Scan Furniture was a co-operative furniture chain that sold modern

Scandinavia Scandinavia; Sámi languages: /. ( ) is a subregion in Northern Europe, with strong historical, cultural, and linguistic ties between its constituent peoples. In English usage, ''Scandinavia'' most commonly refers to Denmark, Norway, and Swe ...

n furniture that operated six stores in the metropolitan

Baltimore Baltimore ( , locally: or ) is the List of municipalities in Maryland, most populous city in the U.S. state of Maryland, fourth most populous city in the Mid-Atlantic (United States), Mid-Atlantic, and List of United States cities by popula ...

Washington, D.C. ) , image_skyline = , image_caption = Clockwise from top left: the Washington Monument and Lincoln Memorial on the National Mall, United States Capitol, Logan Circle, Jefferson Memorial, White House, Adams Morgan, ...

area. Unusually, it was founded in 1938 as a grocery store in

Greenbelt, Maryland Greenbelt is a city in Prince George's County, Maryland, United States, and a suburb of Washington, D.C. At the 2020 census, the population was 24,921. Greenbelt is the first and the largest of the three experimental and controversial New D ...

, which became the Greenbelt Cooperative in 1940. The

cooperative A cooperative (also known as co-operative, co-op, or coop) is "an autonomous association of persons united voluntarily to meet their common economic, social and cultural needs and aspirations through a jointly owned and democratically-contro ...

grew to include a gas station and furniture store. In 1984, the board of directors sold the grocery store and gas operations to concentrate on its Scan division. The grocery store remains a cooperative called the Greenbelt Consumers Cooperative. In 1978 Scan Furniture was the largest teak importer in the country and imported about $10 million of teak every year. It was based in Rockville, Maryland, with a distribution center in Columbia. On December 19, 2007, Scan filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection, according to a report in the Baltimore Business Journal. Its sales dropped $25 million to $17 million from 2005 to 2007, according to court papers filed in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Baltimore. The retailer cited declining revenue and an inability to borrow money as factors in its filing.

References

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External links

The Greenbelt Cooperative: Success and Decline

Scan Furniture website
��(now defunct) Furniture retailers of the United States Former cooperatives of the United States Greenbelt, Maryland Companies based in Rockville, Maryland American companies established in 1960 Retail companies established in 1960 Retail companies disestablished in 2007 1960 establishments in Maryland 2007 disestablishments in Maryland Defunct companies based in Maryland