Sears Kmart Kresge

SEARS
KRESGE / K-MART

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SS KRESGE CO

1897 - Sebastian Spering Kresge and James G. McCrory (the founder of McCrory stores) opened a 5 and 10 cent store in
Memphis, TN.
1899 - Kresge founded his own company in Detroit, MI with Charles Wilson by purchasing two 5 and 10 cent stores. One of the
stores was purchased by trading his ownership in his partnership with McCrory.
1912 - The S.S. Kresge Corp. is incorporated with 85 stores and sales of over $ 10 million.
1918 - The company is listed on the New York Stock Exchange.
1925 - Sebastian S. Kresge retired as company president.
1962 - Kresge opens its first Kmart discount department store in Garden City, MI.
1966 - With 162 Kmart stores and 753 S.S. Kresge stores, sales exceed $ 1 billion.
1866 - Sebastian Kresge retired as the company's chairman and died a few months later.
1977 - S.S. Kresge Corp. changed its name to Kmart Corp.
1987 - Kmart sold all of its remaining 76 Kresge and Jupiter stores to McCrory Stores.

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KRESGE-NEWARK

1922 - Sebastian S. Kresge purchased the Plautt Department store in downtown Newark, NJ and renamed the store
          Kresge-Newark. This store had no connection to the S.S. Kresge 5 and 10 cent store chain. The building comprised an
          entire city block and had 600,000 square feet of selling space on 10 floors. It was positioned to compete with competitor's
          Bamberger's, S. Kline On The Square and Hahne & Co. The company later opened a second store in Summit, NJ.
1959 - Kresge-Newark opened a third store in East Orange, NJ in a former B. Altman location.
1964 - After S.S. Kresge's death, with no heirs wanting to take over the company, the stores were sold to David Chase who
          renamed the store Chase-Newark.
1967 - Chase-Newark closed and the location was taken over by Two Guys discount department stores.

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K-MART

1962 - S.S. Kresge Co. opens its first K-Mart discount department store in Garden City, MI. 18 Kmart stores are opened this year.
1960's - K-Mart supermarkets are launched.
1966 - With 162 Kmart stores and 753 Kresge stores, sales exceed $ 1 billion.
1970's - K-Mart dissolves its free-standing Kmart supermarkets.
1970's Kmart launches its Pace Membership Warehouse chain.
1976 - 271 new Kmart stores are opened in one year.
1984 - Kmart acquired Walden Books.
1985 - The company acquired Thrifty - PayLess Drugs.
1986 - Kmart is the 2nd largest retail chain behind Sears Roebuck & Co.
1989 - Kmart enters into a joint venture with Alabama-based Bruno's supermarkets and launches American Fare hypermarkets.
1990 - Kmart acquired Sports Authority.
1991 - The company's first Super Kmart combination discount department store/supermarket is opened in Medina, OH.
1991 - Kmart acquired Office Max.
1992 - Kmart acquired Border's Books.
1992 - With 3 hypermarkets, Bruno's supermarkets and Kmart end their American Fare joint venture.
1992 - Kmart purchased several department stores in former Soviet block countries, including 13 in the former Czechoslovakia.
1993 - Pace Membership Warehouse chain is sold to Wal-Mart Corp. and the stores are converted to Sam's Club stores.
1994 - Kmart closed 110 stores and merged its Walden Books, Border's Books and Thrifty-PayLess Drugs chains.
1995 - Kmart sold its Sports Authority, Walden Books, Border's Books and Office Max chains.
1996 - Kmart sold its Europe stores to Tesco.
1996 - Rite Aid acquired Thrifty PayLess.
1997 - The company's first Big Kmart store is opened in Chicago, IL.
1997 - Kmart sold its Builder's Square home centers to Hechinger.
1998 - Zeller's acquires Kmart's stores in Canada.
2002 - Kmart file for chapter 11 bankruptcy protection.
2003 - While closing over 300 stores, Kmart emerged from bankruptcy as Kmart Holdings Corp.
2004 - Kmart Holdings Corp. acquired Sears, Roebuck and Co and changed the corporation's name to Sears Holdings Corp.
2006 - Kmart operated 1,416 Kmart stores in 49 states, Guam, Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands (1,361 Big Kmart's and
22 Super Kmart's.)

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SEARS

1886 - Richard Sears, a railway station agent, founded the R.W. Sears Watch Company in Minneapolis, MN selling watches to
          other railway employees.
1887 - Sears moved his business to Chicago, IL and teamed up with watchmaker Alvah Roebuck, making and selling watches and
          other jewelry by mail order.
1893 - The company name is changed to Sears, Roebuck & Co.
1895 - The company's 532-page mail order catalog added women's clothing and shoes, wagons, fishing tackle, stoves, furniture,
          china, musical instruments, saddles, guns, bicycles, baby carriages and dishes to its watch and jewelry offerings. In
          order to help organize the growing business, CHicago clothing manufacturer Julius Rosenwald became a partner in the
          company.
1901 - Sears, Roebuck became a publicly-traded company.
1906 - The company opened a 3 million square foot mail-order plant in Chicago which was the largest building in the world.
1925 - As the majority of Sears customers lived in rural areas, Sears wanted to expand its business to city dwellers and
          experimented by opening its first retail store in the Chicago mail order plant, which became an immediate success.
1926 - Sears operated 8 retail stores.
1927 - Sears operated 27 retail stores.
1928 - Sears operated 192 retail stores.
1929 - Sears operated 319 retail stores.
1931 - Sales in Sears retail stores topped mail order sales for the first time. Combined sales reach more than $ 180 million.
          The company launched its Allstate Insurance Co. which sold auto insurance by mail order.
1933 - Sears operated over 400 retail stores. Allstate Insurance offices began opening in Sears stores.
1941 - Sears operated over 600 retail stores.
1942 - Sears expanded outside the United States when it opened a store in Havana, Cuba.
1940's - Sears begins opening catalog order stores in town that were too small for a Sears retail store.
1947 - Sears expanded into Mexico (Mexico City).
1953 - Sears combined with Canada-based Simpsons, Ltd. to form Simpsons-Sears Ltd. The company opened Sears retail stores
          in Canada under its Sears Canada Inc. subsidiary.
1969 - Sears began to build its new company headquarters in Chicago. At 1,454 feet high, upon completion, the 110-store Sears
          Tower was the world's tallest building.
1980's - Sears sold most of its non-U.S. stores.
1981 - Sears acquired Dean Witter Reynolds Organization, Inc. and Coldwell Banker & Co.
1985 - Sears introduced the Discover credit card.
1993 - The company drastically reduced its mail order business.
1997 - Sears sold its Mexico stores.
2000 - Sears operated 863 mall-based department stores (most with Sears Auto Centers) and 1,200 retail locations including
          hardware, Sears Outlet and auto centers, as well as independently-owned stores in rural areas. In addition,
          Sears Canada operated 125 department stores, 176 specialty stores and 1,550 independently owned catalog stores.
2003 - The company opens its first Sears Grand hypermarket in West Jordan, UT combining merchandise of a Sears department
          store with a pharmacy and grocery store.
2004 - Sears is acquired by Kmart and the combined company is named Sears Holdings Inc.

Source: Sears Brands, LLC.

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