Yankee Stores was an American

discount department store A discount store or discounter offers a retail format in which products are sold at prices that are in principle lower than an actual or supposed "full retail price". Discounters rely on bulk purchasing and efficient Logistics, distribution to kee ...

chain begun in

Flint, Michigan Flint is the largest city and seat of Genesee County, Michigan, United States. Located along the Flint River, northwest of Detroit, it is a principal city within the region known as Mid Michigan. At the 2020 census, Flint had a population of 8 ...

. Partners Joseph Megdell and Wilbert Roberts opened their first store in 1948 to sell

military surplus Military surplus are goods, usually matériel, that are sold or otherwise disposed of when held in excess or are no longer needed by the military. Entrepreneurs often buy these goods and resell them at surplus stores. Usually the goods sold by ...

under the name U.S. Surplus. By 1964, it had become a discount chain with 21 stores throughout southeastern Michigan, primarily around Flint. Many of its locations were paired with local supermarket chain

Hamady Brothers Hamady was an American supermarket chain based in Flint, Michigan, United States, which at its peak had 37 stores and 1,300 employees. Given the chain's pervasiveness in the area, paper grocery bags were known as “Hamady sacks”. History Hamady ...

. Some larger stores, including those in

Lansing Lansing () is the capital of the U.S. state of Michigan. It is mostly in Ingham County, although portions of the city extend west into Eaton County and north into Clinton County. The 2020 census placed the city's population at 112,644, makin ...

and Bay City, were called Yankee Stadium. Megdell and Roberts sold the chain to Borman Foods, then-parent of

Farmer Jack Farmer Jack was a supermarket chain based in Detroit, Michigan. At its peak, it operated more than 100 stores, primarily in metropolitan Detroit. In its final years, the chain operated as the Midwest subsidiary of the New Jersey-based A&P Corp ...

supermarkets, in 1965. Borman unsuccessfully expanded the chain into

Metro Detroit The Detroit metropolitan area, often referred to as Metro Detroit, is a major metropolitan area in the U.S. State of Michigan, consisting of the city of Detroit and its surrounding area. There are varied definitions of the area, including the ...

, closing those stores by 1971. Many of the Detroit stores were sold to

Shoppers Fair Shoppers Fair was an American discount department store chain. It was founded in 1956 in Bridgeport, Connecticut and owned by New York City-based Mangel, but primarily operated in the state of Michigan. The chain closed the last of its stores in 19 ...

. In 1972, Borman sold the Yankee chain to California-based

Zody's Hartfield-Zodys was an American retail corporation begun in 1960. It operated the Hartfield chain of women's ready-to-wear apparel in the Los Angeles area, and starting in 1960, the Zodys chain of discount retail stores (1960–1986), which oper ...

. Zody's closed its Michigan operations in 1974 as part of the chain's bankruptcy proceedings.

References

{{Reflist Defunct discount stores of the United States Defunct companies based in Michigan Defunct department stores based in Michigan Companies based in Genesee County, Michigan Retail companies established in 1948 American companies disestablished in 1972 1948 establishments in Michigan 1972 disestablishments in Michigan American companies established in 1948