MNeagle
19th November 2012, 04:12 PM
Why are retailers ruining Thanksgiving?
Commentary: Customers want Black Friday to start on Thursday
By Jennifer Waters (jwaters@marketwatch.com),
MarketWatch
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CHICAGO (MarketWatch) — Say goodbye to Thanksgiving — and Black
Friday while you’re at it. Retailers are wrecking holiday time for shoppers and
shop workers alike.
This year will see an unprecedented move by the big boys of retail to open
their stores earlier than ever on Thanksgiving Day, putting pressure on the
traditions — from indulging in an oversize dinner to loafing around watching
football — that many families hold sacred.
“Retailers have basically ruined every holiday,” says Marshal Cohen, chief
industry analyst at NPD Group, a retail research consultant. “They have
commercialized every single holiday by creating a good reason to promote
something and drive traffic.”
They do it for the simple reason that, well, they can. It follows that adage
from “Field of Dreams” that if you build it, they will come. If you open the
store earlier, they will shop.
We’ve seen the creep into Thanksgiving Day grow more aggressive each year but
never getting this close to family time. Bold steps have been taken over the
last three to five years as retailers first encroached on the day with online
teasers for midnight Black Friday sales at the bricks-and-mortar stores to
online sales during Thanksgiving Day to just opening the stores while many are
still just getting to the turkey.
Bill Tancer, the general manager of global retail for Experian, sees it as a
confluence of sophisticated retailing and consumer boredom, thanks to the
swelling population of cyber-deal surfers on Thanksgiving. He’s been following
for the past decade a growing group of restless consumers who turn to the
Internet for entertainment and holiday shopping on the holiday. From 2003 to
2011, the No. 1 online shopping day has been Thanksgiving, according to his
findings. Last year was the first that the so-called Cyber Monday, the Monday
after the holiday, eclipsed Thanksgiving Day in online sales.
It makes sense then for retailers to just open the doors. They wouldn’t if we
didn’t walk through them.
Click to Play http://m.wsj.net/video/20121115/111512hubamtarget/111512hubamtarget_512x288.jpg (http://gold-silver.us/forum/#)
Anger over Target's 'Black Thursday'
Though shoppers have been grousing for the past couple of years about Black
Friday keeps creeping into Thanksgiving Day, it's shareholders who are giving
Target grief over the decision to kick off its sales at 9 p.m. on the holiday.
“Retailers are getting savvy to the fact that Thanksgiving Day is such a busy
online shopping day that they’re now keeping their bricks-and-mortar stores open
on Thanksgiving,” Tancer says. Among those making early plays for customers this
year are Sears, Target, Wal-Mart, Kmart, Toys “R” Us and Gap.
“I don’t know if it’s stealing our time from us, since consumers have shown a
strong interest in searching for those deals and making purchases on
Thanksgiving,” he says. “There’s a lot of dead time while that turkey is in the
oven. It’s a good time to shop.”
So we have no one but ourselves — or our neighbors — to blame. Cohen claims
that retailers who bucked tradition for revenue potential last year were
rewarded with a 22% hike in Black Friday weekend business over those who didn’t
open shop. That means there were lots of folks willing to forgo food and
football to shop.”
Miro Copic, who sees this trend turning into the “new normal” for
Thanksgiving within five years, says it’s not about stealing time from our
families but giving us alternatives. (Wait! Not everyone watches football?)
“There will be a lot of backlash on blogs and such, on family values and how
we’re becoming too commercial,” says the San Diego State University marketing
professor. “But at the end of the day, it’s a choice. If I’m a retailer and I’m
open, I’m telling you that you don’t have to come, but I’m giving you a
convenience if you want to come.”
Retailing is a lot like herding, experts say. “If one store opens on
Thanksgiving Day, competitors will follow — since it is a battle over market
share,” says Chris Christopher, an economist for IHS Global Insight.
That’s been true practically ever since gift-giving became the thing to do on
Christmas. But it’s even more true now, in the current environment of choppy
consumer spending — hot one month, slow the next.
Retailers like to be what they call “top of mind” to the consumer. If you
shop at their stores early and have a good experience, you’re likely to return
before Christmas. The trick is to get you in the door, even if they barely break
even on what they call the loss leader, that dirt-cheap discount they use as
bait. They’re counting on your impulse purchase to pay their bills. If they can
start that mind game at the unofficial kickoff to the season, they’re convinced,
they’ve got you for the entire period.
“They feel they have to start early, and motivate that customer, and get that
sense of urgency going,” Howard Davidowitz, chairman of retail consultants
Davidowitz & Associates told MarketWatch. “They’re desperate, given the
economy.”
