BRADLEES
As an urban legend has it, the name of this Braintree, Massachusetts-based chain was coined as its three founders convened at Greater Hartford's Bradley International Airport to work out their concept for a new discount department store.
The first location opened, in New London, Connecticut, on March 13, 1958. In February 1961, the up-and-coming chain was purchased by Stop & Shop supermarkets, out of Massachusetts. The first combination Bradlees discount store and grocery opened in February 1963. By 1968, there were fifty-two Bradlees operations. These encompassed between 65,000 and 100,000 square feet.
The thirteen-store Memco discount chain of Greater Washington, DC was absorbed by Bradlees in December 1982. In June 1985, eighteen stores of the dissolving Jefferson Ward chain were purchased. A retail retrenchment took place in August 1988, as forty-seven Bradlees stores in North Carolina, Virginia and Maryland were sold to the Hechinger home improvement chain.
The fortunes of Bradlees had improved enough by the mid-1990s for another acquisition to be undertaken; this involving stores of the Pace Membership Club. The high point of this expansion phase involved the opening of a new Bradlees flagship store in Manhattan's Union Square. Encompassing 6-levels and 143,000 square feet, it took the place of an old Mays department store and opened, amid a blitz of media attention, in November 1994. Unfortunately, the inner city superstore was an unsuccessful venture.
By June 1995, the chain, whose stores numbered 136, had declared bankruptcy. Some store closings took place in 1996. Profitability had returned by 1998 and continued into 1999. Bradlees entered a downward spiral in the year 2000, with a second bankruptcy filed in December. Liquidation of the chain began in January 2001 with the final stores closing in March of the same year.
*WESTGATE SHOPPERS' PARK, Brockton, MA (1963)
*MOHAWK MALL, Schenectady County NY (1978)
*SILVER CITY GALLERIA, East Taunton, MA (1992)
MAMMOUTH MILLS / MAMMOTH MART
This discount department store chain was founded by Max Coffman and Henry Gornstein, of Framingham, Massachusetts. They opened a self-service, general merchandise emporium which sold lines of family apparel, housewares and hardware at rock-bottom prices.
The first Mammoth Mills "Shopping Center" commenced operation on March 6, 1956. The store occupied an abandoned factory building (the Mammoth Mill) in Framingham. Early Mammoth Mills stores were spartan with no frills. Branch units were also located at out-of-town sites, with plenty of free parking. An all-new concept, Mammoth Mills discount department stores were wildly successful. Their format was adopted by retailers such as Kmart, Bradlees and Zayre.
The name of the enterprise was changed to Mammoth Mart in 1962. Stores of this period covered around 80,000 square feet and included departments for men's, women's and children's apparel, shoes, hardware, housewares, domestics, automotive, jewelry, health & beauty aids and a snack bar. By 1964, there were eleven locations. By 1973, the store count had grown to sixty-eight, with Mammoth Mart units in Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New York, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island and Vermont.
A sluggish national economy, and runaway inflation of the early-to-mid 1970s, caused the downfall of Mammoth Mart. A chapter 11 bankruptcy was filed in June 1974. In August 1977, Brockton, Massachusetts-based King Department Stores acquired the struggling chain, which had fifty-one stores. King Department Stores faltered and were acquired by Ames Department Stores, in 1983. By the year 2002, the Ames chain, overextended by years of breakneck expansion, was also defunct.
