Filene's
 |
|
| Industry | Retail |
|---|---|
| Fate | Acquired by Macy's |
| Successor | Macy's |
| Founded | 1881 (as Filene’s Sons and Co.) |
| Founder | William Filene |
| Defunct | September 9, 2006 |
| Headquarters | Boston, Massachusetts, U.S. |
| Products | Clothing, footwear, bedding, furniture, jewelry, beauty products, and housewares |
| Parent |
Federated Department Stores (1929-88, 2005-06) The May Department Stores Company (1988-2005) |
| Website | Archived official website at the Wayback Machine (archive index) |
Filene's was an American department store, headquartered in Boston, Massachusetts; it operated throughout New England and in New York. It was owned by Federated Department Stores from 1929 until 1988, at which time it was acquired by The May Department Stores Company. In 2005, Federated Department Stores bought May Department Stores; which resulted in Federated reacquiring Filene's (Which Federated originally sold to May Department Stores, along with Houston TX based Foley's.) back under the Federated Department Stores umbrella for the first time since 1988, the subsequent year 2005, most Filene's locations were converted to Macy's.
Filene’s was founded in 1881 by William Filene under the name Filene’s Sons and Co. William Filene was a German Jewish immigrant from Posen, Prussia, who immigrated to Boston in 1848. By 1881 Filene had built up many small retail shops around Boston creating his own department store.
Although William Filene is credited with creating Filene’s, it was his sons, Edward and Lincoln, who took the store into greatness. Edward and Lincoln were two of the most well known businessmen in America and were responsible for turning their father’s clothing store into one of the largest department stores in the country. The two sons assumed management of the store in 1891 and inherited the store upon their father’s death in 1901. In 1908 Edward Filene opened the automatic bargain annex or Filene's Basement as a way to sell excess merchandise from the upstairs department store.
He also developed an automatic mark-down schedule to mark down merchandise still used today. Edward's influence gave Filene’s an early reputation as a customer oriented store with slogans like “money back if not satisfied.”
A flagship store, Filene's Department Store, was completed in 1912 on the corner of Washington and Summer streets by Chicago architect Daniel Burnham as his last major project. By 1929 Filene’s expanded the flagship building, converting the block around Washington, Summer, Hawley and Franklin streets into one department store. Also in 1929, Filene’s joined Abraham & Straus and Lazarus as the founding members of Federated Department Stores.
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