We’re finally seeing some backlash from this grab for your pocketbook, but it
may be too little, too late. Casey St. Clair, who has worked at Target for six
years, has collected more than 226,600 signatures through a petition on
social-change advocacy site Change.org ( Change.org
) to pressure the retailer to leave Thanksgiving alone. This is the second
straight year that those in the trenches have attempted to rally the masses and
St. Clair’s efforts are gaining some traction.
“The quest for the almighty dollar has become ridiculous. Let employees have
their holidays too,” Celeste Brodeur, of Clarksville, Tenn., wrote in the
petition.
Moreover, St. Clair is getting support from the people who Target’s
executives might actually pay attention to: shareholders. See: Target
faces ‘Black Thursday’ backlash from shareholders (http://gold-silver.us/story/target-faces-backlash-for-black-thursday-2012-11-14).
“I would gladly accept a slightly lower growth rate or slightly lower
dividends in order to preserve the Thanksgiving holiday for all Americans,”
shareholder Ben Rabizadeh wrote in an email to Change.org.
The big dogs are coming out too. Harrington Investments is a socially
responsible investment firm out of Napa, Calif., that holds 16,635 shares. It
appealed directly to Target Chief Executive Gregg Steinhafel in a letter to just
say no. “This will inevitably put our employees in a situation where they must
choose between keeping their jobs or spending quality time with their families,”
the firm wrote. Target, like most retailers who open on Thanksgiving, insists it
turns to volunteers first to man the stores.
Cohen argues that Thanksgiving is going down the same path that other
once-sacred family-time holidays have traveled and consumers have since
embraced. Remember when stores were closed on Memorial Day, the Fourth of July
and Labor Day? “This is an American holiday,” he says. “It’s not like they’re
taking the Christ out of Christmas.”
Not yet at least, but it does raise the question of whether it’s just a
matter of time before they do.
“No one is forcing you to shop,” Cohen says. “If you don’t want to shop, stay
home, sleep off your turkey dinner. Go ahead.”
http://www.marketwatch.com/story/why-are-retailers-ruining-thanksgiving-2012-11-19?pagenumber=2
EE_
19th November 2012, 10:56 PM
Let's take a look at just who is behind the American retail industry by examining the history of some of the most well-known brand-name department stores that have operated in the U.S.:
Lazarus Department Stores - founded by Simon Lazarus, an Ohio Jew who established The F&R Lazarus & Co., an operation which blossomed into what is today known as Macy's, Inc, a major retail holding company in the U.S. In 1850, Lazarus, a rabbinical scholar, arrived in Columbus, and in 1851 he opened the Lazarus store. Assisted by his wife Amelia and sons Fred and Ralph, Simon and his store gradually began to prosper. Simon Lazarus was once described as "a good man, a gentle man, a scholar--and no merchant,"--and Simon's own grandson, the late Robert Lazarus, Sr., was the man who said it. By 1870, industry improvements (primarily attributable to the mass manufacture of men's uniforms for the Civil War), led the family to expand the business to include ready-made men's civilian clothing and eventually a complete line of merchandise. Simon Lazarus served as the first Rabbi of Central Ohio's oldest Reform synagogue, Temple Israel. Later Simon sons, Fred Lazarus, Sr. and Ralph Lazarus, joined the business, adding many innovative marketing techniques. After Simon's death in 1877, his widow Amelia continued running the store with their two sons. After Amelia's death in 1899, the store was renamed The F&R Lazarus & Company and positioned the company for rapid expansion of the company. In 1928, the company purchased The John Shillito Company department store in Cincinnati. In 1929, Federated Department Stores, Inc., was organized in Columbus, Ohio, as a holding company for founding members F&R Lazarus & Company, its subsidiary The John Shillito Company, William Filene's Sons & Company and Abraham & Straus department stores. The group was led by Fred Lazarus, Jr., whose namesake company was by then the dominant retail store in Columbus. The Lazarus family pioneered many shopping firsts such as the concept of "one low price" (in which no bargaining was required); theirs was also the first department store with escalators and the first air conditioned store in the country. The family also successfully lobbied President Franklin Roosevelt to permanently set the fourth Thursday in November as Thanksgiving, thereby ensuring a longer Christmas shopping season in those years in which November had 5 Thursdays.
Abraham & Straus (or A&S) was a major New York City department store, based in Brooklyn. Founded in 1865 by Abraham Abraham, the son of a Jewish immigrant from Bavaria. The chain, which became part of Federated Department Stores, in 1929 is now part of Macy's. Abraham's father was Judah Abraham, left Bavaria in 1837 and married Sarah Sussman en route to the United States. Soon after arrival, Judah Abraham opened a store on Murray Street in New York. In 1843 Abraham Abraham was born. He had delicate health, and wanted to be a violinist. During the Civil War, he ran away to Chicago to enlist, but was brought back by his father. At 14, he worked at Hart & Dettlebach of Newark, along with Simon Bloomingdale and Benjamin Altman for $1 a week. Abraham opened Wechsler & Abraham in Brooklyn in 1865 at 285 Fulton Street. The company later became Abraham & Straus. He became a Brooklyn philanthropist, establishing the Brooklyn Jewish Hospital, among many other causes. In 1890, he commissioned a house, now demolished, at 800 St. Mark's Avenue in Brooklyn. Among Abraham's many notable descendants are grandson Donald B. Straus, an educator, author, and advisor, great-great-granddaughter Nina Rothschild Utne, a magazine publisher, and great-great-great-grandson Arthur Bradford, an author and director.
