Heck's Department Store, a chain of

West Virginia West Virginia is a state in the Appalachian, Mid-Atlantic and Southeastern regions of the United States.The Census Bureau and the Association of American Geographers classify West Virginia as part of the Southern United States while the ...

based discount department stores, was founded by Boone County natives and businessmen Fred Haddad, Tom Ellis, and Lester Ellis and wholesale distributor Douglas Cook. The Heck's name was a combination of the names Haddad, Ellis and Cook. Haddad served as president, Lester Ellis was vice-president, and Tom Ellis was Secretary-Treasurer.

History

Heck's, Inc. was established in 1959 by

Fred Haddad Frederick Lawrence Haddad (January 18, 1921 – January 13, 2003) was a prominent Arab-American businessman who was a co-founder and President of Heck's, a major discount retail chain in West Virginia and neighboring states. Life Haddad was born ...

, Tom & Lester Ellis, and Doug Cook. The main office was located at 1012 Kanawha Blvd., Charleston, West Virginia. Heck's stores were discount, stand-alone department stores found in small cities throughout West Virginia, Virginia, western Maryland, the Ohio Valley and parts of Indiana, Kentucky and North Carolina. Its structure and product lines were similar to its competitors

Fisher's Big Wheel Fishers Big Wheel, sometimes known as just Big Wheel, was a discount department store chain based in New Castle, Pennsylvania, United States. The company operated stores under the Fisher's Big Wheel and Buy Smart names. At its peak, the chain c ...

, Hills Department Stores, G.C. Murphy's Mart, Tempo and Buckeye Mart Stores and

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 ...

. Part of Heck's expansion into the Midwest came after acquiring a smaller discounter, T-Way Stores (Tradeway) of Indianapolis. It also acquired

Mr. Wiggs ''Mister'', usually written in its contracted form ''Mr.'' or ''Mr'', is a commonly used English honorific for men without a higher honorific, or professional title, or any of various designations of office. The title 'Mr' derived from earlier ...

of Indiana and Ohio in 1981. At its peak in the 1980s, Heck's operated 170 stores throughout West Virginia, Ohio, Kentucky, Pennsylvania, Indiana, Maryland, Virginia and North Carolina. ''

Forbes ''Forbes'' () is an American business magazine owned by Integrated Whale Media Investments and the Forbes family. Published eight times a year, it features articles on finance, industry, investing, and marketing topics. ''Forbes'' also r ...

'' ranked Heck's third nationally in profitability and growth in 1980, beating out

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 inco ...

. Haddad retired as Heck's president in 1983 and sold his stock in the company. The Ellis brothers had previously sold out in the 1970s. Sales fell the following year, and the company saw its first losses in 1984. Layoffs began in 1985 as losses continued. A number of factors contributed to Heck's decline. The U.S. economic downturn of the early 1980s hit West Virginia particularly hard, and the store faced increased competition from other chains. In February 1987 a $125 million merger agreement with

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the most densely populated major city in the U ...

-Based Toussie-Viner Group was terminated due to weak performance by Heck's in the final months of 1986, and the company filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy. At the time of the filing, Heck's operated 140 stores. In 1989 the company emerged from Chapter 11 with 55 stores and a new name, Take 10 Discount Club, a membership club costing $10 to join. Shortly after all of the assets of the retail division were sold to Retail Acquisition Corporation, Inc., and became L.A. Joe Department Stores. Two locations were sold to, and became,

. One location was sold to

Gabriel Brothers Gabriel Brothers, Inc., (doing business as Gabe's) is an American department store retail chain headquartered in Morgantown, West Virginia, United States. The company was incorporated in 1961 as Gabriel Brothers and renamed Gabe's in 2005. Gabe's ...

. A 1991 ''

Philadelphia Inquirer ''The Philadelphia Inquirer'' is a daily newspaper headquartered in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. The newspaper's circulation is the largest in both the U.S. state of Pennsylvania and the Delaware Valley metropolitan region of Southeastern Penns ...

'' article lists several factors for the collapse of Heck's under the new management of Russell Isaacs, putting the blame on Isaacs' sweeping changes to the stores. Specifically, the ''Inquirer'' cited customer frustration with constant store redesigns and products being dropped from inventory. The store also faced major troubles from costly data errors caused by its new computer accounting system.

References

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History

References

Further reading