range of 23 different scented candles, hand-carved candles from Germany, and hand-carved wooden candle holders from Spain. [1] By 1988, the chain had grown to a total of 305 stores, a large number of them franchised. [2] By the 1990s, the chain's product range had greatly expanded, due to the company only requiring a third of products to be purchased from them, allowing the franchisee to stock the other two-thirds with products including Christmas ornaments, porcelain items, collectibles, calendars, and more. [3] In 2006, the company filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy, citing new competition from other stores and foreign imports. [4] While a majority of stores closed at this time, some independent franchises continued including locations at Rhode Island's Warwick Mall, which closed in 2012, and at Florida's Volusia Mall, which closed in 2016.
Kmart, formerly legally registered as Kmart Corporation, now operated by Transformco, is a department store chain, and an online retailer in the United States and operates six remaining Kmart big-box department stores — 3 in the US Virgin Islands and one each in Kendale Lakes, Florida ; Bridgehampton, New York; and Tamuning, Guam.
Sears, Roebuck and Co., commonly known as Sears, is an American chain of department stores founded in 1892 by Richard Warren Sears and Alvah Curtis Roebuck and reincorporated in 1906 by Richard Sears and Julius Rosenwald, with what began as a mail ordering catalog company migrating to opening retail locations in 1925, the first in Chicago. In 2005, the company was bought by the management of the American big box discount chain Kmart, which upon completion of the merger, formed Sears Holdings. Through the 1980s, Sears was the largest retailer in the United States. In 2018, it was the 31st-largest. After several years of declining sales, Sears's parent company filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy on October 15, 2018. It announced on January 16, 2019, that it had won its bankruptcy auction, and that a reduced number of 425 stores would remain open, including 223 Sears stores.
Mervyn's was an American middle-scale department store chain based in Hayward, California, and founded by Mervin G. Morris (1920–2021). It carried national brands of clothing, footwear, bedding, bath products, furniture, jewelry, beauty products, electronics, toys, and housewares. Many of the company's stores were opened in shopping malls; however, some locations were operated independently. Based on 2005 revenue, Mervyn's was the 83rd largest retailer in the United States.
99 Ranch Market is an American supermarket chain owned by Tawa Supermarket Inc., which is based in Buena Park, California. 99 Ranch has 58 stores in the U.S., primarily in California, with other stores in Nevada, Oregon, Washington, New Jersey, Texas, Maryland, Massachusetts, Arizona, and Virginia. The company also started offering shopping via its website in 2014. In February 2021, the company also launched their mobile app for grocery delivery.
Toys "R" Us is an American toy, clothing, and baby product retailer owned by Tru Kids and various others. The company was founded in 1948; its first store was built in April 1948, with its headquarters located in Parsippany-Troy Hills, New Jersey, in the New York metropolitan area.
Pier 1 Imports, Inc., is an online retailer and former Fort Worth, Texas-based retail chain specializing in imported home furnishings and decor, particularly furniture, table-top items, decorative accessories, and seasonal decor. It was publicly traded on the New York Stock Exchange under ticker PIR. In January 2020, Pier 1 had over 1,000 physical stores throughout the United States and Canada. Pier 1 filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection on February 17, 2020, and on May 19, 2020, announced it was asking the bankruptcy court to close all stores, due in large part to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Bloomingdale's Inc. is an American luxury department store chain founded in 1861 by Joseph Bloomingdale and Lyman Bloomingdale. It was acquired by Federated Department Stores in 1930, which acquired the Macy’s department store chain in 1994, when they became sister brands. Ultimately, Federated itself was renamed Macy’s, Inc. in 2007.
Century III Mall is an abandoned enclosed shopping mall located along Route 51 in West Mifflin, Pennsylvania, about 10 miles southeast of downtown Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, United States. It operated from 1979 to 2019 - a period of almost 40 years. It is currently being demolished.
Dillard's, Inc. is an American department store chain with approximately 267 stores in 29 states and headquartered in Little Rock, Arkansas. Currently, the largest number of stores are located in Texas with 57 and Florida with 42. The company also has stores in 27 more states; however, it is absent from the Northeast, most of the Upper Midwest, and most of the West Coast, aside from three stores in California.
Belk, Inc. is an American department store chain founded in 1888 by William Henry Belk in Monroe, North Carolina, with nearly 300 locations in 16 states. Belk stores and Belk.com offer apparel, shoes, accessories, cosmetics, home furnishings, and a wedding registry.
Euromarket Designs Inc., doing business as Crate & Barrel, is an international furniture and home décor retail store headquartered in Northbrook, Illinois. They employ 8200 employees across over 100 stores in the United States and Canada, with franchises in Central America, South America, Asia and United Arab Emirates.
Payless ShoeSource Worldwide, LLC, is an American multinational discount footwear chain. Established in 1956 by cousins Louis and Shaol Pozez, Payless was a privately held company owned by Blum Capital, and Golden Gate Capital. In 1961, it became a public company as the Volume Shoe Corporation, which merged with The May Department Stores Company in 1979. In the 1980s, Payless was widely known in the U.S. for its Pro Wings line of discount sneakers, which often had Velcro straps instead of laces. In 1996, Payless became an independent publicly held company. In 2004, Payless announced it would exit the Parade chain and would close 100 Payless Shoe outlets. On August 17, 2007, the company acquired the Stride Rite Corporation and changed its name to Collective Brands, Inc. As of 2020, Payless is owned by a group of investors led by Alden Global Capital and Axar Capital Management.
Sakowitz was a men's clothing store which grew into a small chain of family-owned high-end department stores based in Houston, Texas. It operated from 1902 until 1990. Sakowitz was responsible for launching many of the now-famous European fashion designers in America - among them Andre' Courreges, Yves St. Laurent Rive Gauche, Zandra Rhoades, Givenchy, and Erminegildo Zegna. The Sakowitz catalogues were mailed to all fifty states and abroad.
Neiman Marcus is an American department store chain founded in 1907 in Dallas, Texas by Herbert Marcus, his sister Carrie Marcus Neiman, and her husband Abraham Lincoln Neiman. It has been owned by the Neiman Marcus Group since 1987, and is a sister brand to luxury department store Bergdorf Goodman through this ownership.
Vanity, also known as Vanity Shops, was an American specialty chain of fashion retailers that sold apparel and accessories targeted to fashion-conscious young females, online and in stores. The company was headquartered in Fargo, North Dakota. The fashion retailer's clothing items ranged in size from zero to 17 with pants inseam lengths of up to 37 inches (940 mm). Vanity filed for bankruptcy and closed its stores in 2017.
Crystal Mall is an enclosed, two-level regional mall in Waterford, Connecticut. It is situated in a central retail area off the Hartford Turnpike, across from a smaller, open-air shopping center, Waterford Commons. The mall covers a gross leaseable area of 782,786 sq ft (72,723 m2), making it Connecticut's ninth largest mall, boasting 110 shops. Its primary trade area includes a trade population of 296,161 people, mostly serving the nearby towns of Waterford, Stonington, Norwich, Groton and New London. The mall has 5 anchor stores, all of which are vacant.
Retail apocalypse refers to the closing of numerous brick-and-mortar retail stores, especially those of large chains, beginning around 2010 and accelerating due to the mandatory closures during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Transform SR Brands LLC is an American privately held company formed on February 11, 2019, to acquire some of the assets of Sears Holdings Corporation. The new company is owned by ESL Investments. Following the Chapter 11 bankruptcy filing of Sears Holdings on October 15, 2018, Transformco purchased the surviving assets owned by Sears Holdings for $5.2 billion.