Oppenheim Collins was a major women's specialty clothing store, headquartered in

New York City, New York New York, often called New York City (NYC), is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States, located at the southern tip of New York State on New York Harbor, one of the world's largest natural harb ...

History

Founding

Oppenheim Collins & Company, Inc. was founded by

Albert D. Oppenheim Albert may refer to: Companies * Albert Computers, Inc., a computer manufacturer in the 1980s * Albert Czech Republic, a supermarket chain in the Czech Republic * Albert Heijn, a supermarket chain in the Netherlands * Albert Market, a street ...

and Charles J. Oppenheim, and was later joined by Isaac D. Levy. Their first store was opened in 1901 in downtown New York City.

Branch stores

In 1905, a branch store opened at 534 Main Street, in

Buffalo, New York Buffalo is a Administrative divisions of New York (state), city in the U.S. state of New York (state), New York and county seat of Erie County, New York, Erie County. It lies in Western New York at the eastern end of Lake Erie, at the head of ...

. The store expanded to include the Miss Vincent's Tea Room and was remodeled in 1935 and in 1951. By 1915, the firm had stores in five cities, including New York City (

Brooklyn Brooklyn is a Boroughs of New York City, borough of New York City located at the westernmost end of Long Island in the New York (state), State of New York. Formerly an independent city, the borough is coextensive with Kings County, one of twelv ...

and

Manhattan Manhattan ( ) is the most densely populated and geographically smallest of the Boroughs of New York City, five boroughs of New York City. Coextensive with New York County, Manhattan is the County statistics of the United States#Smallest, larg ...

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, and Newark. The flagship was the 34th Street store in Manhattan. In 1922 there were seven stores. The branch on Fulton Street,

, was expanded to (), making it the largest branch of the seven stores at that time. It occupied the full block from Bridge Street to Lawrence Street. Despite its size, Oppenheim, Collins clarified that it was not a department store, but a women’s specialty store. In 1956, a suburban Buffalo location opened at Thruway Plaza in

Cheektowaga, New York Cheektowaga (; ) is a town in Erie County, New York, United States. As of the 2020 census, the town has grown to a population of 89,877. The town is in the north-central part of the county, and is an inner ring suburb of Buffalo. The town is ...

. The "Top of the Town" restaurant operated out of the Downtown Buffalo store. The Buffalo area stores closed in 1979, along with others in the Franklin Simon & Co. chain with the bankruptcy of City Stores. Later expansion in the 1950s, led to the first store outside of New York. In 1958, Oppenheim Collins opened a location in the new Harundale Mall in

Glen Burnie, Maryland Glen Burnie is an unincorporated town and census-designated place (CDP) in Anne Arundel County, Maryland, United States. It is a suburb of Baltimore. The population was 72,891 at the 2020 census. History In 1812, Elias Glenn, a district attorn ...

Unionization

In 1944, Local 1250 of the

Retail, Wholesale and Department Store Union Retail, Wholesale and Department Store Union (RWDSU) is a labor union in the United States and Canada. Founded in 1937, the RWDSU represents about 60,000 workers in a wide range of industries, including but not limited to retail, grocery stores, p ...

, CIO won a new contract with Oppenheim Collins that included a

closed shop A pre-entry closed shop (or simply closed shop) is a form of union security agreement under which the employer agrees to hire union members only, and employees must remain members of the union at all times to remain employed. This is different fr ...

, a $2.00 pay increase, and elimination of "free"

overtime Overtime is the amount of time someone works beyond normal working hours. The term is also used for the pay received for this time. Normal hours may be determined in several ways: *by custom (what is considered healthy or reasonable by society) ...

work during peak sales and inventory periods. In 1948, Oppenheim Collins employees, represented by Local 1250 of the Retail, Wholesale and Department Store Union, CIO, struck against the company.

City stores

A majority interest in Oppenheim Collins was purchased by City Stores Company in 1945. In the 1950s, the store was merged with Franklin Simon & Co. although the two stores operated for several years under their original trade names. The Oppenheim Collins stores were finally renamed Franklin Simon & Co. in 1961. The parent company went bankrupt in 1979, and all the Franklin stores closed (including former Oppenheim stores).

Presidents

* Isaac D. Levy, - 1934 * James C. Bolger, 1934 - * Robert D. Levy, - 1941 *Otto L. Kinz, 1941 - 1945 * Philip N. Cohan, 1947 - 1949 * Gordon K. Greenfield, 1949 - ''New York Times'', "Elected to Presidency Of Oppenheim, Collins," October 19, 1949, p. 45.

References

{{reflist, 2 Defunct department stores based in New York City