World Market, formerly Cost Plus World Market, is an American chain of specialty/import

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

stores, selling home furniture, decor, curtains, rugs, gifts, apparel, coffee, wine, craft beer, and international food products. The brand's original name came from the initial concept, since abandoned, of selling items for "cost plus 10%". The company was owned by Bed Bath & Beyond from 2012 to 2021, and is currently headquartered in

Alameda, California Alameda ( ; ; Spanish for "Avenue (landscape), tree-lined path") is a city in Alameda County, California, United States, located in the East Bay (San Francisco Bay Area), East Bay region of the Bay Area. The city is built on an informal archipe ...

History

On 23 October 1958, William Amthor and Lincoln Bartlett opened the first Cost Plus Imports store at 2552 Taylor Street on Fisherman's Wharf in

San Francisco San Francisco, officially the City and County of San Francisco, is a commercial, Financial District, San Francisco, financial, and Culture of San Francisco, cultural center of Northern California. With a population of 827,526 residents as of ...

California California () is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States that lies on the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. It borders Oregon to the north, Nevada and Arizona to the east, and shares Mexico–United States border, an ...

. (This location would permanently close in 2020.) Amthor and Bartlett worked at Amthor's family's import business in San Francisco, which had imported a surplus of

wicker Wicker is a method of weaving used to make products such as furniture and baskets, as well as a descriptor to classify such products. It is the oldest furniture making method known to history, dating as far back as . Wicker was first documented ...

furniture. Unable to offload the pieces via wholesale, they rented of warehouse space in the Fisherman's Wharf area. The imported furniture sold quickly, and Amthor began a new business as a retailer. When the first store opened in 1958, it was devoted to wicker and rattan that the company had imported. The store was named Cost Plus after their strategy of pricing the imported goods at cost, plus ten percent. The stores featured an eclectic mix of imported furniture and home furnishings, displayed in the style of a bazaar. The success in San Francisco led quickly led to the opening of other stores across

Northern California Northern California (commonly shortened to NorCal) is a geocultural region that comprises the northern portion of the U.S. state of California, spanning the northernmost 48 of the state's List of counties in California, 58 counties. Northern Ca ...

. In 1962, with the help of the

Tandy Corporation Tandy Corporation was an American family-owned Retail, retailer based in Fort Worth, Texas that made leather goods, operated the RadioShack chain, and later built personal computers. Tandy Leather was founded in 1919 as a leather supply store ...

, Cost Plus Imports incorporated and opened franchised locations in California and Texas. By 1966, the franchised stores were importing their own products and had been purchased by a group of Tandy's employees as

Pier 1 Imports Pier 1 Imports, Inc., is an online retailer and former Fort Worth, Texas-based retail chain specializing in imported home furnishings and decor, particularly furniture, table-top items, decorative accessories, and seasonal decor. It was Public ...

, while the original chain retained the Cost Plus name. Cost Plus would eventually grow to 258 stores across 39 states and Washington, D.C. In 1987,

Bechtel Bechtel Corporation () is an American engineering, procurement, construction, and project management company founded in San Francisco, California in 1898, and headquartered in Reston, Virginia in the Washington metropolitan area. , the '' E ...

Investments (Fremont Group) completed a

leveraged buyout A leveraged buyout (LBO) is the acquisition of a company using a significant proportion of borrowed money (Leverage (finance), leverage) to fund the acquisition with the remainder of the purchase price funded with private equity. The assets of t ...

. In the 1990s, Cost Plus shifted the branding of its stores to either Cost Plus World Market or simply World Market in markets new to the brand (generally in the eastern or southern regions of the United States). In 1996, Cost Plus World Market went

public In public relations and communication science, publics are groups of individual people, and the public (a.k.a. the general public) is the totality of such groupings. This is a different concept to the sociology, sociological concept of the ''Öf ...

and began trading on the

NASDAQ The Nasdaq Stock Market (; National Association of Securities Dealers Automated Quotations) is an American stock exchange based in New York City. It is the most active stock trading venue in the U.S. by volume, and ranked second on the list ...

stock exchange. In February 2006, Cost Plus reported quarterly earnings of $125 million, with $367 million in revenue for the fourth

fiscal quarter A fiscal year (also known as a financial year, or sometimes budget year) is used in government accounting, which varies between countries, and for budget purposes. It is also used for financial reporting by businesses and other organizations. La ...

of 2006. Annual earnings were $280 million with over $800 million in revenue. By 2008 the company was operating at a loss, and rebuffed an 88.4 million dollar takeover bid by Pier 1 Imports. In 2012, Cost Plus was acquired by Bed Bath & Beyond. In 2014, Cost Plus World Market launched an online crowdsourcing-model marketplace, Craft by World Market. The website posts items for one month at a time, and sells only products that attract enough pre-orders to be worthwhile. In October 2019, Bed Bath and Beyond announced pending closure of 40 Bed Bath and Beyond stores and 20 stores of World Market and other subsidiaries. The company sold Cost Plus World Market to Kingswood Capital Management in February 2021.

References

External links

* {{Authority control Home decor retailers Furniture retailers of the United States Retail companies based in California Companies based in Alameda, California American companies established in 1958 Retail companies established in 1958 1958 establishments in California 2012 mergers and acquisitions 2021 mergers and acquisitions