P.A. Bergner & Co.
Your Store, Your Style
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| Subsidiary | |
| Industry | Retail |
| Founded | 1890 in Peoria, Illinois |
| Headquarters | Peoria, Illinois |
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Number of locations
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13 (2011) |
| Products | Clothing, footwear, bedding, furniture, jewelry, beauty products, housewares |
| Parent | The Bon-Ton |
| Website | http://www.bergners.com/ |
Bergner's is an upscale midwestern department store established in 1889. The current flagship store is located in Peoria, Illinois at The Shoppes at Grande Prairie.
Bergner's was founded in downtown Peoria in 1889 by Peter Alan Bergner. The famous red stone building housed six floors that included a tea room, a millinery, a cobbler, and its famous Fine China department. The store stood on the corner of Adams at Fulton streets across from the then-rival, Block & Kuhl Company.
In 1957, a second Peoria Bergner's location opened at the then-suburban Sheridan Village Shopping Center. Between 1961 and 1973, the Sheridan Village location sold the most merchandise per square foot of any department store in the United States. This Bergner's was the largest department store in Illinois outside of the Chicago area. During the 1970s, the chain opened several small suburban locations in Pekin, Bloomington, Decatur, Champaign, Galesburg, Quincy and Peru. During the 1970s, Bergner's opened a budget store (formatted after the original bargain basement downtown store) in the Madison Park Shopping Center in Peoria. Not expanding on this concept, the Madison Park Store was closed in 1993.
In April 2003, after the four-year process of the "Shoppes at Grand Prairie" lifestyle center development, Bergner's opened a new location serving as their flagship and it is the largest department store south of Chicago and north of St. Louis.
Bergner's grew robustly in the late 1970s and 1980s. It acquired the eight stores of Myers Brothers Company of Springfield, Illinois, in 1978. In 1985, Bergner's acquired Boston Store and all of its department stores in Wisconsin along with three Gimbel's locations. In 1989, P.A. Bergner bought Chicago's Carson Pirie Scott for over $450 million. Carson's itself had just bought Minneapolis-based Donaldson's in November 1987. With this, Bergner's was a major Midwestern presence, with stores in five states: Wisconsin, Illinois, Minnesota, Indiana, and Iowa, operating under the Bergner's, Carson Pirie Scott, and Boston Store names.
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Wikipedia