Boston Store

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The Boston Store, Inc.

Type	Department store
Founded	1897
Headquarters	Milwaukee, Wisconsin
Industry	Retail
Products	Clothing, footwear, bedding, furniture, jewelry, beauty products, and housewares.
Website	http://www.bostonstore.com/

Boston Store is a major, mid-line department store in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, established in 1897 when Julian Simon opened his first store there.

1 History
2 Locations
- 2.1 Current Location
- 2.2 Former Locations

[edit] History

[edit] Federated and Maus Freres S.A.

Julian Simon's control of Boston Store was sold to Federated Department Stores in 1948 and under Federated, branch stores were opened in several Wisconsin cities including Oshkosh, Sheboygan and Manitowoc. Ownership later passed to the Bergner's chain of Peoria, Illinois in 1985 (itself owned by Switzerland-based Maus Freres S.A., a retail conglomerate controlled by the Maus and Nordmann Families); soon afterward Bergner's relocated its headquarters to Milwaukee.

[edit] Acquisitions

As cross-town rival Gimbel's was being dismantled in 1986, the Boston Store acquired three Gimbel's branches at Southgate Mall, Milwaukee, East Towne Mall, Madison and Mayfair Mall, Wauwatosa.

In 1989 P.A. Bergner bought Chicago's Carson Pirie Scott for over $450 million. Carson's itself had just bought Minneapolis-based Donaldson's in November 1987. With this, Bergner's was a major Midwestern presence, with stores in five states: Wisconsin, Illinois, Minnesota, Indiana, and Iowa, operating under the Bergner's, Carson Pirie Scott and Boston Store names.

[edit] Bankruptcy and Merge with Proffitt's

In 1991, Bergner's had filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy, with Maus Freres S.A. losing control of the company in a bitter fight. In 1993, the organization emerged from bankruptcy court under the name Carson Pirie Scott & Co, trading under the symbol COS. Eventually, Proffitt's Inc, now Saks Incorporated, bought Carson Pirie Scott in 1998 and its purchase increased the northern presence of the Saks Incorporated company.

[edit] Sale to The Bon-Ton

In July 2005, Saks completed the sale of its Southern Department Store Group consisting of Proffitt's and McRae's to Charlotte, NC based Belk, Inc.. On October 31, 2005, Saks announced that it was selling Boston Store and its other Northern Department Store Group stores (Carson Pirie Scott, Bergner's, Younkers, and Herberger's) to Bon-Ton Stores in a $1.1 billion deal; the transaction was completed on March 6, 2006. [1] Currently, the Boston Store segment operates with 10 locations exclusively in Wisconsin.