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36-640: Concord Mall may refer to: Concord Mall (Delaware) , a shopping mall in Wilmington, Delaware Concord Mall (Indiana) , a shopping mall in Elkhart, Indiana Concord Mills , a shopping mall in Concord, North Carolina See also [ edit ] Concord (disambiguation) [REDACTED] Topics referred to by the same term This disambiguation page lists articles about distinct geographical locations with

72-470: A Pomeroy's (now-defunct department store chain) was added. The Almart later became a Jefferson Ward (Montgomery Ward-owned discounter) in 1984, and was then a Bradlees for a brief time until it was demolished for a Sears that opened on September 22, 1992. Strawbridge & Clothier was added as an anchor in 1983, relocating from Merchandise Mart. Pomeroy's closed in 1986 and was replaced with Boscov's. Strawbridge & Clothier Home Furnishings opened at

108-716: A closed store in Panorama City , California, 2010 demolished In November 2024 /gallery> By the 1990s even its rivals began to lose ground to low-price competition from the likes of Target and Walmart , which eroded even more of Montgomery Ward's traditional customer base. In 1997, it filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy , emerging from protection by the United States Bankruptcy Court for the Northern District of Illinois in August 1999 as

144-403: A new president, Sewell Avery , who cut staff levels and stores, changed lines, hired store rather than catalog managers, and refurbished stores. These actions caused the company to become profitable before the end of the 1930s. Ward was very successful in its retail business. "Green awning" stores dotted hundreds of small towns across the country. Larger stores were built in the major cities. By

180-464: A number of key new management people, including Edward Donnell, former manager of Sears' Los Angeles stores. The new management team achieved the turnaround reducing the number of suppliers from 15,000 to 7,000 and the number of brands being carried dropped from 168 to 16. Ward's private brands were given 95 percent of the volume compared with 40 percent in 1960. The results of these changes were lower handling costs and higher quality standards. Buying

216-494: A single room at 825 North Clark Street or in a loft above a livery stable on Kinzie Street, between Rush and State Streets. In 1883, the company's catalog had grown to 240 pages and 10,000 items. In 1896, Ward encountered its first serious competition in the mail order business, when Richard Warren Sears introduced his first general catalog. In 1900, Ward had total sales of $ 8.7 million, compared to $ 10 million for Sears , and both companies struggled for dominance during much of

252-561: A wholly owned subsidiary of GE Capital , which was by then its largest shareholder. As part of a last-ditch effort to remain competitive, the company closed over 100 retail locations in 30 U.S. states, abandoned the specialty store strategy, rebranded the chain as simply Wards , and spent millions of dollars to renovate its remaining outlets to be flashier and more consumer-friendly. GE Capital reneged on promises of further financial support of Montgomery Ward's restructuring plans. On December 28, 2000, after lower-than-expected sales during

288-457: Is a popular shopping destination for residents of the northern suburbs of Wilmington while also attracting shoppers from nearby Pennsylvania and New Jersey who wish to take advantage of tax-free shopping . During planning stages the mall was called Devonshire Square Mall. The mall opened in stages over a period of several years. The first stage was an Almart , a now-defunct discounter, which opened in 1965. The mall opened in 1968. In 1971,

324-400: Is a vacant 174,142 sq ft (16,178 m ) space last occupied by Sears . Smaller stores in the mall include H&M , Bath and Body Works , Foot Locker , and rue21 . Dining options at the mall include Bonefish Grill , Grub Burger Bar and Rasa Sayang. Located adjacent to the mall is a strip mall consisting of Ulta Beauty , Sprouts Farmers Market , and Best Buy . The Concord Mall

360-571: Is located in an unincorporated area of northern New Castle County , Delaware north of the city of Wilmington and a short distance south of the Pennsylvania border. The mall is situated along U.S. Route 202 (Concord Pike), a stretch of highway lined with several businesses between Wilmington and the Pennsylvania border. The Concord Mall is just south of the intersection between US 202 and Delaware Route 92 (Naamans Road). Concord Mall

396-408: Is served by DART First State bus route 2, which provides service to Wilmington via Concord Pike. Concord Mall has a gross leasable area of 803,944 square feet (74,689 m ) and contains over 90 stores. The mall is anchored by a 175,065 sq ft (16,264 m ) Boscov's , a 150,000 sq ft (14,000 m ) Macy's , and a 52,000 sq ft (4,800 m ) Macy's Home. There

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432-527: Is the name of two successive U.S. retail corporations. The original Montgomery Ward & Co. was a mail-order business and later a department store chain that operated between 1872 and 2001. The current Montgomery Ward Inc. is an online shopping and mail-order catalog retailer that started several years after the original Montgomery Ward shut down. Aaron Montgomery Ward started his business in Chicago; conflicting reports place his first office either in

