| Industry | Retail |
|---|---|
| Fate | Most stores renamed Macy's |
| Successor | Macy's |
| Founded | 1868 (as Strawbridge & Clothier) |
| Defunct | 2006 |
| Headquarters | 8th and Market Streets, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, U.S. |
| Products | Clothing, footwear, bedding, furniture, jewelry, beauty products, and housewares. |
| Parent | Formerly May Department Stores |
| Website | None |
Strawbridge's (formerly Strawbridge & Clothier) was a department store in the northeastern United States with stores in Pennsylvania, New Jersey and Delaware. In its day a gracious urban emporium, the downtown Philadelphia flagship store added branch stores starting in the 1930s and together they enjoyed annual sales of over a billion dollars by their zenith in the 1980s.[1] By the 1990s Strawbridge's found itself part of May Department Stores until that company's August 30, 2005 acquisition by Macy's Inc. May had operated it under its Arlington County, Virginia-based Hecht's division. It was announced March 10, 2006 that this store would close on June 1, but it actually shut its doors on May 23.[3]
On February 1, 2006, the former May Company divisions were dissolved and operating control of the Strawbridge's stores was assumed by Macy's East. On September 9, 2006, the Strawbridge's and Hecht's nameplates were completely phased out in favor of Macy's.
The store began as a dry goods store founded by Quakers Justus Clayton Strawbridge (1838–1911) and Isaac Hallowell Clothier (1837–1921)[2] in Philadelphia in 1862. In 1868 Strawbridge & Clothier purchased the 3-story brick building on the northwest corner of Market and 8th Streets in Center City Philadelphia that had been Thomas Jefferson's office from 1790 to 1793 while he served as Secretary of State,[3] and opened their first store. They soon replaced the old building with the 5-story department store (left) that would offer a variety of fixed-price merchandise under one roof for the next fifty years.
In 1931 the company opened a modern store building on the site, the Beaux Arts-style limestone monument that dominates the corner today. Planning and design by Philadelphia architectural firm Simon & Simon began in 1928, before the Wall Street crash, but by ribbon-cutting at the depth of the Depression, the staggering $10 million cost of such grand construction nearly suffocated the cash-strapped company.[3] The building subsequently became the eastern anchor in 1977 of The Gallery, an urban mall connecting Strawbridge & Clothier with Gimbels, which had relocated from across Market Street to join the mall. It was the vision of S&C Chairman Stockton Strawbridge that was instrumental in revitalizing the Market East retail district in the 1970s, a vision that is still apparent today despite the demise of both Gimbels and Strawbridge's. He once said that his goal was to transform fading east Market Street into "the Champs-Élysées of Philadelphia."[4]
In May 1930, Strawbridge & Clothier helped remake the American retail scene by opening one of the first suburban branch department stores in the nation, located in the Suburban Square shopping center in Ardmore, Pennsylvania.[5] In 1931, they followed with their second suburban "satellite" store at Jenkintown, Pennsylvania. By the 1970s, Strawbridge's had nearly a dozen branch stores in malls across eastern Pennsylvania, southern New Jersey and northern Delaware. The branches proved to have been a wise step: the flagship store posted only a few years of actual profitability, all of them during the 1940s.[3] The company also revolutionized retailing with their introduction of revolving charge account cards. In 1969 Strawbridge set his sights on competing with the emerging Target grade retailers,[4] launching the Clover discount store chain; the first Clover store opened in 1971. Located in strip centers rather than malls for the most part, Clover grew to have 26 locations, more than the 21 full-service S&C stores. Most Clover stores closed in winter 1997.
After successfully fighting off a hostile takeover attempt by Ronald S. Baron in 1986, Strawbridge & Clothier survived as an independent, locally-owned department store into the 1990s.[6] In 1995, in an attempt to become the dominant retailer in the Philadelphia region, S&C partnered with Federated Department Stores, Pomeroys, and the Rubin Brothers real estate development company to acquire their rival Wanamaker's,[7] but were outbid in bankruptcy court by May Department Stores Company. Subsequently, the thirteen Strawbridge & Clothier department stores were themselves bought by May Department Stores Company in 1996, when the Strawbridge & Clothier directors (mostly members of the Strawbridge and Clothier families) elected to liquidate operations[8] over the vehement objections of patriarch Stockton Strawbridge. Strawbridge died not long after the sale; some say he died of a broken heart. "He was the store, and the store was him," said his attorney Peter Hearn to the Philadelphia Daily News.[4] Store employees and the public-at-large felt a sense of loss as well: many employees rushed to pay off their credit card accounts in full before the sale was finalized, "hoping that the proceeds would go to the founding families rather than [the new buyers]."[1]
At the time of the May acquisition, the Strawbridge's name was retained, and the Philadelphia area Hecht's stores (the former John Wanamaker locations) also adopted the name. However, the Strawbridge & Clothier head office was closed and its operations were consolidated with Hecht's in Arlington, Virginia.[1] After the sale the stores operated simply as Strawbridge's, although exterior signage reading Strawbridge & Clothier remained in place at many locations until the stores became Macy's in 2006.[9]
Some Strawbridge's stores had restaurants inside, like at Christiana Mall in Newark, Delaware. Strawbridge's was well known for their shopping bags. It was a paper bag, with navy blue handles. And it read, Strawbridge's in blue twice and red once on one side of the bag, and vice versa on the other. They were also known for their friendly employees. In the center of the flagship store was a large bronze statue of a wild boar. The legend had it that good luck would follow those who rubbed the boar's nose. The boar consequently had a very shiny nose from all the rubbing.
For thirteen years from 1922-1935, the store operated WFI, an AM radio station.[10] In 1935, the station merged with WLIT, owned by the Lit Brothers store across the street, to form WFIL, an NBC Blue network affiliate.[11] WFIL remains on the air today on its original frequency, AM 560.
In July, 2006, The Pennsylvania Real Estate Investment Trust (PREIT), owners of The Gallery at Market East, agreed to purchase the lower floors of the flagship Strawbridge's store. It is anticipated that PREIT will seek retail tenants for the areas of the building closest to street level but may convert some higher floors to office space. The uppermost floors had previously been sold and converted to offices; they are currently owned by American Financial Realty Trust of Jenkintown.[12]
On February 26, 2009, it was announced that the developers of Foxwoods Casino Philadelphia were looking into locating their new casino onto three floors of the former Strawbridge's flagship store currently owned by PREIT.[13]
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