Lamonts was a chain of

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 app ...

s founded in

Seattle Seattle ( ) is a seaport city on the West Coast of the United States. It is the seat of King County, Washington. With a 2020 population of 737,015, it is the largest city in both the state of Washington and the Pacific Northwest regio ...

, Washington. The chain was started in 1970 when

Pay 'n Save Pay 'n Save was a retail company founded by Monte Lafayette Bean in Seattle, Washington in 1940. Over the years, Pay 'n Save was the leading drugstore chain in Washington and was the owner of several Washington-based retailers including Lamonts ...

renamed its suburban branches of Rhodes, a department store chain the company acquired in 1965. Lamonts remained a division of Pay 'n Save until 1985. During the 1990s, the chain filed for bankruptcy twice and closed several stores before being sold to

Gottschalks Gottschalks (former NYSE ticker symbol GOT) was a middle-tier American department store that operated 58 department stores and three specialty apparel stores in six western states (California, Washington, Alaska, Idaho, Oregon, and Nevada); some ...

in 2000. Gottschalks itself went into bankruptcy and liquidated in 2009.

History

Rhodes Department Stores

Rhodes Department store was founded in Seattle by Albert J. Rhodes in 1907 in the Arcade Building on Second Avenue. He was a former partner in the

Rhodes Brothers Rhodes Brothers was a department store located in Tacoma, Washington, originally established in 1892 as a coffee shop in downtown Tacoma by Albert, William, Henry and Charles Rhodes. In 1903, the brothers would shift into the department store bu ...

Department Store in Tacoma but the two companies were never affiliated. He was inspired to install a pipe organ in his store after a trip to

Wanamaker's John Wanamaker Department Store was one of the first department stores in the United States. Founded by John Wanamaker in Philadelphia, it was influential in the development of the retail industry including as the first store to use price tags. ...

famous Department Store in

Philadelphia Philadelphia, often called Philly, is the largest city in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, the sixth-largest city in the U.S., the second-largest city in both the Northeast megalopolis and Mid-Atlantic regions after New York City. Sinc ...

. Albert Rhodes died in 1921, before he had the chance to expand the store but his wife, Harriet W. Rhodes, continued operations. By 1927, the store had outgrown its quarters. Architects

Harlan Thomas Harlan Thomas (January 10, 1870 – September 4, 1953) was an American architect in the first half of the twentieth century. From 1926 to the early 1940s he served as Chair of the University of Washington Department of Architecture. He was al ...

and Clyde Gral were commissioned to design a new seven story store that would take up half of a block. It included the Aeolian Pipe organ that Albert had planned. With the prosperity following

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

, the company expanded by opening branch stores in the University District of Seattle at

University Village University Village may mean: * University Village, Albany, California *University Village, Chicago, Illinois *University Village, Grand Forks, North Dakota * University Village, New York * University Village, Riverside, California *University Villa ...

(1956), Crossroads Mall in

Bellevue Bellevue means "beautiful view" in French. It may refer to: Placenames Australia * Bellevue, Western Australia * Bellevue Hill, New South Wales * Bellevue, Queensland * Bellevue, Glebe, an historic house in Sydney, New South Wales Canada ...

(July 1964), and in Lake Forest Center Mall in

Lake Forest Park Lake Forest Park is a suburban city in King County, Washington, United States, located northeast of Seattle. It was developed in the 20th century as a bedroom community with single-family housing on medium to large-sized lots. Less than 4% of ...

(October, 1964). In October 1967, the financially ailing Rhodes was acquired by The

Corporation followed in 1968 by the singular Bell's of Burien Department Store, founded in 1956 in

Burien, Washington Burien ( ) is a suburban city in King County, Washington, King County, Washington (state), Washington, United States, located south of Seattle on Puget Sound. As of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, Burien's population was 52,066, which ...

. Pay 'n Save proceeded to shutter Rhodes' flagship store in downtown Seattle in July 1968 as it shifted its focus to the suburbs. The three suburban Rhodes locations as well as the Bell's of Burien store continued to operate as they were for several years. In a move to create a strong department store brand to add to Pay 'n Saves roster of brands, the stores were all converted to the Lamonts name in 1970. The new chain was named for and by M. Lamont Bean, the head of Pay 'n Save Corp. at the time. The Bell's moniker (hyphenated with Lamonts) remained attached to the Burien store until 1974.

