Nostalgic Retail Series #28 - FILENE'S
Originally names William File & Sons Company, the retailer was founded in 1881 by its namesake. Filene's Basement, its off price sister, was founded shortly after in 1908 as a means to dispose of the inventory that was not moving in the department store (upstairs).
Together with Abraham Straus and Lazarus, Filene's joined in the founding of Federated Department Stores in 1929. Fast forward to 1988 and Campeau Corp made a leveraged buyout of Federated and the Filene's brand was sold to May Department Stores.
Filene's grew steadily and aggressively in the 1990s with 2005 seeing Federated acquire May to bring it back into the fold.
"The likelihood that the May nameplates would be replaced by the Federated-owned Macy's was acknowledged, citing the "considerable success in re-branding [Federated's] regional stores as Macy's" and that "operating regional stores primarily under one brand means [they] can advertise nationally, unlike regional retailers, which is more cost-effective;" the changes were unlikely to occur before 2006. Indeed, the company-wide conversion to Macy's was confirmed in July, and the merger was completed in August." [Wikipedia]
Federated divested Filene's locations where they had centers with both Macy's and Filene's with the last remaining Filene's store closing in September of 2006.
With the closing of Filene's, the Boston Landmarks Commission made the 1912 main location in Boston a historic landmark.
Filene's Basement was not impacted by the Filene's - Macy's consolidation as it was owned by Retail Ventures until 2009 when it sold to Buxbaum Group. In 2011 Filene's Basement filed for its third Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection with a;; stores closing in December of 2011.Macy's still pays tribute to Filene's on its site (although very subtly and hidden) on the following webpage.
