Company type | Department store |
---|---|
Industry | Retail |
Founded | October 9, 1868 |
Fate | Converted to Meier & Frank or sold to Dillard's |
Successor | Meier & Frank (2001–2006) Dillard's (2001–present) Macy's (2006–present) |
Headquarters | Salt Lake City, Utah |
Products | Clothing, footwear, bedding, furniture, jewelry, beauty products, and housewares. |
Parent | The May Department Stores Company (1999–2001) |
Zion's Co-operative Mercantile Institution (ZCMI) was an American department store chain. It was founded in Salt Lake City, Utah, on October 9, 1868, by Brigham Young. For many years it used the slogan, "America's First Department Store."
Even though the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS Church) had been headquartered in Salt Lake City for some twenty years by that time, they were despised by the surrounding community, as Young had disparaged non-Mormon merchants who had engaged in price gouging on necessities, and encouraged boycotting these businesses in 1866. [1] Mormon business owners were routinely charged higher prices by wholesalers who discovered they were dealing with Latter-day Saints.
Partly because of the impending completion of the railroad, and partly to create a more fair business atmosphere, it was Young's idea to encourage Mormon businesses to band together under one roof. By pooling their resources, they were able to make larger orders to sell materials and goods exclusively (at the time) to fellow LDS Church members. [2] : 8–9
ZCMI was formally organized in 1868 and incorporated for a 25-year renewable contract in 1870. [3] : 19 The central component of this was the LDS Church's purchase of the Eagle Emporium, a conglomerate of mercantile companies owned by William Jennings. [2] : 23
ZCMI became a formidable business force, eventually manufacturing its own line of boots and shoes, and a line of work clothes. It also sold everything from housing needs, lumber, nails, and the like, to household needs such as fabric, needles, thread, food preservation products, furniture, and draperies, even some beauty products; nearly everything the pioneers needed to survive and thrive. [4]
Based in Salt Lake City, it quickly became a household name in the community. The LDS Church was a significant influence in the company, retaining a majority interest in ZCMI until its eventual sale in December 1999. [5] The store was established by a vote from the Council of Fifty, an early organization in the LDS Church. The President of the store would often also be President of the LDS, with Harold Harper Bennett being the first President of the store to not also hold the LDS office.
In 1990, ZCMI opened its first concept store called ZCMI II. Featuring a smaller floor plan than its usual stores, this concept sold solely men's and women's clothing and shoes, while lacking other departments such as housewares, linens, and children's clothing. The first of these opened at Tri City Mall in Mesa, Arizona in 1990. [6]
In October 1999, as a result of losses for two consecutive years, along with mounting economic and social pressures, ZCMI was sold to May Department Stores Company of St. Louis, [5] ZCMI operated under its original name as a part of May's Portland-based Meier & Frank division until April 2001, when the stores adopted the Meier & Frank name. In addition to the name change, the Utah stores in Logan and St. George, along with the Idaho stores in Idaho Falls and Pocatello, were sold to Dillard's in March 2001. [7] May Co. was sold to Federated Department Stores (now Macy's, Inc.) in 2005. [8] In September 2006, all Meier & Frank stores were converted to Macy's. [9]
The façade of ZCMI was used in the City Creek Center, retaining the original ZCMI nameplate as a front for Macy's.
The May Department Stores Company was an American department store holding company, formerly headquartered in downtown St. Louis, Missouri. It was founded in Leadville, Colorado, by David May in 1877, moving to St. Louis in 1905. After many changes in the retail industry, the company merged with Federated Department Stores in 2005.
Originally, the Salt Lake Valley was inhabited by the Shoshone, Paiute, Goshute and Ute Native American tribes. At the time of the founding of Salt Lake City the valley was within the territory of the Northwestern Shoshone, who had their seasonal camps along streams within the valley and in adjacent valleys. One of the local Shoshone tribes, the Western Goshute tribe, referred to the Great Salt Lake as Pi'a-pa, meaning "big water", or Ti'tsa-pa, meaning "bad water". The land was treated by the United States as public domain; no aboriginal title by the Northwestern Shoshone was ever recognized by the United States or extinguished by treaty with the United States. Father Silvestre Vélez de Escalante, a Spanish Franciscan missionary is considered the first European explorer in the area in 1776, but only came as far north as Utah valley (Provo), some 60 miles south of the Salt Lake City area. The first US visitor to see the Salt Lake area was Jim Bridger in 1824. U.S. Army officer John C. Frémont surveyed the Great Salt Lake and the Salt Lake Valley in 1843 and 1845. The Donner Party, a group of ill-fated pioneers, traveled through the Great Salt Lake Valley a year before the Mormon pioneers. This group had spent weeks traversing difficult terrain and brush, cutting a road through the Wasatch Mountains, coming through Emigration canyon into the Salt Lake Valley on August 12, 1846. This same path would be used by the vanguard company of Mormon pioneers, and for many years after that by those following them to Salt Lake.
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Meier & Frank was a prominent chain of department stores founded in Portland, Oregon, United States, and later bought by The May Department Stores Company. Meier & Frank operated in the Pacific Northwest from 1857 to 2006.
Charles Wilson Nibley was a Scottish-American religious leader, businessman, and politician. Nibley was a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and served as the fifth presiding bishop of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints between 1907 and 1925 and a member of the church's First Presidency from 1925 until his death. He was also a businessman and was involved in various industries, such as lumber, sugar, and railroads.
Boise Towne Square is a mall in the western United States, located in Boise, Idaho. The largest retail complex in the state, it opened in 1988 after more than 20 years of planning, and features 150 stores, with Macy's, JCPenney, Kohl's and Dillard's as anchor stores. The mall also includes the first Apple Store in Idaho. Boise Towne Square is owned by the Chicago-based Brookfield Properties and is located near the junction of Interstate 84 and Interstate 184.
The ZCMI Center Mall was a shopping mall in downtown Salt Lake City, Utah, that operated from 1975 to 2007, before being demolished to make way for City Creek Center. The mall was developed and owned by Zions Securities Corporation, a for-profit entity owned by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. The mall was located kitty-corner from the church's Temple Square.
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