468-680: The CyberVision 2001 in 1978, developed by the Authorship Resource, Inc., of Franklin, Ohio , and primarily manufactured by United Chem-Con. However, mounting competition from other computer companies as well as manufacturing problems compelled the three companies to pull the plug on the CyberVision product by the early 1980s. By 1980, Mobil realized that the Montgomery Ward stores were doing poorly in comparison to

504-600: The War Labor Disputes Act as well as his power under the Constitution as commander-in-chief . In 1945, Truman ended the seizure and the Supreme Court dismissed the pending appeal as moot. After World War II, Sewell Avery believed the country would fall back into a recession or even a depression. He decided to not open any new stores, and did not even permit expenditure for paint to freshen

540-515: The intellectual property assets of the former Wards, including the "Montgomery Ward" and "Wards" trademarks, for an undisclosed amount. DMSI applied the brand to a new online and catalog-based retailing operation, with no physical stores, headquartered in Cedar Rapids, Iowa . DMSI then began operating under the Montgomery Ward branding in June 2004, selling many of the same kinds of products as

576-471: The 1970s. In 1973, its 102nd year in business, it purchased a small discount store chain, the Miami -based Jefferson Stores, renaming these locations Jefferson Ward. Mobil , flush with cash from the recent rise in oil prices and looking to diversify, bought a controlling share of MARCOR in 1974, only to acquire the company outright in 1976. The company was an early entrant in the home computer market with

612-566: The 20th century. By 1904, Ward had expanded such that it mailed three million catalogs, weighing 4 lb (1.8 kg) each, to customers. In 1908, the company opened a 1.25-million-square-foot (116,000 m ) building stretching along nearly one-quarter mile of the Chicago River , north of downtown Chicago. The building, known as the Montgomery Ward & Co. Catalog House , served as the company headquarters until 1974, when

648-623: The Christmas season, the company announced it would cease operating, close its remaining 250 retail outlets, and lay off its 37,000 employees. At its height, the original Montgomery Ward was one of the biggest retailers in the United States. After its demise, the familiarity of its brand meant its name, corporate logo, and advertising were considered valuable intangible assets. In 2004, catalog marketer Direct Marketing Services Inc. (DMSI), an Iowa direct marketing company, purchased much of

684-464: The Jefferson Ward model. The burden of servicing the new stores fell to the tiny Jefferson staff, who were overwhelmed by the increased store count, had no experience in dealing with some of the product lines they now carried, and were unfamiliar with buying for northern markets. Almost immediately, Jefferson had turned from a small moneymaker into a large drain on profits. The company sold

720-532: The Jefferson stores, and decided that high quality discount units, along the lines of Dayton Hudson Company's Target stores, would be the retailer's future. Within 18 months, management quintupled the size of the operation, now called Jefferson Ward, to more than 40 units in the Delaware Valley and Richmond metropolitan areas, and planned to convert one-third of Montgomery Ward's existing stores to

756-400: The adverse effect on the delivery of goods in wartime. Avery had refused to comply with a War Labor Board order to recognize the unions and institute the terms of a collective bargaining agreement. Eight months later, with Montgomery Ward continuing to refuse to recognize the unions, President Roosevelt issued an executive order seizing all of Montgomery Ward's property nationwide, citing

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792-536: The chain's 18-store northern division to Bradlees , a division of Stop & Shop , in 1985. The remaining stores closed. In 1985, the company closed its catalog business after 113 years and began an aggressive policy of renovating its remaining stores. It restructured many of the store layouts in the downtown areas of larger cities and affluent neighborhoods into boutique -like specialty stores, as these were drawing business from traditional department stores. In 1986, fellow MARCOR firm, Container Corporation of America,

828-708: The company in the near future. In March 1988, the company management undertook a successful $ 3.8 billion (~$ 8.45 billion in 2023) leveraged buyout , making Montgomery Ward a privately held company. <gallery> File:Montgomery Ward Bluefield, WV.jpg|A Montgomery Ward Building in Bluefield, West Virginia File:Abandoned Montgomery Ward.jpg|A vacant Montgomery Ward store, Regency Mall , Augusta, Georgia File:Vacant Montgomery Ward Huntington Beach.JPG|A former Montgomery Ward store, Huntington Center , Huntington Beach, California , demolished in 2010 File:Electric Ave Logo - Montgomery Wards.JPG|An "Electric Avenue" logo on

864-475: The end of the 1930s, Montgomery Ward had become the country's largest retailer, and Sewell Avery became the company's chief executive officer. In April 1944, four months into a nationwide strike by the company's 12,000 workers, U.S. Army troops seized the company's Chicago offices. The action was ordered due to Avery's refusal to settle the strike as requested by the Roosevelt administration, concerned about