Macy's Inc. was founded as Federated Department Stores in 1929 in Columbus, Ohio. Federated was originally a department store holding company for Abraham & Straus, F&R Lazarus & Company (including its Cincinnati division, then known as The John Albert Macy Company) and William Filene's Sons of Boston. Bloomingdale Brothers joined the organization in 1930. Federated moved its corporate offices to Cincinnati, Ohio, in 1945.
Over the next few decades, Federated expanded nationwide, adding Rike Kumler of Dayton, Ohio (merged into Shillito's in the 1980s to become Shillito-Rike's); Burdines of Miami, Florida; John Albert Macy Jr. of Atlanta, Georgia; Foley's of Houston, Texas; Sanger Brothers and A. Harris, both of Dallas, Texas (which was merged with Sanger Brothers to form Sanger-Harris); Boston Store of Milwaukee, Wisconsin; MainStreet of Chicago, Illinois; Bullock's, of Los Angeles; I. Magnin, of San Francisco, California; Gold Circle; and Richway Discount Department Stores of Worthington, Ohio. In 1982, Federated acquired the Twin Fair, Inc. discount store chain based in Buffalo, New York and merged it with Gold Circle.[4] Federated was the successor to the Lazarus operation begun in Columbus, Ohio, in 1851. Lazarus family members served in prominent positions within Federated through the 1980s. In the mid-1930s, a modern merchandising standard was set when Fred Lazarus (son of Simon) arranged garments in groups of a single size with a range of style, color and price in that size, rather than the other way around. Lazarus based this technique upon observations made in Paris. Fred Lazarus Jr. also convinced President Franklin D. Roosevelt that changing the Thanksgiving holiday from the last Thursday of November the fourth Thursday, extending the Christmas shopping season, this would be good for the nation's business. An Act of Congress perpetuated the arrangement in 1941. After this date "Black Friday" became a nation wide sensation, becoming the most profitable day for Macy's nation wide. Other companies tried to follow suit but failed to overcome what John Albert Macy had in mind. Various Lazarus family members also held key positions on Federated's board and within its various divisions—namely, Foley's, Filene's, Lazarus and Shillito's. As of January, 2002, Robert Lazarus Jr. was the only family member still with an official role at Federated, serving as assistant to Ron Klein, then chairman and CEO of the Rich's/Lazarus/Goldsmith's operating unit of Federated, now Macy's South. In 1983 it sold most of its infrastructure to JMB Realty.
Limited Brands (formerly known as The Limited, Inc.) is an American apparel company based in Columbus, Ohio. In 2009 it reported 9.04 billion dollars in revenue for the last fiscal year. In 1912 Bella Cabakoff emigrated with her parents from Russia to Columbus, Ohio to escape persecution. At 21, she became the youngest buyer for the Lazarus department store chain. However, after spending over 20 years with Lazarus, in 1951 she and her husband Harry Wexner opened a women's clothing store named Leslie's (after their son) on State Street. This store became the training ground for Leslie Wexner. In 1963 he borrowed $5,000 from his aunt and $5,000 from the bank and opened a store at the Kingsdale Shopping Center in Upper Arlington. This store was named "The Limited" because the store focused on clothing for younger women, unlike his parents' general merchandise store. Later in 1964, Bella and Harry closed their store to join their son in his venture.
The original board consisted of only the three family members and long time friend of Harry and Bella, Jim Waldron, (who served as Senior Vice President): Bella Wexner (who served as secretary until her death in 2001), Harry as chairman (who served until his death in 1975) and Leslie who succeeded his father as the chairman and later became CEO. He and his family continue to control 17% of LTD. In 1969, Wexner took The Limited Brands public, listed as LTD on the NYSE. In 1977, The Limited moved into its main headquarters on Morse Road in Columbus, Ohio, where it still operates from today.
