The Fair Store was a discount

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 ...

founded in 1874 in

Chicago, Illinois (''City in a Garden''); I Will , image_map = , map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago , coordinates = , coordinates_footnotes = , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name ...

History

Founder Ernst J. Lehmann decided on the name "The Fair Store" as he felt "the store was like a fair because it offered many different things for sale at a cheap price." Lehmann bought and sold goods on a cash-only basis; he offered odd prices (i. e., prices not in multiples of five cents) to save customers a few pennies on every purchase. The flagship store moved to the corner of State and Adams Streets in 1875; a modern twelve-story building for the store would be completed on that site in 1897. The Fair Store promoted itself as a discount department store in the early 1900s. In 1915, a booklet published by the store stated "The Fair Store is still, as it always has been and undoubtedly always will be, the store of the people, the down-town shopping center for the Savers, the market place for the Thrifty." In 1925 the business was sold to a syndicate headed by

S.S. Kresge Sebastian Spering Kresge (July 31, 1867 – October 18, 1966) was an American businessman. He created and owned two chains of department stores, the S. S. Kresge Company, one of the 20th century's largest discount retail organizations, and the ...

(predecessor firm of

Kmart Kmart Corporation ( , doing business as Kmart and stylized as kmart) is an American retail company that owns a chain of big box department stores. The company is headquartered in Hoffman Estates, Illinois, United States. The company was inc ...

). Under its management, branches were opened on Milwaukee Avenue (1929), in

Oak Park, Illinois Oak Park is a village in Cook County, Illinois, adjacent to Chicago. It is the 29th-most populous municipality in Illinois with a population of 54,583 as of the 2020 U.S. Census estimate. Oak Park was first settled in 1835 and later incorporated ...

(1929), at the Evergreen Plaza Shopping Center (1952), and at the

Old Orchard Shopping Center Westfield Old Orchard, formerly Old Orchard Shopping Center, is an upscale shopping mall in the Chicago metropolitan area. It is located in Skokie, Illinois. Anchor stores include Nordstrom and Macy's. History Westfield Old Orchard opened in Oct ...

(1956). In 1957,

Montgomery Ward Montgomery Ward is the name of two successive U.S. retail corporations. The original Montgomery Ward & Co. was a world-pioneering mail-order business and later also a leading department store chain that operated between 1872 and 2001. The curren ...

purchased the State Street flagship store, as well as the Oak Park, Evergreen Plaza, and Old Orchard locations, from the Kresge syndicate in a bid to expand its Chicago operations; unlike many other retailers, Montgomery Ward had not joined in the construction of branch stores immediately following World War II. Initially, these stores retained the Fair nameplate, and one more Fair Store would open, at

Randhurst Mall Randhurst Village, previously known as Randhurst Mall and Randhurst Center or simply Randhurst, is a shopping mall located at the corner of Rand Road ( U.S. Route 12) and Elmhurst Road (Illinois Route 83) in Mount Prospect, Illinois. The mall too ...

in 1962. However, the Randhurst store would also be the first converted to the Montgomery Ward nameplate, in August 1963; the other locations would convert to the parent company's name plate in 1964. The flagship building on State Street was closed in 1984 and demolished in 1985. Though a new building was planned for the valuable real estate, none was constructed until 2001.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Fair Store Retail companies established in 1874 History of Chicago Defunct department stores based in Chicago Defunct department stores based in Michigan Retail companies disestablished in 1957 1874 establishments in Illinois 1957 disestablishments in Illinois Demolished buildings and structures in Chicago Buildings and structures demolished in 1985