900-449: The existing stores. His plan was to bank profits to preserve liquidity when the recession or depression he anticipated hit, and then buy up his retail competition. Without new stores or any investment back into the business, Montgomery Ward declined in sales volume compared to Sears. Many have blamed the conservative decisions of Avery, who seemed not to understand the postwar years' changing economy. As new shopping centers were built after

936-536: The following month. On August 5, 2008, the catalog retailer Swiss Colony purchased DMSI. Swiss Colony—which changed its name to Colony Brands Inc. June 1, 2010—kept Montgomery Ward alive and relaunched the Wards website September 10, 2008, with new catalogs mailing in February 2009. A month before the catalog's launch, Swiss Colony President John Baumann told United Press International the retailer might also resurrect

972-555: The largest industrial structures in their respective locations. The Baltimore Montgomery Ward Warehouse and Retail Store was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 2000. In 1926, the company broke with its mail-order-only tradition when it opened its first retail outlet store in Plymouth, Indiana . It continued to operate its catalog business while pursuing an aggressive campaign to build retail outlets in

1008-586: The late 1920s. In 1928, two years after opening its first outlet, it had opened 244 stores. By 1929, it had more than doubled its number of outlets to 531. Its flagship retail store in Chicago was located on Michigan Avenue between Madison and Washington streets. In 1930, the company declined a merger offer from rival chain Sears. Losing money during the Great Depression , Ward alarmed its major investors, including J. P. Morgan, Jr . In 1931, Morgan hired

1044-537: The mall in 1994. The same year, Concord Mall underwent a renovation. Allied Properties acquired the Concord Mall in 1998. In 2005, Federated Department Stores purchased May Department Stores , the owners of Strawbridge's, and planned to convert several Strawbridge's locations to Macy's, including the store at Concord Mall. Strawbridge's and Strawbridge's Home Furnishings became Macy's and Macy's Home, respectively, in 2006. The Concord Mall has seen an increase in

1080-555: The offices moved across the street to a new tower designed by Minoru Yamasaki . The catalog house was declared a National Historic Landmark in 1978 and a Chicago historic landmark in May 2000. In the decades before 1930, Montgomery Ward built a network of large distribution centers across the country in Baltimore , Fort Worth , Kansas City , Oakland , Portland , and St. Paul . In most cases, these reinforced concrete structures were

1116-582: The original company. The new company does not honor its predecessor's obligations, such as gift cards and items sold with a lifetime guarantee. David Milgrom, then president of the DMSI-owned firm, told the Associated Press , "We're rebuilding the brand, and we want to do it right." Four years later, in July 2008, DMSI announced it was on the auction block, with the sale of its assets scheduled for

Concord Mall - Misplaced Pages Continue

1152-482: The same name. If an internal link led you here, you may wish to change the link to point directly to the intended article. Retrieved from " https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Concord_Mall&oldid=915535681 " Category : Place name disambiguation pages Hidden categories: Short description is different from Wikidata All article disambiguation pages All disambiguation pages Concord Mall (Delaware) The Concord Mall

1188-588: The vacancy rate in recent years due to competition. In January 2020, with the mall at risk of foreclosure, Allied Properties sold the Concord Mall to Namdar Realty Group , a real estate firm that specializes in distressed shopping malls. On February 5, 2020, it was announced that Sears would be closing as part of a plan to close 31 stores nationwide. The store closed in April 2020. This was the last Sears location in Delaware. Jefferson Ward Montgomery Ward

1224-607: The war, Sears was perceived to have better locations than Ward. Nonetheless, for many years Ward was still the nation's third-largest department store chain. In 1955, investor Louis Wolfson waged a high-profile proxy fight to obtain control of the board of Montgomery Ward. The new board forced the resignation of Avery. This fight led to a state court decision that Illinois corporations were not entitled to stagger elections of board members." In 1961, company president John Barr hired Robert Elton Brooker to lead Montgomery Ward as president in its turnaround. Brooker brought with him

1260-426: Was centralized but store operations were decentralized, under a new territory system modeled after Sears. In 1966, Ed Donnell was named company president. Brooker continued as chairman and chief executive officer until 1976. In 1968, Brooker helped engineer a friendly merger with Container Corporation of America , the new parent company being named MARCOR. Despite the merger, the company continued to struggle into

1296-613: Was divested by Mobil. This effectively dissolved the MARCOR division and left Montgomery Ward as a direct subsidiary of Mobil. Analysts saw the CCA sale as an effort to go back on their diversification efforts, as the debts incurred since MARCOR’s acquisition began to weigh the oil giant down, and many predicted Montgomery Ward was next to be sold. These theories were confirmed in January 1987, when Mobil stated they would be looking into spinning off

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