Defunct Business Hats
Description: Bradlees Department Store, more commonly known as Bradlees, was a discount department store chain based in Braintree, Massachusetts, which operated primarily in the Northeastern United States. Bradlees sold various retail items in its stores, including clothing, jewelry, health care, beauty products, footwear, furniture, electronics, housewares, and bedding. At its peak in 2000, Bradlees operated over 105 stores in seven states across the Northeast, with close to 10,000 employees. The chain went through Chapter 11 bankruptcy in 2000, with all of its stores eventually closed by March 15, 2001.
Description: Remembering Burdine’s Department Store. Miami, Florida. Over its nearly 110-year history, Burdines grew into a popular chain of department stores, known as 'The Florida Store,' decorated with palm trees in the center of the store, painted in pink and blue, and other subtropical colors and motifs.
Description: Caldor was a discount department store chain founded in 1951 by husband and wife Carl and Dorothy Bennett, hence the name, Cal-Dor. Referred to by many as an upscale discounter, Caldor grew from a second story “Walk-Up-&-Save” operation in Port Chester, New York, into a regional retailing giant. Its stores were earning over $1 billion in sales by the time Mr. Bennett retired in 1985, by which time Caldor was a subsidiary of Associated Dry Goods. Despite its successes, Caldor suffered from financial issues by the ’90s, and the company was liquidated, with all 145 stores closing by May 1999.
Description: Remembering the great Kaufmann’s Department Store. If you lived in Pittsburgh PA this was the place. Kaufmann's flagship store was built in 1887 at 400 Fifth Avenue in downtown Pittsburgh. It was known as The Big Store. And no wonder, at one point, the building was the largest department store in Pittsburgh with twelve retail floors, spanning an entire downtown city block. Kaufmann's Big Store had a landmark outdoor clock at Fifth Avenue and Smithfield Street. It was popular downtown meeting place, with the oft-used phrase "Meet me under Kaufmann's clock." The clock is still a Pittsburgh icon.
Description: Remembering Gimbels Department Store. Founded in Indiana and then relocating to Milwaukee, Gimbels eventually opened stores in Philadelphia and New York. With its arrival in New York, Gimbels soon became the primary rival to the leading NY retailer, Macy's. Despite its limited presence, Gimbels was well-known nationwide. Gimbels gained publicity from the 1947 film Miracle on 34th Street, the 1967 film Fitzwilly, and was frequently mentioned as a shopping destination of Lucy Ricardo and Ethel Mertz on the hit 1950s TV series I Love Lucy. And of course it is where Will Ferrell works in Elf.
Description: Remembering the G Fox Department Store. Hartford, Connecticut. G. Fox & Co. was a dominant retail store in the southern New England area for most of the twentieth century. It was the largest privately held department store in the nation when it was sold to the May Department Stores Company in 1965. The G. Fox flagship store was known for customer attractions, including a large walk-through Christmas display and a talking myna bird housed in a huge cage located on the fifth floor. The building is listed on the National Register of Historic Places within Hartford’s Department Store Historic District.
Description: Remembering the cool Horne’s Department Store. Joseph Horne Company was the first department store in Pittsburgh, founded in 1849 by Joseph Horne. Every year since 1953, when the 100-foot tall Christmas tree began to go up on the corner of the Horne’s Department store building at Penn Avenue and Stanwix Streets, Pittsburghers knew that Christmas would soon be here. The tree that wraps around the corner of the seven-story building has more than 2,500 lights and more than 2,000 ornaments. It is still a welcome harbinger of the holiday. Today, the building is known as Highmark Penn Avenue Place, and the tree has been officially dubbed as the “Unity Tree.” But most Pittsburghers still refer to it as the Horne’s Christmas Tree.
