Carson Pirie Scott
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| Carson Pirie Scott & Co. | |
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| Type | Department store |
|---|---|
| Founded | 1854 |
| Headquarters | Amboy, Illinois |
| Industry | Retail |
| Products | Clothing, footwear, bedding, furniture, jewelry, beauty products, and housewares. |
| Website | http://www.carsons.com/ |
Carson Pirie Scott & Co., known informally as Carson's, is a chain of traditional department stores that have been in business for over 150 years. Their product price points are targeted to the moderate-to-upscale shopper. The majority of the stores are located in the Metro Chicago area, with more than 30 stores under the nameplate.
The Carson Pirie Scott name is strongly associated with the historic Carson, Pirie, Scott and Company Building designed by Louis Sullivan, built in 1899 for the retail firm Schlesinger & Meyer, and expanded and sold to Carson Pirie Scott in 1904.
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[edit] History
The chain began in 1854 when Samuel Carson opened a dry goods store in Amboy, Illinois, after he left Ireland. In 1871, the Great Chicago Fire destroyed 60% of the store's stock. By 1989, Carson Pirie Scott & Co. was acquired by P.A. Bergner & Co., who operated the Bergner's, Chas. V. Weise, Myers Brothers and Boston Store chains.
In 1991 P.A. Bergner & Co. filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy; upon emerging from bankruptcy in 1993, it became a NASDAQ publicly traded company, changing its operating name to Carson Pirie Scott & Co. One year later, the company commenced trading on the NYSE under the CRP symbol.
By 1998, Carson Pirie Scott & Co. ownership was held by Proffitt's, Inc., (now Saks Incorporated renamed to reflect the acquisition of Saks Fifth Avenue). The Carson Pirie Scott, Bergner's, and Boston Store chains, along with Younkers and Herberger's nameplates, eventually operated as Saks' Northern Department Store Group (NDSG), based in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. In late 2005, however, the group was put up for sale as Saks Incorporated tried to refocus itself primarily on its core Saks Fifth Avenue stores.
Carson's and its associated stores became part of The Bon-Ton Stores, Inc. in a $1.1 billion deal completed on March 6, 2006.[1] The group's base of merchandising and marketing operations remains in Milwaukee.
On August 25, 2006, the CEO of Bon-Ton announced that the landmark Carson Pirie Scott store in downtown Chicago would close in March 2007, after the 2006 holiday season. It will then be redeveloped by the building's owner, who purchased the property in 2001. [2] [3]
[edit] See also
[edit] Further reading
- Siry, Joseph M. Carson Pirie Scott: Louis Sullivan and the Chicago Department Store. Chicago: Univ. of Chicago Press, 1988. ISBN 0-226-76136-3
