MainStreet

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MainStreet
Type Department store
Founded 1983, Chicago, Illinois, United States
Headquarters Bannockburn, Illinois, United States
Area served Chicagoland; Detroit, Michigan; Grand Rapids, Michigan; Twin Cities, Minnesota
Industry Retail
Products Clothing, footwear, bedding, furniture, jewelry, beauty products, home electronics, small appliances, housewares
Parent Federated Department Stores

MainStreet was a department store chain based in Chicago, Illinois, United States. The chain was launched in November 1983 by Federated Department Stores (now known as Macy's, Inc.).[1] Throughout the 1980s, the chain expanded to more than twenty stores in Illinois, Michigan and Minnesota. By 1988, MainStreet was sold to the Wisconsin-based chain Kohl's, which converted all MainStreet locations to Kohl's that year.

Contents

[edit] Format

The store was a middle-market chain focused primarily on softlines, similar to Mervyns and Kohl's. MainStreet stores often featured a "racetrack" layout similar to that of Kohl's, but checkouts were distributed around the store like a traditional department store.

[edit] Decline

The MainStreet chain was sold by Campeau Corporation, then-owners of Federated, in order to reduce debts.[2] Kohl's acquired twenty-six of the MainStreet locations in 1988, converting them all to the Kohl's banner.[3]

[edit] Former locations

The following is a list of all known former MainStreet locations. All locations are currently operating as Kohl's, except where noted otherwise.

[edit] Illinois

[edit] Michigan

[edit] Minnesota

[edit] References

  1. ^ Federated to add specialty div. and fine-tune non-department stores, Discount Store News, July 9, 1984.
  2. ^ Toy story, BusinessWeek, December 4, 2000.
  3. ^ Our Milestones, Kohl's Corporation, Last accessed January 23, 2007.