Schuster's, officially Ed. Schuster & Co., was a

department store A department store is a retail establishment offering a wide range of consumer goods in different areas of the store under one roof, each area ("department") specializing in a product category. In modern major cities, the department store mad ...

chain, founded in 1883, in

Milwaukee, Wisconsin Milwaukee is the List of cities in Wisconsin, most populous city in the U.S. state of Wisconsin. Located on the western shore of Lake Michigan, it is the List of United States cities by population, 31st-most populous city in the United States ...

, and it is now defunct.

Department store in Milwaukee

Schuster's opted for several neighborhood stores over a single downtown location, and Schuster's locations included 2151 N. Third St. (now Martin Luther King Jr. Drive), 12th and Vliet streets and 11th and Mitchell streets, Packard Plaza and Capitol Court.

Kirchhoff & Rose Kirchhoff & Rose was an architectural firm in Milwaukee, Wisconsin.

. designed the Third Street store.

Gimbels Gimbel Brothers (known simply as Gimbels) was an American department store corporation that operated for over a century, from 1842 until 1987. Gimbel patriarch Adam Gimbel opened his first store in Vincennes, Indiana, in 1842. In 1887, the comp ...

bought Schuster's in 1962 and operated as Gimbels-Schuster's until 1969.

Golda Meir Golda Meir (; 3 May 1898 – 8 December 1978) was the prime minister of Israel, serving from 1969 to 1974. She was Israel's first and only female head of government. Born into a Jewish family in Kyiv, Kiev, Russian Empire (present-day Ukraine) ...

worked at Schuster's after graduating from high school in 1915 and before moving to Palestine in 1921. Schuster's notable marketing efforts included the first

trading stamp Trading stamps were small paper stamps given to customers by merchants in loyalty programs in the United States, Canada and the U.K. which predated the modern loyalty card-based and online programs. Like the similarly-issued retailer coupons, these ...

s, in 1891, an early version of the

charge card A charge card is a type of credit card that enables the cardholder to make purchases which are paid for by the card issuer, to whom the cardholder becomes indebted. The cardholder is obliged to repay the debt to the card issuer in full by the d ...

called ''Budga-Plate'', a doll named ''Billie the Brownie'' from 1927 to 1955, Schuster's Christmas Parade, and the catch-phrase "Let's go by Schuster's where the streetcar bends the corner round."

Others

An unrelated group of furniture stores in

Arkansas Arkansas ( ) is a landlocked state in the West South Central region of the Southern United States. It borders Missouri to the north, Tennessee and Mississippi to the east, Louisiana to the south, Texas to the southwest, and Oklahoma ...

, also carrying the Schuster's name, operated for many years, with locations in

Little Rock Little Rock is the List of capitals in the United States, capital and List of municipalities in Arkansas, most populous city of the U.S. state of Arkansas. The city's population was 202,591 as of the 2020 census. The six-county Central Arkan ...

and

North Little Rock North Little Rock (often abbreviated "NLR") is a city in Pulaski County, Arkansas, United States. Located on the north side of the Arkansas River, it is the twin city of Little Rock. In the late nineteenth century, it was annexed by Little Ro ...

, as well as a Pine Bluff store that eventually transferred briefly to

Conway Conway may refer to: Places United States * Conway, Arkansas * Conway County, Arkansas * Lake Conway, Arkansas * Conway, Florida * Conway, Iowa * Conway, Kansas * Conway, Louisiana * Conway, Massachusetts * Conway, Michigan * Conway Townshi ...

There was also a restaurant called Schuster's House of Fine Foods located in Greenville, PA, between circa 1930 and circa 1945.

References

{{Reflist

External links

Schuster's Department Store imagesSchuster's trading stamps imagesBillie the Brownie article
at Marquette University's Children in Urban America Project
Billie the Brownie video
at the Wisconsin Broadcasting Museum
Billie the Brownie Christmas Show video
originally aired December 25, 1954 Defunct department stores based in Wisconsin Companies based in Milwaukee Defunct companies based in Wisconsin American companies established in 1883 Retail companies established in 1883 Companies disestablished in 1962 Retail companies disestablished in 1962