Pamida

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Pamida

Type	Discount store
Founded	1963
Headquarters	Omaha, Nebraska, United States
Industry	Retail
Products	Clothing, footwear, bedding, furniture, jewelry, beauty products, electronics, market, housewares, pharmacy.
Owner	Sun Capital Partners, Inc.
Website	http://www.pamida.com/

Pamida (IPA: /pəˈmaɪdə/) is a chain of department stores with more than 200 locations in 16 Midwestern and West Central U.S. states. Pamida stores are generally located in smaller communities that range from 3,000 to 8,000 in population. The Pamida name represents the first two letters of the first names of founder Jim Witherspoon's three sons, Pat, Mike, and David.^[1]

[edit] History

A typical Pamida store in Smithville, Tennessee.

Pamida had its beginnings in a service merchandise business begun in 1948 by Jim Witherspoon and Lee Wegener. Witherspoon and Wegner opened their first retail outlet in Knoxville, Iowa in 1963 as part of the Gibson Products Company. A second store soon followed in Oskaloosa, Iowa, and the stores quickly expanded throughout the midwest. By the late 1970s, the stores were no longer associated with Gibson Products and began to be called "Pamida".

Witherspoon and Wegener sold Pamida in 1981 to employees, and in 1986 a unit of Citicorp acquired a controlling interest in the company. In 1999, ShopKo Stores, Inc. purchased Pamida and began operating the company as a division within the company. Several former Fisher's Big Wheel stores were also acquired in 1994. In 2000, ShopKo Stores, Inc. acquired Place's and converted the stores into Pamida stores. In 2006, ShopKo Stores, Inc. was purchased by an affiliate of Sun Capital Partners, Inc., a private investment firm. In 2007, Pamida was separated from ShopKo, and subsequently reestablished its corporate headquarters in Omaha, Nebraska.^[2]