The 1980s started a string of acquisitions: In 1982, the Victoria's Secret brand, store, and catalogue were purchased from Roy Raymond for $4 million. Also in 1982, 207 Lane Bryant stores were purchased. In 1985, a single Henri Bendel store was purchased for $10 million and 798 Lerner stores for $297 million. Finally, in 1988, 25 Abercrombie & Fitch stores were purchased for $46 million. The Limited then phased out its ownership of the A&F brand in 1996, when it was spun off into a publicly-traded company. The 1990s saw the initial development of the Limited Too, Bath & Body Works, Structure, and Victoria's Secret Beauty. Later in 1998, several Bath & Body Works stores were converted to The White Barn Candle Company stores to begin a home fragrance brand. On August 3, 2007, Limited Brands transferred 75% ownership of its flagship Limited chain to buyout firm Sun Capital Partners Inc. In 2010, the remaining shares were sold to Sun Capital Partners Inc.
Leslie "Les" H. Wexner (born September 8, 1937 in Dayton, Ohio) is an American businessman from Columbus, Ohio, and currently chairman and CEO of the Limited Brands corporation. Wexner was born to Russian Jewish immigrants in Dayton, Ohio. He attended The Ohio State University, majoring in business administration. He became a member of Sigma Alpha Mu fraternity. He briefly attended law school, but left to help his parents run their store in a suburban Columbus, Ohio, shopping center. In 1963, Les Wexner borrowed $5,000 from his aunt to start 'The Limited' (so named because the store focused on clothing for younger women, unlike his parents' general merchandise store). The Limited opened its first store in the Kingsdale Shopping Center in Upper Arlington. Wexner's parents closed their store one year later in 1964, and joined their son at 'The Limited'. Wexner took Limited Brands public in 1969, listed as LTD on the NYSE. Over the years he built a large retailing and marketing conglomerate, which currently includes: Victoria's Secret, Pink (Victoria's Secret), Bath & Body Works, Henri Bendel, C. O. Bigelow, The White Barn Candle Company, and La Senza. Previous brands that have spun off include: Lane Bryant, Abercrombie & Fitch, Lerner New York, The Limited Too (now Tween Brands, Inc.), Structure 9, Aura Science, The Limited (separation from Limited Brands by sale of 75% to Sun Capital Investments, made official as of August 3, 2007), Express (separation from Limited Brands by sale of 75% to Golden Gate Capital, made official as of July 6, 2007). Allegations have been made that Wexner's The Limited Inc. has used slave labor both in the United States and abroad[2]. These charges have been made particularly against Victoria's Secret which is part of The Limited Inc. and owned by Leslie Wexner.[3][4]
J.W. Mays, Inc. is a real estate firm based in Brooklyn, New York, United States. From 1927 until 1988 the company ran a chain of discount department stores in the area surrounding New York City referred to as simply Mays, with stores located in three of New York City's five boroughs and Long Island. The chain grew from a Brooklyn women's clothing store founded by Joe Weinstein, a Russian Jewish immigrant, in 1924. In 1927 Weinstein incorporated the company, and added his initials. The reason why he chose the name to begin with was because, as Weinstein said, "it reminded me of the countryside and the flowers and the springtime".[1]
Mays grew throughout the 1950s and 1960s. It's slogan, "Every Day A Sales Day", was imprinted, in big red, script lettering, on every white paper shopping bag, and every white cardboard shopping box. Mondays were "super-sales" days, and stores were especially crowded then. Weinstein was aggressive in his competition against other discount retailers such as Ohrbach's and Alexander's, as well as the higher end department stores. At one point Weinstein discussed a merger between Mays and his two main discount competitors, but it never came to be.[2] At the company's peak in the 1970s, Mays operated nine stores. At that time the company had about 5,000 employees. By the late 1970s, it started losing market share to other discount retailers, and in 1982 the store declared Chapter 11 bankruptcy. The company closed five locations that operated outside the city, leaving one store in Manhattan, two stores in Queens, and the original store in Brooklyn. In 1987, Mays closed one of its two stores in Queens (Glen Oaks), leaving three in the chain. The chain continued on but announced on December 28, 1988 that they would be closing the remaining three stores in the chain immediately, with the final sale occurring on December 31 of that year. Beginning on January 1, 1989, J.W. Mays, Inc. reincorporated as the real estate company that it currently does business as.
