Turn Style
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| Turn Style Department Stores Inc. | |
 |
|
| Type | Department store |
|---|---|
| Founded | 1961 [1] |
| Headquarters | Brighton, MA |
| Industry | Retail |
| Products | Clothing, footwear, bedding, furniture, jewelry, beauty products, electronics and housewares. |
| Website | None |
Turn Style was a chain of discount department stores and was a division of Chicago-based Jewel, the parent company of the Jewel Food Stores supermarket chain. Each Turn Style had an Osco Pharmacy, at the time very uncommon for a discount store in the 1960's 70's.[2]
Contents |
[edit] History
[edit] Acquisition by Jewel
Jewel acquired the Turn Style brand in 1961 and began rapidly expanding the chain. Sales for the 1961 year were listed as $14 million U.S. dollars with four stores, with headquarters in Brighton, Massachusetts.[3] At its peak, the chain operated throughout the Midwest, as well as in the Boston, Massachusetts area. Within three years of opening the first Chicagoland store in Racine, Wisconsin, profits as measured on a ROI basis were the highest within Jewel Companies. Rapid expansion, the unfortunate corporate decision to incorporate a catalog type store within its four walls, and an unrealistic divisive venture into the "Hypermarket" business, all caused profits to suffer.
[edit] Sale to Venture
The economy also caused Jewel to rethink its growth strategy and the decision was made to sell Turn Style in order to concentrate its growth within its core businesses, which were food stores and drugstores. In 1978 the stores were sold to May Department Stores and converted to the Venture format. Other stores were converted to large Osco Drug Stores. Turn Style was considered a "cut above" mass merchant and its reputation in the marketplace was comparable to that of Target. Most of the top executives left Jewel Companies and have held key positions within many of the major general merchandise stores throughout the United States.[citation needed]
[edit] List of former locations
[edit] Illinois
- Arlington Heights - 750 E. Rand (later Venture, then Kmart, now America's Factory Direct Furniture)
- Chicago
- 1740 N. Kostner (later Venture, then Kmart, now Cook Brothers Warehouse)
- 4433 S. Pulaski (later Venture, then Kmart, now Target)
- 125 W. 87th St. (later Zayre, then Ames; now Burlington Coat Factory)
- North Ave. near Cicero
- near Ford City Mall
- Harlem-Foster Shopping Center (now CVS/Pharmacy and Burlington Coat Factory)
- Decatur
- Deerfield - Lake Cook Rd. @ Waukegan Rd.
- Downers Grove - 7401 Lemont Rd. (later Venture, now Best Buy and TJ Maxx/HomeGoods)
- Glendale Heights - 521 North Ave. (later Venture, torn down in 2000s and replaced with Menard's)
- Harvey - Dixie Square Mall (closed 1978, empty)
- Moline
- Niles
- Schaumburg - 1311 Golf Rd. (later Venture, then Kmart; building torn down and replaced with The Great Indoors)
- Skokie - 9449 Skokie Blvd. (now Jewel, Old Navy, and other stores)
- Westmont - 52 E. Ogden Ave. (now Jewel and Hobby Lobby)
[edit] Indiana
- Indianapolis (3 locations)
- Merrillville - 6063 Broadway (later Venture, then Kmart, now Big Lots)
[edit] Iowa
[edit] Massachusetts
[edit] Michigan
- Grand Rapids
- Kalamazoo - Maple Hill Mall (opened 1972. Later Meijer Square; torn down mid 1990s for Target)
- Lansing
- Wyoming - Rogers Plaza (opened 1972. Later Rogers Catalog Showroom, then Best Products, now Big Lots and Office Max)
[edit] Nebraska
- Omaha (2 locations)
[edit] Wisconsin
- Racine - Washington Ave.
