MainStreet was a department store chain based in Chicago, Illinois, United States. The chain was launched in November 1983 by Federated Department Stores (now known as Macy's, Inc.).[1] Throughout the 1980s, the chain expanded to twenty-nine stores in Illinois, Michigan, Indiana, and Minnesota. By 1988, MainStreet was sold to the Wisconsin-based chain Kohl's, which converted most MainStreet locations to Kohl's that year.
 | |
| Company type | Department store |
|---|---|
| Industry | Retail |
| Founded | 1983, Chicago, Illinois, USA |
| Defunct | 1988 |
| Fate | Converted or Sold to Kohl's |
| Headquarters | Bannockburn, Illinois, USA |
Area served | Chicago metropolitan area, Detroit, Michigan, Grand Rapids, Michigan, Twin Cities, Minnesota |
| Products | Clothing, footwear, bedding, furniture, jewelry, beauty products, home electronics, small appliances, housewares |
| Parent | Federated Department Stores |
History
editFederated Department Stores, now known as Macy's, Inc., founded the MainStreet chain in 1983 with seven stores in the Chicago, Illinois area. The store was a middle-market chain focused primarily on softlines, similar to Kohl's and Mervyn's. MainStreet stores often featured a "racetrack" layout like a discounter, but checkouts were distributed around the store like a traditional department store. The first locations outside the Chicago area opened around Metro Detroit in 1986.[2]
The MainStreet chain was sold by Campeau Corporation, then-owners of Federated, in order to reduce debts following Campeau's buyout of Federated.[3] Kohl's acquired twenty-six of the twenty-nine MainStreet locations in 1988 for $90 million,[4][5] and converted them to the Kohl's nameplate in March 1989.[6]
The MainStreet logo remained on a plaza sign in Downers Grove known as "MainStreet Square" well into the 2000s before the sign was eventually replaced with the name kept. It had been previously anchored by a MainStreet, which now is occupied by a Kohl's.
References
edit- ^ Federated to add specialty div. and fine-tune non-department stores, Discount Store News, July 9, 1984. Archived September 24, 2015, at the Wayback Machine
- ^ "Mainstreet to open four stores". The Bryan Times. 23 December 1985. Retrieved 11 August 2010.
- ^ Toy story Archived December 8, 2006, at the Wayback Machine, BusinessWeek, December 4, 2000.
- ^ Our Milestones Archived December 23, 2006, at the Wayback Machine, Kohl's Corporation, Last accessed January 23, 2007.
- ^ "Article: Confirm Kohl's to buy Mainstreet from Federated Stores for $90M". Daily News Record. 1988-11-01. Archived from the original on 2012-11-02. Retrieved 2009-10-01.
- ^ Randle, Wilma (1989-02-22). "Kohl's to expand MainStreet". The Chicago Tribune. Archived from the original on July 12, 2012. Retrieved 2009-10-01.