Neiman Marcus, formerly Neiman-Marcus, is a luxury specialty retail department store operated by the Neiman Marcus Group in the United States. The company is headquartered in the One Marcus Square building in Downtown Dallas, Texas,[1] and competes with other department stores such as Saks Fifth Avenue, Barneys New York, Lord & Taylor, Nordstrom, Von Maur and Bloomingdale's. The Neiman Marcus Group also owns Bergdorf Goodman specialty retail department stores on Fifth Avenue in New York City and a direct marketing division, Neiman Marcus Direct, which operates catalogue and online operations under the Horchow, Neiman Marcus and Bergdorf Goodman names. Herbert Marcus, Sr., a former buyer with Dallas' Sanger Brothers department store, had left his previous job to found a new business with his sister Carrie Marcus Neiman and her husband, A. L. Neiman, then employees of Sanger Brothers competitor A. Harris and Co.. In 1907 the trio found themselves with $25,000 from the successful sales-promotion firm they had built in Atlanta, Georgia, and two potential investments into which to invest the funds. Opting to reject the unknown "sugary soda pop business," the three entrepreneurs chose instead to return to Dallas to found a retail business rather than take a chance on the fledgling Coca-Cola company.[2] For this reason, early company CEO Stanley Marcus was quoted in 1957 as saying in jest that Neiman Marcus was "founded on bad business judgment."[3] The store, established on September 10, 1907, was lavishly furnished and stocked with clothing of a quality that was not commonly found in Texas. Within a few weeks, the store's initial inventory, mostly acquired on a buying trip to New York made by Carrie, was completely sold out. Oil-rich Texans, welcoming the opportunity to flaunt their wealth in more sophisticated fashion than was previously possible, flocked to the new store. In spite of a nationwide financial panic set off only a few weeks after its opening, Neiman Marcus was instantly successful, and its first several years of operation were quite profitable.[4] In 1914 a fire destroyed the Neiman Marcus store and all of its merchandise. A temporary store was set up and opened in 17 days.[5] By the end of 1914, Neiman Marcus opened in its new, permanent location at the corner of Main Street and Ervay Street. With the opening of the flagship Neiman Marcus Building, the store increased its product selection to include accessories, lingerie, and children's clothing, as well as expanding the women's apparel department. In its first year at the new building, Neiman Marcus recorded a profit of $40,000 on sales of $700,000, nearly twice the totals reached in its last year at the original location.[4] In 1927 the store expanded and Neiman Marcus premiered the first weekly retail fashion show in the United States. Neiman Marcus Direct conducts both print catalog and online operations under the Neiman Marcus, Horchow and Bergdorf Goodman brand names. Under the Neiman Marcus brand, Neiman Marcus Direct primarily offers women's apparel, accessories and home furnishings. Horchow offers upscale home furnishings, linens, decorative accessories and tabletop items. Horchow, a furniture brand owned by Neiman Marcus, is sold in a limited number of Neiman Marcus locations. There are also Horchow Finale Stores, with two locations. Though Horchow items are also found in Neiman Marcus Last Call stores, the Horchow Finale stores focus on furniture & home items. The two remaining Horchow Finale Stores are in the Dallas, Texas area. The original Horchow Finale location closed in 2009 to make way for the George W. Bush Presidential Library. The Inwood Village location of Horchow Finale became a showcase Neiman Marcus Last Call in March 2010.
Lyman G. Bloomingdale (1841–1905) was a Jewish-American businessman who in April 1872, with his brother Joseph, founded Bloomingdales Department Store on 56th Street in New York City. The son of a Bavarian Jew, Benjamin Bloomimgdale, Lyman and his brother Joseph and were trained in the retailing of ladies clothing at their father's store. Going into business for themselves, the Bloomingdale brothers' new store sold a wide variety of European fashions, anchored through their own buying office in Paris. Their success resulted in the business outgrowing its premises and in 1886 they relocated operations to its famous present-day location at 59th Street and Third Avenue where Bloomingdale became one of the most widely recognized brand names in the world. Brother Joseph Bloomingdale retired from the business on New Years Day 1896 but Lyman remained involved until his death in 1905 at Elberon, New Jersey. A benefactor to a variety of causes and cultural institutions, in 1901 Lyman Bloomimgdale donated a Washington Allston painting to New York's Metropolitan Museum of Art[1] and in his will written in 1904, left $100,000 for charitable purposes. Lyman's son, Samuel J. Bloomingdale, took over as head of the department store and proved a very capable manager and an astute marketing innovator who significantly expanded the business. Grandson Alfred S. Bloomingdale. Bloomingdale's is an American department store owned by Macy's, Inc. (formerly Federated Department Stores). Bloomingdale's started in 1861 when brothers Joseph and Lyman G. Bloomingdale started selling hoop-skirts in their Ladies Notions' Shop on Manhattan's Lower East Side. The pair were sons of Benjamin Bloomingdale, a Bavarian-born salesman who had lived in North Carolina and Kansas, and settled in New York City. In 1872 the Bloomingdale brothers opened their first store at 938 Third Avenue, New York City. Bloomingdales' biggest competitors are Lord & Taylor, Neiman Marcus, & Saks Fifth Avenue. Bloomingdale's also competes with Nordstrom and Von Maur.
