| Former type | Department store |
|---|---|
| Industry | Retail |
| Fate | Converted to Macy's |
| Successor | Macy's |
| Founded | 1872 |
| Defunct | 2006 |
| Headquarters | Indianapolis, Indiana |
| Products | Clothing, footwear, bedding, furniture, jewelry, beauty products, and housewares. |
| Parent | Associated Dry Goods (1972-1986) The May Department Stores Company (1986-2005) Fedrated Department Stores, Inc. (2005-2006) |
| Website | www.macys.com |
L. S. Ayres & Company was an Indianapolis, Indiana, department store founded in 1872 by Lyman S. Ayres and taken over by his son Frederic in 1896. The former Ayres locations are now part of Atlanta-based Macy's Central, and New York-based Macy's East, both divisions of Federated Department Stores.
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During the first half of the 20th century, Ayres grew to be Indianapolis' premier department store. Its fashion leadership was portrayed in a series of "That Ayres Look" ads that appeared nationally and locally from 1930s to the 1970s.
The 1905 landmark downtown store, at One West Washington Street, was enlarged several times, with the largest expansion after World War II. Ayres was the first department store in the U.S. to operate an Economy Basement Store in 1905. The L. S. Ayres Tea Room, which operated at the downtown department store from 1905 to 1990, served a clientele of fashionable shoppers in a formal setting. It has been recreated at the Indiana State Museum using the original tables and chairs.
Indianapolis competitors were the William H. Block Company, H. P. Wasson and Company and L. Strauss & Co..
In September 1954, Ayres opened a new wholly owned subsidiary called Murray Showrooms, open only to the professional decorator trade. In August 1955, Ayres opened a boutique, Ayres' Boulevard Shop, in the Marott Hotel. Ayres' first branch stores opened in 1958 in Market Square in Lafayette, Indiana, and at Glendale Center on the north side of Indianapolis. Additional branches were opened in Indianapolis and other Indiana markets in the 60s and 70s. In 1958 Ayres acquired the John Bressmer Co. in Springfield, Illinois (which operated under its own name). In 1968 Ayres opened small specialty fashion shops, the Sycamore Shop and Cygnet. In 1969, Ayres acquired the Wolf & Dessauer Co. with two stores in Fort Wayne; these were later converted to Ayres locations.
In 1972 Ayres was acquired by Associated Dry Goods of New York City, which in 1983 merged Cincinnati, Ohio-based Pogue's and in 1985 Louisville, Kentucky-based Stewart Dry Goods into L. S. Ayres. The 1972 merger with Associated Dry Goods merger placed two Associated Dry Goods store companies (Ayres and Stewart Dry Goods) competing in the same market (Louisville) for the first time. In 1986 Associated was in its turn acquired by May Department Stores. The May Company soon shuttered the former Pogue's and Stewart's locations, and in 1991 merged operations with its St. Louis, Missouri, headquartered Famous-Barr division. At that time the 1905 L. S. Ayres flagship in downtown Indianapolis was closed.
The May Company was acquired by Federated Department Stores in 2005. On February 1, 2006, L. S. Ayres was subsumed into the newly created Macy's Midwest (now Macy's Central), and on September 9 of that year L. S. Ayres' non-redundant locations became Macy's.
Ayres developed a discount format called Ayr-Way in 1961. This subsidiary was one of the first discount store divisions launched by a traditional department store. Ayres opened the first Ayr-Way store prior to both the first Kmart and Target stores. At one time they had 47 stores in three states in the Midwestern United States. The concept was sold by Associated in 1976 under anti-trust pressure from the Federal Trade Commission. In 1980, the Ayr-Way chain, consisting of 40 stores and one distribution center, was acquired by Dayton Hudson Corporation (now Target Corporation). The stores were remodeled and reopened as Target in 1981.[1]
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