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

New York City, New York New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

History

Founding

Oppenheim Collins & Company, Inc. was founded by Albert D. Oppenheim 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

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. The store expanded to include the Miss Vincent's Tea Room and was remodeled in 1935 and in 1951. In 1922 the Fulton & Bridge,

Brooklyn Brooklyn () is a borough of New York City, coextensive with Kings County, in the U.S. state of New York. Kings County is the most populous county in the State of New York, and the second-most densely populated county in the United States, be ...

, branch was expanded to (), making it the largest branch of the seven stores at that time. 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

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. 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 CSS Industries, Inc., was founded in 1923, as City Stores Company. Its headquarters is at 1845 Walnut Street, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, with showrooms in New York City, Memphis, Tennessee, Minneapolis, Minnesota, and Hong Kong. The company desi ...

. 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 Harundale Mall, in Glen Burnie, Anne Arundel County, Maryland, United States at the intersection of Ritchie Highway and Aquahart Road, was the first enclosed, air-conditioned mall built east of the Mississippi River. Originally built in 1958, t ...

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 of Glen Burnie was 67,639 at the 2010 census. History In 1812, Elias Glenn, a d ...

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. Founded in 1937, the RWDSU represents about 60,000 workers in a wide range of industries, including but not limited to retail, grocery stores, poultry pro ...

, 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 fro ...

, 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 CSS Industries, Inc., was founded in 1923, as City Stores Company. Its headquarters is at 1845 Walnut Street, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, with showrooms in New York City, Memphis, Tennessee, Minneapolis, Minnesota, and Hong Kong. The company desi ...

in 1945. In the 1950s, the store was merged with Franklin Simon & Co. although the two stores operated under their original trade names until the Oppenheim Collins stores were finally renamed Franklin Simon & Co. in 1961/1962.

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