Mercantile Stores Company Inc. until 1998, was a traditional

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 ...

retailer operating 102 fashion apparel stores and 16 home fashion stores in 17 states. The stores were operated under 13 different nameplates and varied in size, with the average store approximating . Store names included

Bacon's Bacon's was a chain of department stores based in Louisville, Kentucky. History Jeremiah Bacon opened a store called Bacon's Dry Goods in 1845 on Market Street near Hancock Street. In 1876 he moved into a structure four times larger than the o ...

Castner Knott Castner Knott was a Nashville, Tennessee-based regional department store chain which operated stores in Alabama, Kentucky, and Tennessee. The chain was in business for a century from 1898 to 1998, in its later years as a division of Mercantile St ...

, deLendrecie's,

Gayfers Gayfer's was a regional department store chain in the southern United States. Based in Mobile, Alabama, the chain of stores operated from 1879 until 1998 when it was taken over by Dillard's. History C.J. Gayfer migrated to Mobile, Alabama, from ...

, Glass Block, Hennessy's, J. B. White (also known as White's), The Jones Store Company,

Joslins Joslins Department Store began as J. Joslins Dry Goods Store, founded by John Jay Joslin in 1873; It was a direct competitor to The Denver Dry Goods Company which commenced operations in 1888. The downtown Joslins building in Denver, Colorado, ...

, Lion Store, Maison Blanche,

McAlpin's McAlpin's was a Cincinnati-based department store founded in 1852 as Ellis, McAlpin & Co. McAlpin's opened their landmark downtown location on Fourth Street in 1880. In 1954, McAlpin's became the first Cincinnati department store to open a suburba ...

, and Root's. Each store offered a wide selection of merchandise with special emphasis placed on fashion apparel, accessories and fashion home furnishings. This was aimed at middle and upper-middle income consumers. In addition to its department store operations the company maintained a partnership position in five operating shopping center ventures. Each of these centers had a retail outlet of the company. The store chain was formed in 1914 out of the bankruptcy of H.B. Claflin & Company. Its stores were separated into two store chains, Associated Dry Goods - with brands such as

Lord & Taylor Lord & Taylor was the oldest brick and mortar department store in the United States, in business from 1826 to 2020. The brand was purchased during former owner Le Tote's 2020 liquidation bankruptcy and relaunched by new owner, Saadia Group, as ...

and

Hengerer's The William Hengerer Company, known informally as Hengerer's, was a Buffalo, New York-based department store chain, with stores exclusively located in the Western New York region. History The company was founded in 1867 as J. C. Barnes & Co., fol ...

- and Mercantile Stores Company. In May 1998 Mercantile Stores was acquired by

Dillard's Dillard's, Inc. is an upscale American department store chain with approximately 282 stores in 29 states and headquartered in Little Rock, Arkansas. Currently, the largest number of stores are located in Texas with 57 and Florida with 42. The ...

of Little Rock, Arkansas, for $2.9 billion. Later that year, Dillard's announced plans to sell off 26 of the newly acquired locations where there already were Dillard's stores to

The May Department Stores Company The May Department Stores Company was an American department store holding company, formerly headquartered in downtown St. Louis, Missouri. It was founded in Leadville, Colorado, by David May in 1877, moving to St. Louis in 1905. After many ch ...

and Proffitt's Inc.

References

* Retail companies established in 1914 Defunct department stores based in Cincinnati Retail companies disestablished in 1998 Fairfield, Ohio 1998 mergers and acquisitions {{US-retail-company-stub