Federal Department Store, or Federal's, was a

department store A department store is a retail establishment offering a wide range of consumer goods in different areas of the store, each area ("department") specializing in a product category. In modern major cities, the department store made a dramatic appe ...

chain based in

Detroit Detroit ( , ; , ) is the largest city in the U.S. state of Michigan. It is also the largest U.S. city on the United States–Canada border, and the seat of government of Wayne County. The City of Detroit had a population of 639,111 at ...

History

Federal's was founded in 1929. In 1961, Federal's merged with Kobacker's of

Columbus, Ohio Columbus () is the state capital and the most populous city in the U.S. state of Ohio. With a 2020 census population of 905,748, it is the 14th-most populous city in the U.S., the second-most populous city in the Midwest, after Chicago, and ...

and in 1969, it bought Shifrin-Willens Jewelers.Alternate Link
via

ProQuest ProQuest LLC is an Ann Arbor, Michigan-based global information-content and technology company, founded in 1938 as University Microfilms by Eugene B. Power. ProQuest is known for its applications and information services for libraries, providin ...

. The chain filed for bankruptcy in 1972. That same year, the Federal's stores in

Lansing Lansing () is the capital of the U.S. state of Michigan. It is mostly in Ingham County, although portions of the city extend west into Eaton County and north into Clinton County. The 2020 census placed the city's population at 112,644, making ...

and

Kalamazoo Kalamazoo ( ) is a city in the southwest region of the U.S. state of Michigan. It is the county seat of Kalamazoo County. At the 2010 census, Kalamazoo had a population of 74,262. Kalamazoo is the major city of the Kalamazoo-Portage Metropoli ...

were closed.Alternate Link
via

. Steven Watstein, also known as Steven West, purchased Federal's in 1978.Alternate Link
via

. The chain was liquidated in 1980. One of Federal's holdings at the time of the bankruptcy was the Hoffritz for Cutlery chain, which was sold off in 1975 in a leveraged buyout.Trying a Jump-Start at Hoffritz
''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...

'' (December 17, 1994)

References

Defunct department stores based in Michigan Defunct companies based in Michigan Companies based in Detroit American companies established in 1929 Retail companies established in 1929 Retail companies disestablished in 1980 1929 establishments in Michigan 1980 disestablishments in Michigan {{US-retail-company-stub