Speciality Department Store
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A junior department store in North America is a type of retailer that experienced growth from the late 1930s through the 1960s, but is no longer common today, as retail moved increasingly towards discount stores like
Walmart Walmart Inc. (; formerly Wal-Mart Stores, Inc.) is an American multinational retail corporation that operates a chain of hypermarkets (also called supercenters), discount department stores, and grocery stores from the United States, headquarter ...
and
Target Target may refer to: Physical items * Shooting target, used in marksmanship training and various shooting sports ** Bullseye (target), the goal one for which one aims in many of these sports ** Aiming point, in field artillery, fi ...
, and
big box Big Box, Big box, or Big-box may refer to: *Big-box store A big-box store (also hyperstore, supercenter, superstore, or megastore) is a physically large retail establishment, usually part of a chain of stores. The term sometimes also refers, ...
off-price stores like
Ross Dress For Less Ross Stores, Inc., operating under the brand name Ross Dress for Less, is an American chain of discount department stores headquartered in Dublin, California. It is the largest off-price retailer in the U.S.; as of 2018, Ross operates 1,483 st ...
,
Marshalls Marshalls is an American chain of off-price department stores owned by TJX Companies. Marshalls has over 1,000 American stores, including larger stores named Marshalls Mega Store, covering 42 states and Puerto Rico, and 61 stores in Canada. M ...
and
TJ Maxx TJ Maxx (stylized as T•J•maxx) is an American department store chain, selling at prices generally lower than other major similar stores. It has more than 1,000 stores in the United States, making it one of the largest clothing retailers in ...
. Several types of stores were identified as junior department stores, all of which had in common merchandise organized into departments and store sizes ranging from (according to author James Cooper) but sometimes smaller, especially in the case of large
variety stores A variety store (also five and dime (historic), pound shop, or dollar store) is a retail store that sells general merchandise, such as apparel, automotive parts, dry goods, toys, hardware, home furnishings, and a selection of groceries. It us ...
that promoted themselves as junior department stores. The types of stores called junior department stores included: *Larger format
variety stores A variety store (also five and dime (historic), pound shop, or dollar store) is a retail store that sells general merchandise, such as apparel, automotive parts, dry goods, toys, hardware, home furnishings, and a selection of groceries. It us ...
, also known as dime stores or 5 and 10 cent stores. Especially W. T. Grant and TG&Y promoted its locations as "junior department stores", but also at times J. J. Newberry and even Thrifty Drug Stores, which originated as a
drug store A pharmacy (also called "drugstore" in American English or "community pharmacy" or "chemist" in Commonwealth English, or rarely, apothecary) is a retail shop which provides pharmaceutical drugs, among other products. At the pharmacy, a pharmaci ...
that started selling general merchandise , did so in
Southern California Southern California (commonly shortened to SoCal) is a geographic and cultural region that generally comprises the southern portion of the U.S. state of California. It includes the Los Angeles metropolitan area, the second most populous urban ...
. *Traditional department store with merchandise organized into departments and which was normally sold for "full price", i.e. there was not the implication of its being a discount store or prices being permanently lower than full-price stores. They were "junior" in the sense of being either 1) of a smaller size, often stated as less than , and/or 2) as having fewer lines of merchandise, or departments, than a regular (larger) department store, particularly hard goods such as major appliances, which North American department stores generally carried during that era. Examples of stores that fulfilled the criteria of being divided into departments and in the size range are: **Chains like the Boston Stores (California) **Smaller, local department stores with no branches or only one or two, such as Hinshaw's,
Iver's Iver's was a department store with two locations north of Downtown Los Angeles: one at 5801 N. Figueroa in Highland Park, Los Angeles, and another at 663 Foothill Blvd. in La Cañada Flintridge, California, La Cañada Flintridge. The La Cañada Fli ...
,
Robertson's Robertson's is a British brand of marmalades and fruit preserves that was founded by James Robertson in 1864. The firm was run as a partnership until 1903, when it was incorporated as a limited company - James Robertson & Sons, Preserve Manufactu ...
and Rathbun's in the Los Angeles area or Bon Marché in
Lowell, Massachusetts Lowell () is a city in Massachusetts, in the United States. Alongside Cambridge, Massachusetts, Cambridge, It is one of two traditional county seat, seats of Middlesex County, Massachusetts, Middlesex County. With an estimated population of 115,5 ...
**Small-format upscale department stores such as
Buffums Buffums, originally written as Buffums' with an apostrophe, was a chain of upscale department stores, headquartered in Long Beach, California. The Buffums chain began in 1904, when two brothers from Illinois, Charles A. and Edwin E. Buffum, ...
which might be called specialty department stores. Hong Kong's Lane Crawford and UK's
Harvey Nichols Harvey Nichols is a British luxury department store chain founded in 1831, at its flagship store in Knightsbridge, London. It sells designer fashion collections for men and women, fashion accessories, beauty products, fine wines and luxury f ...
are also considered as specialty department store, as it focuses on selling luxury goods. **Larger clothing stores with no home furnishings or hard goods at all, but which were large enough to be considered small department stores. Examples in Southern California were Silverwoods and
Harris & Frank Harris & Frank was a clothing retailer and major chain in the history of retail in Southern California, which at its peak had around 40 stores across Southern California and in neighboring states and regions. Its history dates back to a clothing ...
.
Fast fashion Fast fashion is a term used to describe the clothing industry's business model of replicating recent catwalk trends and high-fashion designs, mass-producing them at a low cost, and bringing them to retail stores quickly, while demand is at it ...
brands such as Zara, H&M and
Primark Primark Stores Limited (; trading as Penneys in the Republic of Ireland) is an Irish multinational fast fashion retailer with headquarters in Dublin, Ireland. It has stores across Europe and in the United States. The Penneys brand is not us ...
are often confused with the specification, as they not only sold clothing but also home goods and cosmetics under their own brand.


References

{{reflist Retail formats * Variety stores