Best Products
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- For the home electronics chain see: Best Buy.
| Best Products Co, Inc. | |
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| Type of Company | Catalog merchant showroom |
|---|---|
| Founded | 1957 |
| Headquarters | Richmond, Virginia |
| Industry | Retail |
| Products | home furnishings, consumer electronics, jewelry, housewares, toys |
| Website | None |
Best Products (also known simply as “Best”) is a defunct chain of American catalog showroom retail stores, formerly headquartered in Richmond, Virginia.
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[edit] History
The company was founded by Sydney Lewis and Frances Lewis. Sydney Lewis, a lawyer educated at Washington & Lee and Harvard Business School, worked with his father managing an encyclopedia sales operation in Richmond. Lewis thought of selling additional merchandise along with the bills for encyclopedias. In 1957, the Lewises sent out their first catalog. The first showroom was at 4909 West Marshall Street in Henrico County, just across the street from the new Willow Lawn shopping center.
The company had a strong sense of promotion and artistic sensibilities; it was legend in artistic circles that it would trade store merchandise for art. As a result, the company, as well as the Lewises, gathered a significant collection of 20th century art. Much of the Lewis Collection can be seen at the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts.
[edit] 1970s
In the 1970s, Best Products contracted with James Wines’ SITE, Sculpture in the Environment architecture firm to design nine highly unorthodox retail facilities, notably a tongue-in-cheek structure in Houston, Texas with a severely distressed facade. This building purportedly “appeared in more books on 20th century architecture than photographs of any other modern structure” [1]. In Richmond, the company built the Peeling Wall showroom that appeared to have a peeling facade (located on Midlothian Turnpike) as well as a Forest showroom that appeared to have trees growing into it (located on Quioccasin Road). Photographs of these storefronts appeared in several Best catalogs.
Their Parham Road headquarters, built in 1981 and designed by Hardy Holzman Pfeiffer, was notable for an American Institute of Architects award and the use of Art Deco eagles rescued from a New York building. [2] The giant BEST letters of the headquarters could be seen along Interestate 95 at Parham Road. Hardy Holzman Pfeiffer subsequently designed the West Wing of the Virginia Museum, which was funded by the Lewises.
As a cost-saving measure, Best jointly published its catalog with Service Merchandise and Modern Merchandising, and had regional non-compete agreements with those chains.
[edit] Bankruptcy
Best filed twice for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection. The first bankruptcy period began in January 1991 and lasted through June 16, 1994. The second and final filing was made on September 24, 1996. At the time of the second filing, Best operated 169 Best stores and 11 Best Jewelry stores in 23 states, and a nation-wide mail-order service. Some analysts believe that the catalog itself was the downfall of Best and other catalog-showroom retailers because it constrained stores’ product lines and prices for each catalog’s shelf life, sometimes up to 18 months, while competitors were free to adapt to market conditions. Many also believe that the company's bad budget management was its downfall.
Best Products was traded on the NASDAQ exchange as “BESTQ.” It was de-listed on November 29, 1996. Best did not appeal the NASDAQ decision. By May 1997, Best had liquidated most of its assets and was declared insolvent. Best vacated its corporate headquarters in Richmond in January 1998 and mailed out final checks to unsecured creditors the following December (paying 96 cents per dollar owed).
