Parisian (department store chain)

Parisian

You're Somebody Special
Former type	Department store
Industry	Retail
Founded	1877
Defunct	2013, Acquired by Belk and Bon-Ton
Headquarters	Birmingham, Alabama USA
Products	Clothing, footwear, bedding, furniture, jewelry, beauty products, and housewares.
Parent	Parisian (1877-1988) L. J. Hooker (1988-1989) Independent (1989-1996) Proffitt's (1996-1998) Saks, Inc. (1998-2006) Belk (2006)

Parisian was a U.S. chain of upscale department stores founded and headquartered in Birmingham, Alabama. Competing mainly in the established Southeastern US market through the 1980s against Nordstrom, Neiman Marcus and Gus Mayer, Parisian underwent a series of restructurings and mergers during its 130-year history, and was taken over by Saks Incorporated in 1998. In September 2006, Belk purchased the Parisian department store properties from Saks for $285 million, although that sale did not include the Parisian nameplate. Belk quickly resold five Parisian store locations in Michigan, Indiana and Ohio to Bon-Ton Stores, and closed a handful of additional stores nationwide. The remaining Parisian locations were rebranded as Belk in September 2007, except for the three Michigan stores, which continued to operate as Parisian until 2013.

Parisian was founded in Birmingham, Alabama in 1877 by Estella and Bertha Sommers. The sisters sold it to Carl Hess and William Holiner in the 1920s. Hess's son Emil and Holiner's son-in-law, Leonard Salit, bought the chain in 1950 and established its first credit program. After Salit died, Hess's family took over the chain.

Parisian opened stores in several shopping malls throughout Birmingham in the 1970s, including Eastwood Mall (now Eastwood Village). In the 1960s, it began opening stores outside Birmingham. First they opened a store in Gateway Shopping Center in Decatur, Alabama and then expanded to Parkway City Mall in Huntsville, University Mall in Tuscaloosa, Bel Air Mall in Mobile, and Eastdale Mall and Montgomery Mall in Montgomery. By the mid-1980s, Parisian had 13 stores in Alabama. Its first two stores outside the state were both in Florida at Cordova Mall in Pensacola, and Sarasota Square Mall (now Westfield Sarasota Square) in Sarasota. Australian-based real estate firm LJ Hooker bought Parisian, Bonwit Teller, and B. Altman in 1988, but sold its share in Parisian a year later after LJ Hooker filed for bankruptcy. The company sold Parisian back to the Hess family. By the early 1990s, Parisian had opened its first stores outside the Southeastern United States: in Michigan, Indiana, and Ohio.