Loehmann's

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Loehmann's Holdings, Inc.

Type	Private
Founded	1921
Headquarters	Bronx, New York
Industry	Retail
Products	Clothing, footwear, bedding, furniture, jewelry, beauty products, and housewares.
Website	www.loehmanns.com

Loehmann's is a chain of off-price department stores in the United States. The stores are famous for their communal dressing rooms.

1 History
2 Competitors
3 References in popular culture
4 External links

[edit] History

In 1921, Frieda Loehmann, a former department store buyer, opened her first store in a former automobile showroom on Bedford Avenue in Brooklyn, New York. She bought seasonal overstocks from top New York designers and sold them at bargain prices. Loehmann refused to expand her stores beyond Brooklyn and the Bronx. Soon after her death in 1962, the company went public and began to expand to a wider area.

Loehmann's was acquired by Associated Dry Goods in 1983. In 1986, May Department Stores merged with Associated Dry Goods. Two years later, the new May Department Stores Co. sold the 77-unit chain to an investor group led by a Spanish concern, Sefinco Ltd., and the Sprout Group, a division of Donaldson, Lufkin & Jenrette.

The company was taken public again in May 1996.

In May 1999, Loehmann's declared Chapter 11 bankruptcy. It emerged from bankruptcy protection on September 6, 2000.

In 2004, Loehmann's was acquired for $177 million by Arcapita (formerly Crescent Capital), a private investment firm complying with Islamic Sharia law.

In May 2006, Arcapita sold Loehmann's for $300 million to Istithmar, a private equity firm based in Dubai. The chain now has stores in seventeen U.S. states.

[edit] Competitors

[edit] References in popular culture

Featured in the television series, The Nanny, where Fran Drescher's character attributes her extensive wardrobe to Loehmann's "Back Room."
Bombeck, Erma (1995). All I Know About Animal Behavior I Learned in Loehmann's Dressing Room. New York: Harper Collins. ISBN 1-56865-169-4.