Major's Department Stores

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Major's was the name of an American chain of department stores with outlets in many states east of the Mississippi River in the decades immediately following World War II. Its logo featured a distinctive drum major, and its merchandise was geared to mainly a lower-middle-class customer base, much like Kmart today.

Two of the chain's outlets figured prominently in nationwide news stories: In 1957, the Major's store in Hazard, Kentucky was completely destroyed by a flood, and in 1968 the Major's outlet in the Mariners Harbor section of Staten Island, New York attracted a great deal of publicity when a white boy, approximately eight years old, was accosted in the store's rest room by several older African-American youths, one of whom proceeded to pull out a knife and castrate the victim. The crime elicited a reaction of shock and horror throughout the New York City area, and became a metaphor of a society seemingly out of control.

During the 1970s, the chain experienced acute financial trouble, and by decade's end all of its stores had gone out of business.