Polk Brothers was a large

home appliance A home appliance, also referred to as a domestic appliance, an electric appliance or a household appliance, is a machine which assists in household functions such as cooking, cleaning and food preservation. Appliances are divided into three ...

and

electronics The field of electronics is a branch of physics and electrical engineering that deals with the emission, behaviour and effects of electrons using electronic devices. Electronics uses active devices to control electron flow by amplification ...

retailer Retail is the sale of goods and services to consumers, in contrast to wholesaling, which is sale to business or institutional customers. A retailer purchases goods in large quantities from manufacturers, directly or through a wholesaler, and ...

Chicago (''City in a Garden''); I Will , image_map = , map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago , coordinates = , coordinates_footnotes = , subdivision_type = List of sovereign states, Count ...

Illinois Illinois ( ) is a state in the Midwestern United States. Its largest metropolitan areas include the Chicago metropolitan area, and the Metro East section, of Greater St. Louis. Other smaller metropolitan areas include, Peoria and Rock ...

that had 17 stores in the region at its peak in the 1980s. One of the original discounters, Polk Bros. Inc. was founded by Sol Polk, the son of Romanian Jewish immigrants, The Jewish List: Chicago's Top 100 Jews of the 20th Century
, Nr. 28 on the Northwest Side in the

Portage Park Portage Park is a park in the Portage Park community area of Chicago, Illinois on the National Register of Historic Places. The park stretches from Irving Park Road on the south to Berteau Avenue between Central and Long Avenues. The largest p ...

community area of

Chicago (''City in a Garden''); I Will , image_map = , map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago , coordinates = , coordinates_footnotes = , subdivision_type = List of sovereign states, Count ...

in 1935. The first outlet was on Central Avenue under the name Central Appliance and Furniture at 3334 N. Central Avenue. Brothers Sol, Sam, Harry, David and Morris and their sister, Ghisella "Goldie" Bachmann, ran the business, which was renamed Polk Brothers in 1946. By the 1960s, there were two dozen or more family members including uncles, cousins, and in-laws, working in various departments of the company, which became one of the biggest appliance retailers in the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country Continental United States, primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 U.S. state, states, a Washington, D.C., ...

at a time when the industry was very fragmented. Polk Bros. was the dominating electronics/appliance retailer in the Chicago market through the 1980s. The chain was known for its aggressive "let's make a deal" salesmen who would pair off with customers as they came in the door. It was an industry leader in innovative merchandising and was chosen to be the first retailer in the nation to sell color televisions and

microwave ovens A microwave oven (commonly referred to as a microwave) is an electric oven that heats and cooks food by exposing it to electromagnetic radiation in the microwave frequency range. This induces polar molecules in the food to rotate and produce th ...

. In the 1950s and 1960s, when most appliances and stereos were bought at

department stores 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 appea ...

at full price, Polk Bros. pioneered the art of discounting. "The motto was that no customer walks out of the store without buying at least something," recalls Howard Polk. "Whatever it took to make a deal, we gave it to them." The company's influence lives on at

Wal-Mart 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 other chains that advertise, as Polk Bros. did, the lowest prices anywhere. Owner Sol Polk was considered a master pitchman. He ran in-store promotions that offered everything from TVs to

Christmas Christmas is an annual festival commemorating the birth of Jesus Christ, observed primarily on December 25 as a religious and cultural celebration among billions of people around the world. A feast central to the Christian liturgical year ...

trees. Polk served as the president of the North American Retail Dealers Association (NARDA), and his innovative and flamboyant promotions of the industry's products gained him nationwide recognition. He also was frequently called on to appear at hearings on proposed industry-related legislative and regulatory hearings held by the

United States Congress The United States Congress is the legislature of the federal government of the United States. It is Bicameralism, bicameral, composed of a lower body, the United States House of Representatives, House of Representatives, and an upper body, ...

and federal and state agencies. A fire during the evening of June 1, 1987 that gutted the company's warehouse and adjacent headquarters at 8311 W. North Avenue in Melrose Park put the company in financial straits, and the death a year later of 71-year-old

CEO A chief executive officer (CEO), also known as a central executive officer (CEO), chief administrator officer (CAO) or just chief executive (CE), is one of a number of corporate executives charged with the management of an organization especially ...

