Venture Stores
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| Venture Stores, Inc. | |
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| Type | Defunct (NYSE: VEN) |
| Founded | 1970 St. Louis, MO |
| Headquarters | O'Fallon, MO |
| Key people | Robert Wildrick, Julian Seeherman |
| Industry | Retail (Department & Discount) |
| Products | Clothing, footwear, bedding, furniture, jewelry, beauty products, electronics, and housewares. |
| Employees | 10,000 |
| Website | www.venturestores.com (archived at Deadmalls.com) |
Venture Stores, Inc., was a former chain of retail stores that operated in the American Midwest. The company operated over 70 stores, and was based out of the St. Louis suburb of O'Fallon, Missouri.
[edit] History
The chain was founded in 1968 when Target's co-founder John F. Geisse went to work for May Department Stores.[1] Under an antitrust settlement reached with the Department of Justice, May was unable to acquire any more retail chains during the time, and the department store company needed a way to compete against the emerging discount store chains. When May's Executive Vice President Dave Babcock learned that Geisse had resigned from Target Stores, he spoke with Geisse about starting a new discount retailer, resulting in the founding of Venture.
The first store opened in 1970 in the St. Louis suburb of Overland (after Venture closed, the location became a Kmart and is now a Home Depot). In 1976, Geisse left Venture Stores, which had expanded to 20 units.[1] In 1978 Venture Stores purchased 23 Turn Style locations in the Chicago area from Jewel food stores, and expanded to over 40 locations in the Chicago market area, with many city locations. They were the largest discount chain in Chicago with inner city locations other than Zayre/Ames. In 1990 Venture separated from May and became a private corporation.
Venture's advertising slogan during the 1980s was "Save With Style." or "SWS" [2] In the 1990's, Venture would employ two other slogans; the first was tied to the remodel and restrategizing to be like Kohl's and that slogan was "See What's New For You!". By the time they closed they used the slogan "See What A Little Money Can Buy". "Save With Style" is most notably the slogan associated with the chain.
[edit] Bankruptcy
By the late 1990s, the chain found that it was unable to compete against other retail chains, such as Wal-Mart, Target, and Kmart. Venture tried to return to its founding principles as an upscale discounter and remodeled most of its 90+ stores. While facing vast competition Venture made a fatal mistake trying to expand into Texas instead of protecting its core markets. Venture sold the Texas stores to Kmart in 1996 and closed its distribution center in Corsicana, Texas. The company entered Chapter 11 bankruptcy on January 20, 1998, and tried to operate with a smaller number of stores. The effort was not successful, and the company announced its closing on April 27, 1998. Most of the former Venture buildings were absorbed into other chains, such as Kmart, Kohl's, ShopKo, and Burlington Coat Factory.[3]