Saks Fifth Avenue - is a luxury American specialty store owned and operated by Saks Fifth Avenue Enterprises (SFAE), a subsidiary of Saks Incorporated. It competes in the high-end specialty store market in the Upper East Side of Manhattan, i.e. 'the 3 B's' Bergdorf, Barneys, Bloomingdale's and Lord & Taylor. The company headquarters and the company-designated flagship store are in Midtown Manhattan, New York City.[2][3] Saks Fifth Avenue is the successor of a business founded by Andrew Saks in 1867 and incorporated in New York in 1902 as Saks & Company. Andrew died in 1912 and in 1923 Saks & Co. merged with Gimbel Brothers, Inc., operating as a separate autonomous subsidiary. On September 15, 1924, Horace Saks and Bernard Gimbel opened Saks Fifth Avenue in New York City. When Bernard's brother Adam Gimbel became President of Saks Fifth Avenue in 1926 after Bernard's sudden passing, the company took on national aspirations. The very first branch store opened in 1851 in the city of Palm Beach, Florida as a resort store, followed by a Southampton, New York resort store in 1928. The first full-line year-round Saks store was opened in Chicago in 1929, followed by another resort store in Miami Beach, Florida. In 1938 Saks expanded to the West Coast, opening in Beverly Hills, California. By the end of the 1930s Saks Fifth Avenue had a total of 10 stores, including resort locations such as Sun Valley, Mount Stowe and Newport. More full-line stores followed with Detroit in 1940 and Pittsburgh in 1949. In downtown Pittsburgh, the company moved to its own freestanding location approximately one block from its former home on the fourth floor in the downtown Gimbel's flagship. The San Francisco location opened in 1952. More expansion followed from the 1960s through the 1990s including Texas, the Midwest, and the South. BATUS Inc. acquired Gimbel Bros., Inc. and its Saks Fifth Avenue subsidiary in 1973 as part of its diversification strategy. In 1990, BATUS sold Saks to Investcorp S.A., which after investing in the company and weathering the early 1990s recession took Saks public in 1996 as Saks Holdings, Inc. In 1998, Saks Holdings Inc. was acquired by Proffitt's, Inc., then the parent company of Proffitt's among other department stores. Upon closing of the acquisition, Proffitt's, Inc. changed its name to Saks Incorporated. In 2005 vendors filed against Saks alleging unlawful chargebacks. The SEC formally investigated the complaint and Saks settled with the SEC in 2007.[4]
In August 2007 the United States Postal Service began an experimental program selling the plus Zip Code extension to businesses. The first company to do this was Saks Fifth Avenue which received the zip code of 10022-SHOE for the eighth floor shoe department in its flagship Fifth Avenue (Manhattan) store.[5] Today, the New York flagship store accounts for a significant amount of the entire chain's annual revenue. Since 2000, Saks has closed a number of locations, including White Plains, Garden City, and Southampton in New York, as well as other suburban, and "downtown" location around the country. The focus has been to have a smaller number of stores in each key market, and thus make those stores destinations within their respective markets. As an example, the Saks 5th Avenue location at the Shops at Prudential Center in Boston, is the only Saks 5th Avenue stores in the greater Boston metropolitan area, and the location in Bala-Cynwd is the only location in the greater Philadelphia market [6]. The chain's strategy for international expansion focuses on underserved luxury markets. Its first international location, operated under license by SFAE, opened in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, courting the wealth of the oil-rich Middle East. Other locations now include the United Arab Emirates, Qatar and two stores in Mexico City. A new store is planned for Kazakhstan. In January 2009, the company opened a second location in Saudi Arabia, in the city of Jeddah.[7] and coming soon opening in Puerto Rico in Plaza Internacional, the opening of this stores and this grand mall is estimated in finally 2012.