Sol Polk sent it spiraling downward. The 1990-91 recession and the arrival of new competitors such as

Best Buy Best Buy Co. Inc. is an American multinational consumer electronics retailer headquartered in Richfield, Minnesota. Originally founded by Richard M. Schulze and James Wheeler in 1966 as an audio specialty store called Sound of Music, it was rebra ...

sealed Polk Bros.' fate. The chain officially closed its doors on July 8, 1992, in a grand "going out of business" sale. A

Menards Menards is an American home improvement retail company headquartered in Eau Claire, Wisconsin. Menards is owned by founder John Menard Jr. through his privately held company, Menard, Inc. It has 335 stores in 15 states: Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, ...

occupied the rebuilt Polk Brothers store in Melrose Park until the mid-2010s when it moved out of that store to build a store of its own further west on

North Avenue (Chicago) North Avenue is a major east–west street in Chicago, Illinois, and its western suburbs. Starting at St. Charles's eastern border with West Chicago, its name changes from Main Street to North Avenue, just east of the Kane/ DuPage county line ...

just east of the

Navistar Navistar, Inc is an American holding company created in 1986 as the successor to International Harvester. Navistar operates as the owner of International-branded trucks and diesel engines. The company also produces buses under the IC Bus br ...

plant.

Polk Bros. Foundation

The company's assets were rolled over into the Polk Bros. Foundation, today one of the Chicago area's largest

charitable The practice of charity is the voluntary giving of help to those in need, as a humanitarian act, unmotivated by self-interest. There are a number of philosophies about charity, often associated with religion. Etymology The word ''charity'' or ...

organizations. With assets of $385 million, the foundation in one year dispensed 350

grants Grant or Grants may refer to: Places *Grant County (disambiguation) Australia * Grant, Queensland, a locality in the Barcaldine Region, Queensland, Australia United Kingdom *Castle Grant United States * Grant, Alabama * Grant, Inyo County, ...

totaling $15.7 million to organizations. The foundation has funded organizations such as the

Chicago Children's Choir Chicago Children's Choir is a non-profit organization, founded in 1956 at First Unitarian Church of Chicago. Organization Founded in Hyde Park in 1956, CCC has grown from one choir into a network of in-school and after-school programs serving near ...

, The Chicago High School for the Arts (ChiArts), and the University of Chicago. The Polks also had a vast

investment portfolio In finance, a portfolio is a collection of investments. Definition The term “portfolio” refers to any combination of financial assets such as stocks, bonds and cash. Portfolios may be held by individual investors or managed by financial pro ...

that included

stock In finance, stock (also capital stock) consists of all the shares by which ownership of a corporation or company is divided.Longman Business English Dictionary: "stock - ''especially AmE'' one of the shares into which ownership of a compan ...

in such bygone Chicago retailers as Wieboldt's and

Goldblatt's Goldblatt's was an American chain of local discount stores that operated in Chicago, Illinois, as well as Indiana, Michigan and Wisconsin. Founded in 1914, the chain grew to more than twenty stores at its peak, gradually closing some stores in t ...

. They also held thousands of acres of real estate around the country, most of it divested over the past 15 years. One of the last parcels, prime in the Malibu Hills north of

Los Angeles Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the largest city in the state of California and the second most populous city in the United States after New York City, as well as one of the world ...

, has a sale pending.{{when, date=April 2019

References

External links

Polk Bros. Foundation
Retail companies established in 1935 Defunct companies based in Chicago Consumer electronics retailers in the United States Defunct retail companies of the United States Defunct consumer electronics retailers in the United States Defunct companies based in Illinois 1935 establishments in Illinois Retail companies disestablished in 1992 1992 disestablishments in Illinois