Expansion and troubles

After steady expansion through the 1970s and 1980s, Lamonts finally came into its own when Pay 'n Save Corp. was taken over by New York investors led by brothers Eddie and Julius Trump. With $250 million in

junk bonds In finance, a high-yield bond (non-investment-grade bond, speculative-grade bond, or junk bond) is a bond that is rated below investment grade by credit rating agencies. These bonds have a higher risk of default or other adverse credit events ...

, they split Lamonts and other Pay 'n Save stores from the company and brought them under the ownership of Northern Pacific Corp. With the hiring of Leonard Snyder, formerly of Allied Stores Corp., as chairman in 1987, a huge growth plan was proposed for the following years. Searching for more capital to expand, Lamonts was sold to

Dallas Dallas () is the List of municipalities in Texas, third largest city in Texas and the largest city in the Dallas–Fort Worth metroplex, the List of metropolitan statistical areas, fourth-largest metropolitan area in the United States at 7.5 ...

, Texas based Aris Corp., owned by the Thompson family of

7-Eleven 7-Eleven, Inc., stylized as 7-ELEVE, is a multinational chain of retail convenience stores, headquartered in Dallas, Texas. The chain was founded in 1927 as an ice house storefront in Dallas. It was named Tote'm Stores between 1928 and 1946. A ...

fame in 1989. Not long after this, the company profits took a downturn though record sales were reported. Profits continued to slide in 1991 and 1992. In November 1992, after a financial restructuring in which the company traded most of its common stock to Lenders for a reduced debt, Lamonts proposed an ambitious plan to open three to four 25,000-to stores a year in existing malls in Eastern Washington,

Idaho Idaho ( ) is a state in the Pacific Northwest region of the Western United States. To the north, it shares a small portion of the Canada–United States border with the province of British Columbia. It borders the states of Montana and Wyom ...

Montana Montana () is a state in the Mountain West division of the Western United States. It is bordered by Idaho to the west, North Dakota and South Dakota to the east, Wyoming to the south, and the Canadian provinces of Alberta, British Columbi ...

Utah Utah ( , ) is a state in the Mountain West subregion of the Western United States. Utah is a landlocked U.S. state bordered to its east by Colorado, to its northeast by Wyoming, to its north by Idaho, to its south by Arizona, and to it ...

Colorado Colorado (, other variants) is a state in the Mountain West subregion of the Western United States. It encompasses most of the Southern Rocky Mountains, as well as the northeastern portion of the Colorado Plateau and the western edge of t ...

Nebraska Nebraska () is a state in the Midwestern region of the United States. It is bordered by South Dakota to the north; Iowa to the east and Missouri to the southeast, both across the Missouri River; Kansas to the south; Colorado to the southwe ...

Kansas Kansas () is a state in the Midwestern United States. Its capital is Topeka, and its largest city is Wichita. Kansas is a landlocked state bordered by Nebraska to the north; Missouri to the east; Oklahoma to the south; and Colorado to the ...

North Dakota North Dakota () is a U.S. state in the Upper Midwest, named after the Native Americans in the United States, indigenous Dakota people, Dakota Sioux. North Dakota is bordered by the Canadian provinces of Saskatchewan and Manitoba to the north a ...

and

South Dakota South Dakota (; Sioux language, Sioux: , ) is a U.S. state in the West North Central states, North Central region of the United States. It is also part of the Great Plains. South Dakota is named after the Lakota people, Lakota and Dakota peo ...

. Unfortunately, this plan coincided with the

recession In economics, a recession is a business cycle contraction when there is a general decline in economic activity. Recessions generally occur when there is a widespread drop in spending (an adverse demand shock). This may be triggered by various ...

of the early 1990s which would put the company in massive debt eventually leading to its demise.

Downfall

In the 1990s other more successful chains in areas with Lamonts stores, such as

Mervyn's Mervyn's was an American middle-scale department store chain based in Hayward, California, and founded by Mervin G. Morris (1920–2021). It carried national brands of clothing, footwear, bedding, furniture, jewelry, beauty products, electronics, ...

and

JCPenney Penney OpCo LLC, doing business as JCPenney and often abbreviated JCP, is a midscale American department store chain operating 667 stores across 49 U.S. states and Puerto Rico. Departments inside JCPenney stores include Mens, Womens, Boys, Gir ...

