A Lens into Retail & Commercial Real Estate Past (Present & Future)
Nostalgic Retail Series
"In November 1958, Eugene Wallace Kalkin established a leased-linen department in the New Jersey discount retailer Great Eastern Mills. In August 1970, Great Eastern Mills opened the first Linens 'n Things store in East Brunswick, New Jersey. After a succession of corporate ownership changes and the bankruptcy of
Nostalgic Retail Series
CompUSA was the epitome of a big box retail electronics chain. Founded in 1986 as Soft Warehouse by Errol Jacobson and Mike Henochowicz, its first megastore opened in Atlanta, Georgia in 1988. Changing its name to CompUSA in 1991, it operated almost 230 locations with over $2B in revenues at
Nostalgic Retail Series
Teavana was an American tea company created in 1997 in Atlanta, Georgia by Andrew T. Mack, and his wife. After making a splash (grew to 650 stores), especially in the mall world, Teavana was acquired by Starbucks in 2012 for an estimated $620 million. A short five years later, based
Nostalgic Retail Series
Founded in 1966 by Bruce Dayton (a member of the Dayton department store family), the name B. Dalton was chosen because it "connoted quality, dependability and authority." Although the chain was originally intended to operate in downtowns and suburban areas, the majority of the stores were opened inside
Retailer
Tower was founded in 1960 by Russell Solomon in Sacramento, California. The store was named after his father's drugstore, which shared a building and name with the Tower Theater. In addition to CDs and cassette tapes, stores also sold DVDs, video games, accessories, toys and electronic gadgets like
Nostalgic Retail Series
David Schlessinger, who had earlier started the defunct Encore Books chain of bookstores, founded Zany Brainy in 1991. The chain sold puzzles, books, games, and electronics, along with holding workshops for kids and teachers. The company filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection on May 15, 2001, having faced financial difficulties
Nostalgic Retail Series
RadioShack was founded in Boston in 1921 by the Deutschmann brothers to provide equipment for ham radio operators. The company became "the place" for electronics, selling everything from eight-track players to portable CD players to cell phones. The chain grew fast in the 1970s, in part because of
Nostalgic Retail Series
Founded in 1923 by Barney Pressman, the luxury department store and its iconic brand began to lose its luster as department stores experienced declines in the last several years and were further impacted by the pandemic. The company dropped the apostrophe in Barney's in 1981 and became Barneys.
Nostalgic Retail Series
Brothers Max and Morris Feldberg founded a company in Boston in 1919 to supply undergarments to department stores. When sales began to decline, they ventured out to create a new discount department store. The first Zayre location opened in Hyannis in 1956. Zayre which was a transformation from the Jewish
Nostalgic Retail Series
Started by Mervin G. Morris in 1949 in San Lorenzo, California, the company grew to almost 200 stores, mostly in the West. The mid-scale department store grew to the US’s 83rd largest retailer in 2005. As it expanded outside of California, Mervyn’s ran into trouble. Was it fast
Nostalgic Retail Series
The Great Atlantic & Pacific Tea Company, better known as A&P, started as a mail order business around 1859. By 1920, there were 4,500 stores; by 1930, 15,000. In 1936, in Braddock, Pa., A&P opened a “supermarket.” By the 1950s, A&P was,
Retailer
Going old school here. Founded in 1879, Woolworth’s sold general merchandise and was called “five and dime” because everything sold for 10 cents or less (the precursor to dollar stores and Five Below). By 1929, there were 2,250 stores. “Despite its growing to be one of the largest