Samuel Henry Kress started his 5 & 10 empire in April 1896, with a store in Memphis. In 1900, a corporate headquarters was established in New York City. The endeavor was incorporated, as S. H. Kress & Company, in 1907. By 1918, Kress was operating 140 stores. 

In 1928, there were 193 operating units. The store count reached 239 in 1938 and 250 by 1948. At this time, there were Kress stores in twenty-nine US states and the Hawaii Territory.  

Samuel Kress saw his stores as public works of art, that would contribute to the visual aesthetic of a city. A staff of architects were hired to create stunning stores in various styles, such as Gothic Revival, Streamline Moderne (a.k.a. Art Deco) and -eventually- Ultra-Modern. 

262 stores were in operation by 1958. The first shopping center-based units opened in 1959.  S.H. Kress acquired the assets of the seventy-unit V.J. Elmore variety store chain in July 1963. In turn, Nashville's Genesco Corporation engulfed the Kress-Elmore conglomerate in October 1964. The concern was sold to the McCrory Corporation on January 1, 1981. 

The McCrory-McLellan-Green division continued to operate various units under the Kress nameplate. However, all had been shuttered by the time the McCrory Corporation went out of business, in April 2001.