, caused Lamonts to restructure in 1992, to file for

Chapter 11 bankruptcy Chapter 11 of the United States Bankruptcy Code (Title 11 of the United States Code) permits reorganization under the bankruptcy laws of the United States. Such reorganization, known as Chapter 11 bankruptcy, is available to every business, whe ...

in 1995 and once more in 2000. An ill-timed expansion in the early 1990s put the company so far in debt that it never quite recovered. The first bankruptcy caused the chain to slim down from 57 to 43 stores and moved their headquarters from Bellevue to Kirkland to save costs. Company officials blamed a bad inventory mix and poor sales due to unusually cold spring and summer seasons that finally pushed them over the edge. After emerging from bankruptcy in early 1998, in attempt to modernize and improve their image, they rolled out a brand new store design that was brighter and more shopper-friendly. In 1999, Lamonts turned down a merge with rival chain Troutman's Emporium. During Lamonts third bankruptcy in 2000, Troutman's offered a bid on the company but was outbid by Gottschalks. The company proposed to change some stores to Troutman's Emporium and sell others to

The Bon Marché The Bon Marché, whose French name translates to "the good market" or "the good deal", was a department store chain launched in Seattle, Washington, United States, in 1890 by Edward Nordhoff. The name was influenced by Le Bon Marché, the note ...

, an upscale department store chain based in

. Lamonts would eventually be acquired by

out of bankruptcy court. Gottschalks bought 34 of the 38 remaining Lamonts stores and they were converted into Gottschalks stores by the end of the year. Unfortunately, expectations of the locations' profitability fell short, and on March 31, 2009, Gottschalks announced they were closing and liquidating the remaining 58 locations. The original downtown Rhodes store was demolished in 2003 for the

Seattle Art Museum The Seattle Art Museum (commonly known as SAM) is an art museum located in Seattle, Washington, United States. It operates three major facilities: its main museum in downtown Seattle; the Seattle Asian Art Museum (SAAM) in Volunteer Park on Cap ...

and new

Washington Mutual Washington Mutual (often abbreviated to WaMu) was the United States' largest savings and loan association until its collapse in 2008. A savings bank holding company is defined in United States Code: Title 12: Banks and Banking; Section 1842: Def ...

Tower.

Concept stores

In 1991, Lamonts launched Lamonts For Kids which focused on children's clothing, one of Lamonts most profitable departments (accounting for 17 percent of its sales). The first store opened in

Boise, Idaho Boise (, , ) is the capital and most populous city of the U.S. state of Idaho and is the county seat of Ada County. On the Boise River in southwestern Idaho, it is east of the Oregon border and north of the Nevada border. The downtown are ...

. Other stores were opened in

Salt Lake City Salt Lake City (often shortened to Salt Lake and abbreviated as SLC) is the Capital (political), capital and List of cities and towns in Utah, most populous city of Utah, United States. It is the county seat, seat of Salt Lake County, Utah, Sal ...

and

Omaha Omaha ( ) is the largest city in the U.S. state of Nebraska and the county seat of Douglas County. Omaha is in the Midwestern United States on the Missouri River, about north of the mouth of the Platte River. The nation's 39th-largest city ...

, and in the

Mall of America Mall of America (MOA) is a large shopping mall located in Bloomington, Minnesota, United States. Located within the Minneapolis–Saint Paul metropolitan area, the mall lies southeast of the junction of Interstate 494 and Minnesota State Highway ...

in Minnesota. The stores, usually opened within malls, featured bright colors and graphics, play areas and specially designed fixtures targeted to children. Wide aisles, extra large dressing rooms to accommodate double strollers, and in-store restrooms with changing tables for infants were also included. The focal area in the store's center, dubbed "Lamonster Land", included video monitors with cartoons and other entertainment for kids, as well as books and stuffed animals. Lamonts shut down the chain in December 1994 because of poor operation. At its peak, Lamonts For Kids operated 8 stores. Lamonsters was a line of infant, toddler and children's clothing introduced in 1986. It was discontinued in 1995.

References

{{reflist

External links

Pipe Organ At Rhodes - University of Washington Special Collections
''Accessed 26 October 2019''. * The

Seattle Times ''The Seattle Times'' is a daily newspaper serving Seattle, Washington, United States. It was founded in 1891 and has been owned by the Blethen family since 1896. ''The Seattle Times'' has the largest circulation of any newspaper in Washington st ...

/ Seattle P-I archives.
List of Gottschalks locations

Historic Images of Rhodes from University of Washington Special Collections
''Accessed 26 October 2019''. Defunct department stores based in Washington State Defunct companies based in Kirkland, Washington Retail companies established in 1965 Pay 'n Save Companies that filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in 1995 Retail companies disestablished in 2000 2000 disestablishments in Washington (state)