Edison Brothers Stores

Edison Brothers Stores, Inc., was a retail conglomerate based in St. Louis, Missouri. It operated numerous retail chains mainly located in shopping malls, mostly in the fields of shoes, clothing and entertainment, with Bakers Shoes as its flagship chain. The company was liquidated in 1999, though some of the chains it operated continued under different owners.

The company began on October 28, 1922, when brother Sam, Harry, Mark, Irving, and Simon Edison—most of whom had previous experience in the shoe business working for others—opened their first shoe store, Chandler's, in Atlanta, Georgia. The store was a success and the brothers opened up a second shoe store, called Baker's, the next year. By 1928, the brothers operated 12 Chandler's stores; the next year, the company went public, using the money raised to open 14 more Baker's stores and three more Chandler's stores, and moved its headquarters to St. Louis.

The company survived the Great Depression by emphasizing its lower-priced Baker's shoes and starting a new store called Burt's that sold shoes at an even lower price point. Stores the company opened on the West Coast took the name Leed's to avoid confusion with an existing chain also named Baker's. During World War II the company added a line of millinery to combat lost sales due to rationing of sole leather for the war effort, but the line failed. In 1948 Edison Brothers, Inc., opened its first store in a shopping mall, and the company also opened its 200th store that same year. Nine years later, Edison opened its 300th store, and in 1958 sales went above $100 million. Harry Edison was named chairman of the board, and Irving Edison was elected president of the company.

In the 1960s the company expanded into women's clothing and children's shoes, and later in the decade began purchasing other retail chains, starting with Jeans West. In 1970 it purchased 5-7-9 Shops and in 1972 launched the Wild Pair shoe operation. It also acquired clothing chain Fashion Conspiracy, sporting goods retailer United Sporting Goods and Handyman Home Improvement Centers. By 1973 Edison Brothers was operating 1,000 store locations. Later in the decade it purchased the men's clothing chain Oaktree, and the company was operating 2,000 total locations by 1979, and by 1983, sales surpassed the $1 billion mark. That same year, Andy Newman, nephew of Julian Edison, became president of the shoe division, and Martin Sneider, the first non-Edison family member to hold a top management position in the company, became president of the company's rapidly growing apparel division. In 1985, Newman became company chairman and Sneider became president. The company continued to purchase retail chains, including young men's retailer J. Riggings and big-and-tall retailer Repp Ltd. In 1990 Edison Brothers purchased 225 locations of the Foxmoor women's clothing chain, some of which it converted to its other brands.

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