Rich’s Department Stores - Founded in 1867 by Morris Rich, a Hungarian Jewish immigrant who grew up in Cleveland, Ohio, who had borrowed $500 from his brother Emanuel and opened M. Rich Dry Goods general store in 1867. The store was at 36 Whitehall Street, and was run by Morris Rich. It was renamed M. Rich & Co. in 1871, when his brother Emanuel joined him; it was again renamed M. Rich & Bros. in 1876 when the third brother Daniel joined. In 1872 it moved across the street to the corner with Hunter Street (now MLK Street), and in 1881 to 54 and 56 Whitehall Street, later adding 52 in 1906. In 1901 it became a true department store by dividing merchandise into separated sections, and was incorporated as M. Rich & Bros. Co. It became simply Rich's in 1924. Two innovative ideas that Rich tried were the barter system and a credit system. Daniel's son Walter succeeded his uncle Morris as Rich's president from 1926 to 1947, and was succeeded by the grandson of Morris Rich Richard H. Rich. Under the leadership of Richard Rich, affectionately known as Dick Rich, Rich's began expansion in the 1950s. Rich's had moved outside the Atlanta area for its first new store in 1955 when a store in Knoxville Tennessee was opened. Rich's opened its first suburban store at Lenox Square in 1959, Georgia's first shopping mall. The open-air mall shared space with the other major Atlanta department store, Davison's. That same year Rich's also opened a store at Belvedere Plaza Shopping Center, a large two-level strip mall in Belvedere Park near Decatur and more recently famous for its "wigs and beepers" store. Rich's sold off its Knoxville store to Miller's, as it re-focused on its Georgia stores. Rich's most aggressive expansion was during the 1960s and 1970s. Four more stores opened in the Atlanta area in the 1960s, two of those enormous three story full line stores. While this expansion resulted in continued success of the chain, it chipped away at the business of the downtown store. By this time, Rich's was the leading regional department store in the country, though it remained largely unknown by the general public outside of Georgia. This would soon change, however. Throughout the 1970s, four more Rich's locations opened in Georgia including one in Augusta, the first in the state outside of Atlanta. Rich's also began an aggressive expansion with stores in Alabama and South Carolina. Also, there were plans much later in the early 1990s to expand Rich's into Charlotte, but these were scrapped. Of all the stores out of state, stores opened in Greenville, Columbia and Birmingham with two (adding a third in 1986) in Birmingham, creating stiffer competition in the city against regional chains Pizitz, Loveman's and Parisian. This expansion also strained the company financially, and the sudden death of Richard Rich in 1975 threw the company into turmoil. It was rumored that the surviving descendants were incapable of running the company, and the store was ultimately sold out to Federated Department Stores (now known as Macy's, Inc.).
Pizitz Department Stores - Founded by Louis Pizitz, a Jewish immigrant from Belaus, in 1899 on the site of its flagship building in downtown Birmingham. At its peak it operated 12 other stores, mostly in the Birmingham area with several locations in Huntsville and other Alabama cities. It was sold to McRae's in December 1986, and all former Pizitz stores became McRae's. Many of the former Pizitz former locations are now closed, but the Pizitz family (via Pizitz Management Group) still owns the buildings of most of its former stores. This became an issue when the McRae's chain was sold to Belk Department Stores of Charlotte, North Carolina in 2005.
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19th November 2012, 10:57 PM
Parisian Department Stores - Founded in 1880 by Jewish sisters Bertha and Estella Sommers under the name Parisian Dry Goods & Millinery Company. The Sommers sisters moved the store three times and sold it in 1911 to Jewish businessmen Louis Gelders and G. W. Beringer, who renamed it The Parisian Company. Lauren Bloch, the store's general manager, bought it in 1918 and renamed in Bloch's Parisian. Carl Hess, a German immigrant, and William Holiner bought the store in the early 1920s and moved it to a large building on the corner of 3rd Avenue North and 18th Street in Birmingham in 1928. The Great Depression pushed the company into receivership and near demise in 1932. The store moved into the remodeled Roden Block on 2nd Avenue North in 1937 and this remained the flagship store until 1989. The business eventually emerged from receivership and grew in the 1940s and 1950s under the management of Carl's son Emil. In October 1950 the store received a major renovation that included excavation of a storage basement and a mezzanine-level men's store. The new entrance, clad in plate glass and Alabama marble, featured the nation's first installation of "Pittcomatic" touch-action hydraulically-operated doors, as well as backlit plexi-glass and neon signage. Hess and Lenny Salit (son-in-law of William Holiner) developed a popular interest-free credit program in the 1950s, and the store was one of the first in the country to offer free gift wrapping, free shipping and a liberal return policy. Parisian opened a second store at Five Points West in 1963. Though expectation were low, their early foray into the suburbs was an immediate hit. The company opened a third store in Vestavia Hills in 1965 and the fourth, at Eastwood Mall, in 1969. For many years the company's corporate offices and warehouse were located in a former Dolly Madison bakery adjacent to the railroad tracks at 26th Street and 11th Avenue North. In the 1970s, Parisian added stores in Huntsville, Montgomery and Florence. Parisian's owners took the company public in 1983, raising $22.5 million for expansion. Parisian anchored major mall developments, including Bel Air Mall in Mobile and Madison Square Mall in Huntsville, both of which opened in 1984. A second offering in 1986 raised an additional $18 million, allowing the chain to expand into Dothan, Pensacola, Chattanooga and Atlanta. Beginning in 1988, Jon Coffelt was commissioned to paint over 100 original works for Parisian by store designer Jim Mitchell, helping launch the artist's career. Hooker Company, an Australian investor, bought Parisian in 1988 for $250 million and pledged $125 for an aggressive store expansion. Hooker filed for bankruptcy during the late 1980s economic downturn. Donald Hess, who had taken over operations from father, Emil, bought the chain Parisian back and — heavy with debt — sold a 45% interest to Lehman Brothers in 1990, which injected $35 million into the company. Parisian opened nine new stores 1992 and opened five more stores in 1993, stretching its footprint into Detroit and Nashville. Parisian joined Proffitt's Inc., in 1996. In September of 1998, Proffitt’s, Inc. and Saks Holdings, Inc. completed a merger transaction where Saks Fifth Avenue and its Off 5th outlet stores became the Saks Fifth Avenue Enterprises division of Proffitt’s, Inc. At that time, Proffitt’s, Inc. was renamed Saks, Inc. At its height, Saks, Inc. operated more than 250 mid-level to high end department stores under its Saks Fifth Avenue Enterprises group, the Parisian division, the Northern Department Store Group (Younkers, Herberger's, Carson Pirie Scott, Bergner's, Boston Store), and its Southern Department Store Group (Proffitt's and McRae's), plus more than 50 Club Libby Lu specialty shops. The Proffitt's and McRae's stores were sold in 2005 to Belk, Inc of Charlotte, North Carolina. In 2006, Saks' Parisian division, headed by President and CEO Toni Browning, operated 38 stores in Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Indiana, Michigan, Missouri, Ohio, South Carolina, and Tennessee. Particularly in larger markets, Parisian was placed in a marketing tier between the luxury-oriented Saks chain and the company's other more moderate nameplates.
