Maurice Goldblatt (January 16, 1892 – July 17, 1984) was the co-founder of the ''

Goldblatt's Goldblatt's was an American chain of local discount stores that operated in Chicago, Illinois, as well as Indiana, Michigan and Wisconsin. Founded in 1914, the chain grew to more than twenty stores at its peak, gradually closing some stores in th ...

'' department store.

Biography

Goldblatt was born to a

Jewish Jews ( he, יְהוּדִים, , ) or Jewish people are an ethnoreligious group and nation originating from the Israelites Israelite origins and kingdom: "The first act in the long drama of Jewish history is the age of the Israelites""The ...

family in

Staszów Staszów is a town in southeastern Poland, in Świętokrzyskie Voivodeship (historic province of Lesser Poland), about southeast of Kielce, and northeast of Kraków. It is the capital of Staszów County. The population is 15,108 (2010), whi ...

, the son of Simon Goldblatt and Hannah Diamond. His family immigrated to

Chicago (''City in a Garden''); I Will , image_map = , map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago , coordinates = , coordinates_footnotes = , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name ...

in 1905. In 1914, he and his brother Nathan opened a general merchandise store in a Polish neighborhood in Chicago located at Chicago Avenue and Ashland Avenue. Sales grew markedly from $15,000 in the first year to $1.4 million by 1915. As a discount store, the company did well through the

Great Depression The Great Depression (19291939) was an economic shock that impacted most countries across the world. It was a period of economic depression that became evident after a major fall in stock prices in the United States. The economic contagio ...

and by 1933 had $20 million in sales with seven stores (5 in Chicago, 1 in

Joliet, Illinois Joliet ( ) is a city in Will County, Illinois, Will and Kendall County, Illinois, Kendall counties in the U.S. state of Illinois, southwest of Chicago. It is the county seat of Will County. At the 2020 United States Census, 2020 census, the cit ...

, and 1 in

Hammond, Indiana Hammond ( ) is a city in Lake County, Indiana. It is part of the Chicago metropolitan area, and the only city in Indiana to border Chicago. First settled in the mid-19th century, it is one of the oldest cities of northern Lake County. As of the ...

). At the end of World War II, the company had 15 stores and over 2,500 employees. In 1946, Maurice retired and handed control to his younger brothers, Louis and Joel. In the 1970s, ''Goldblatt's'' had $250 million in annual sales and 47 stores with over 8,000 employees in the Chicago area. In 1981, the company filed for Chapter 11 reorganization. In 1985, it was bought by JG Industries Inc. and reduced to 15 Chicago-area stores. In 2003, the company filed for

Chapter 7 Chapter 7 may refer to: Albums * ''Chapter Seven'' (album), a 2013 album by Damien Leith. *''Chapter VII'', a 1973 album by drummer Buddy Miles George Allen "Buddy" Miles Jr. (September 5, 1947February 26, 2008) was an American composer, drum ...

liquidation.

Personal life

In 1935, he married Bernice Goldblatt; they had two children, Stanford Goldblatt and Merle Goldblatt Cohen. As his brother Nathan died of cancer in 1944, Maurice was a strong supporter of research to fight cancer and was seminal in establishing the

University of Chicago The University of Chicago (UChicago, Chicago, U of C, or UChi) is a private research university in Chicago, Illinois. Its main campus is located in Chicago's Hyde Park neighborhood. The University of Chicago is consistently ranked among the b ...

Cancer Research Foundation in 1947; and donated $3.4 million facility to the University of Chicago Medical Center.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Goldblatt, Maurice 1892 births 1984 deaths American company founders American Jews American retail chief executives People from Chicago Congress Poland emigrants to the United States