Over its nearly 30-year history, Witmark dominated the jewelry market with an average of a 34% market share. The organization made it a point to develop and keep close ties with the communities the stores served.
By the early 1990s, Witmark's earnings began to decrease due to continued involvement in unprofitable categories outside of jewelry. Big box stores such as Best Buy, Circuit City, Toys "R" Us, Dick's Sporting Goods, and MC Sports captured the electronics, toy, and sports markets respectively and more effectively than Witmark could.
In 1996, Witmark experienced its fourth consecutive year of declining sales and earnings, and the company announced changes to its operating strategy. Unfortunately, vast barriers—such as long-term leases on real estate—limited the company's ability to adapt to the changing business climate. The following year, Witmark liquidated its assets and laid off its 700+ employees. Like the larger national chains of catalog showrooms (such as Best Products), the retail concept collapsed in the late 1990s due to overwhelming competition from big box stores and Internet shopping.
Image gallery
The Plainfield Township, MI Witmark Catalog Showroom. Opened 1969, demolished 2021.
Tandy Corporation was an American family-owned leather goods company based in Fort Worth, Texas, United States. Tandy Leather was founded in 1919 as a leather supply store. By the end of the 1950s, under the tutelage of then-CEO Charles Tandy, the company expanded into the hobby market, making leather moccasins and coin purses, making huge sales among Scouts, leading to a fast growth in sales.
Sears, Roebuck and Co., commonly known as Sears, is an American chain of department stores founded by Richard Warren Sears and Alvah Curtis Roebuck in 1892 and reincorporated by Richard Sears and Julius Rosenwald in 1906. It began as a mail ordering catalog company, then began opening retail locations in 1925, the first in Chicago, Illinois. In 2005, the company was bought by the management of the American big box discount chain Kmart, which formed Sears Holdings on completion of the merger. 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.
Future Shop was a Canadian electronics store chain. It was established in 1982 by Hassan Khosrowshahi. By 1990, the chain had become the country's largest retailer of computer and consumer electronics. In January 2013, the company operated 139 locations across Canada.
Best Buy Co., Inc. is an American multinational consumer electronics retailer headquartered in Richfield, Minnesota. Originally founded by Richard M. Schulze and James Wheeler in 1966 as an audio specialty store called Sound of Music, it was rebranded under its current name with an emphasis on consumer electronics in 1983.
Spencer Gifts LLC, doing business as Spencer's, is a North American mall retailer with over 600 stores in the United States and Canada. Their stores specialize in novelty and gag gifts, and also sell clothing, band merchandise, sex toys, room decor, collectible figures, fashion and body jewelry, fantasy and horror items. The company also owns and operates a pop-up seasonal retailer, Spirit Halloween.
Consumers Distributing was a catalogue store in Canada and the United States that operated from 1957 to 1996. At its peak, the company operated 243 outlets in Canada and 217 in the United States, including stores in every province in Canada and in the states of New Hampshire, Massachusetts, Connecticut, New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Maryland, California and Nevada.
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.
A big-box store is a physically large retail establishment, usually part of a chain of stores. The term sometimes also refers, by extension, to the company that operates the store.
Best Products was a chain of American catalog showroom retail stores founded by Sydney and Frances Lewis, formerly headquartered in Richmond, Virginia. It was founded in 1957 and went out of business in 1997. At the time of the second bankruptcy filing, it had 169 Best stores and 11 Best Jewelry stores in 23 states, and a nationwide mail-order service. When in operation Best Products was traded on the NASDAQ exchange as "BESTQ".
Service Merchandise was a retailer chain of catalog showrooms carrying jewelry, toys, sporting goods, and electronics that existed for 68 years. The company also experimented opening other stores such as Mr. HOW hardware store chain.
The Musicland Group, Inc. was an entertainment company that ran Musicland, Sam Goody, Discount Records, Suncoast Motion Picture Company, On Cue, and the Media Play Superstore Chains. The Musicland Group was purchased by Best Buy in 2001 at the height of Musicland's success, which ultimately led to its demise. Jack Eugster was the CEO of The Musicland Group, from 1980, until February 2001. Its headquarters were in Minnetonka, Minnesota.
A catalog merchant is a form of retailing. The typical merchant sells a wide variety of household and personal products, with many emphasizing jewelry. Unlike a self-serve retail store, most of the items are not displayed; customers select the products from printed catalogs in the store and fill out an order form. The order is brought to the sales counter, where a clerk retrieves the items from the warehouse area to a payment and checkout station.
Fred Meyer Jewelers is a national chain of jewelers. It is a wholly owned subsidiary of Fred Meyer and Kroger. The company also operates under the name Littman Jewelers.
Brendle's was a chain of catalog showrooms based in Elkin, North Carolina, USA. Its showrooms carried jewelry, toys, sporting goods, and electronics. At its peak in 1990, Brendle's operated 58 showrooms in North Carolina, South Carolina, Virginia, Georgia, and Tennessee.
K's Merchandise Mart, Inc. was a catalog showroom department store based in Decatur, Illinois. It offered furniture, jewelry, and general merchandise, including electronics, at 17 locations in 5 Midwestern states at the time of its closing.
FuncoLand was an American video game retailer based in Eden Prairie, Minnesota, that specialized in selling new and used video game software. It is considered the first video game retailer to allow consumers to sell and trade used video games. The brand's parent company Funco Inc. was established in the home of David R. Pomije in 1988, initially as a leaser of video games to Minneapolis–Saint Paul video rental shops, and then as a mail-order business specializing in used video games. Upon the success of this venture, Pomije moved the business to a Minneapolis warehouse, and began opening retail outlets nationwide. In May 2000, Funco was acquired by Barnes & Noble for $161.5 million, and was merged with its subsidiary Babbage's to form GameStop in December 2000.
Luria's was a chain of catalog showroom stores in Florida, from 1961 to 1997.
Globe Discount City and Globe Shopping City was a chain of discount department stores that operated beginning in 1960. Globe stores were located in the Southwest United States and were operated as a "big-box store" retail arm of Walgreens for much of the chain's operational lifecycle. Massive financial losses led to the dispersal of the entire chain through a combination of liquidation sales and transferral of individual store locations in 1978. An independently-run Globe Discount City Store continued until its closure in 1999.
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