Loveman’s Department Stores - Founded by A. B. Loveman, a Jewish immigrant from Hungary, who opened his first general merchandise store in Greensboro, Alabama, in the late 1860s. In 1887 he relocated to Birmingham and opened A. B. Loveman's Dry Goods Emporium at 1915 2nd Avenue North. He was soon joined by Moses Joseph of Selma and the store became Loveman & Joseph. In 1889, with the addition of Emil Loeb, the company became Loveman, Joseph, & Loeb. Loveman, Joseph, & Loeb constructed a large new department store in 1890 facing 19th Street between 2nd and 3rd Avenue North. The store was expanded in 1899. By 1911, Loveman's was known as the largest, most magnificant department store south of the Ohio River. It advertised over 60 individual departments and served as a state textbook depository. In 1917, an add-on known as the Loveman's Annex was built between the main building and the the site later occupied by the Alabama Theatre. In 1923, after Loveman's son Joseph took over the company, a majority ownership stake was acquired by the newly-formed City Stores Company of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania (now CSS, Inc.). The holding company also took control of New Orleans, Louisiana's Maison Blanche Co. and Memphis, Tennessee's B. Lowenstein, Inc. It serviced all of its stores through a central buyer, but operations were kept under the local control of the individual chains. The downtown store was destroyed in a massive fire which started in the sub-basement on March 10, 1934, sparing only the exterior of the Annex. The store reopened within a few weeks at a temporary location in the former Parisian building a block away while a new Loveman's building was built on the site of the fire. Material salvaged from the demolished building was used by the Civil Works Administration to begin construction of municipal shops near the Birmingham Jail. The new store, completed in 1935, featured a bold, clean art-deco style. A clock on the corner of 19th Street and 3rd Avenue became a popular landmark and meeting place. The new store was one of the first in the United States to be fully air conditioned and the first in Alabama to have an escalator.
Comptroller Orville Schanbacher was named president of the company in 1947. In June 1949 Loveman's opened a new "store for the home" facing 2nd Avenue North, connected to the 2nd, 3rd and 4th floors of the main store by a bridge over the alley. Other stores opened in Bessemer and Montgomery. During the Civil Rights Movement, Loveman's was one of the many downtown stores picketed to promote the hiring of more African American clerks. Under president John Breyer the retailer and completed a major remodeling of its downtown store in 1969 and added a 400-space parking deck in 1970. Breyer also extended the store to new locations at West Lake Mall and Western Hills Mall in 1969 and 1970, respectively. Another Century Plaza location debuted in 1976. Its opening was marked by a balloon launch and the slogan, "a whole lotta store!", which was adopted by the entire chain until complaints from school teachers led to a change. Other stores were located in Huntsville and Montgomery. Loveman's parent, the City Stores Company, filed for Title XI bankruptcy in 1979 and sought a buyer to take control of the Loveman's chain as a whole. Sharp rises in prime lending rates and uncertainty about the wider economy left that effort fruitless. On April 2, 1980 President Jerry Sklar announced that all stores would close that week. The last day of business was Saturday, April 5. The firm's 700 employees, 500 of which worked in the Birmingham area, were let go with modest severance packages based on tenure. The Century Plaza and Western Hills Mall locations, complete with their inventories, were purchased by rival Pizitz and reopened within weeks (opening the way for Pizitz' departure from Eastwood Mall). Four other locations (downtown, Bessemer, Montgomery and Huntsville) held liquidation sales at the end of April. The Birmingham Public Library board evaluated the possibility of taking over the downtown store for a new central library. The 1935 Loveman's building downtown was renovated in 1998 as the home of the McWane Science Center.
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