Joseph Spiess Company
| Former type | Specialty department store |
|---|---|
| Industry | Retail |
| Fate | Closed |
| Founded | 1921 |
| Defunct | 1996 |
| Headquarters | Elgin, Illinois, United States |
| Key people |
Joseph C. Spiess - founder John Spiess - Chairman & CEO Doug Smith - President and Son-in-law of John Spiess |
| Products | Clothing, footwear, bedding, furniture, jewelry, beauty products, and housewares. |
| Website | None |
Joseph Spiess Company was a chain of specialty department stores based in Elgin, Illinois, United States. Throughout its 75 years of existence, it only opened 5 stores.
Origins
Joseph C. Spiess opened his first store in downtown Elgin in 1921. For 55 years, the downtown Elgin location would be their only location.
In the 1970s, the Spiess family decided to take advantage of a Chicago-area trend towards small, enclosed "neighborhood" malls with only two anchors (as opposed to regional malls, which often sported four or more anchors). Management decided on a store size between 50,000 and 60,000 square feet (5,600 m2), one-quarter to one-third the size of a regional mall anchor. In 1976, Spiess opened its first branch location at Crystal Point Mall, with a St. Charles Mall location following in 1979. In 1984, Spiess closed their original downtown Elgin store in favor of a new flagship anchor location at Spring Hill Mall in West Dundee, Illinois (the downtown store would be demolished in 2005). Finally, Spiess opened a "minor anchor" at Randhurst Mall; this all-new 61,000-square-foot (5,700 m2) store won several retail industry awards.
Decline
However, Spiess - now one of the last family-run department stores - had expanded too quickly and too late for the market, forcing them into bankruptcy in 1991. The chain shed stores in a vain attempt to restore profitability: the Randhurst location closed in January 1992, followed by the Spring Hill location in 1994 and the St. Charles Mall location in 1995 (just as the mall was closing). In the spring of 1996, Spiess was forced to close their last location at Crystal Point Mall, and Joseph Spiess Company was gone.