Lamonts
Encyclopedia
Lamonts was a chain of department store
s founded in Seattle, Washington
. The chain was started in 1970 when Pay 'n Save
renamed its suburban branches of Rhodes, a department store chain the company acquired in 1965. Lamonts remained a division of Pay 'n Save until 1985. During the 1990s, the chain filed for bankruptcy twice and closed several stores before being sold to Gottschalks
in 2000. Gottschalks itself went into bankruptcy and liquidated in 2009.
Department Store in Tacoma
but the two companies were never affiliated. He was inspired to install a pipe organ in his store after a trip to Wanamaker's
famous Department Store in Philadelphia. Albert Rhodes died in 1921, before he had the chance to expand the store but his wife, Harriet W. Rhodes, continued operations. By 1927, the store had outgrown its quarters. Architects Harlan Thomas
and Clyde Gral were commissioned to design a new seven story store that would take up half of a block. It included the Aeolian Pipe organ that Albert had planned. With the prosperity following World War II
, the company expanded by opening branch stores in the University District of Seattle at University Village
(1956), Crossroads Mall in Bellevue
(July, 1964), and in Lake Forest Center Mall in Lake Forest Park
(October, 1964).
In October 1967, the financially ailing Rhodes was acquired by The Pay 'n Save
Corporation followed in 1968 by the singular Bell's of Burien Department Store, founded in 1956 in Burien, Washington
. Pay 'n Save proceeded to shutter Rhodes' flagship store in downtown Seattle in July 1968 as it shifted its focus to the suburbs. The three suburban Rhodes locations as well as the Bell's of Burien store continued to operate as they were for several years. In a move to create a strong department store brand to add to Pay 'n Saves roster of brands, the stores were all converted to the Lamonts name in 1970. The new chain was named for and by M. Lamont Bean, the head of Pay 'n Save Corp. at the time. The Bell's moniker (hyphenated with Lamonts) remained attached to the Burien store until 1974.
based Aris Corp., owned by the Thompson family of 7-Eleven
fame in 1989. Not long after this, the company profits took a downturn though record sales were reported. Profits continued to slide in 1991 and 1992. In November 1992, After a financial restructuring in which the company traded most of its common stock to Lenders for a reduced debt, Lamonts proposed an ambitious plan to open three to four 25,000-to 30000 square feet (2,787.1 m²) stores a year in existing malls in Eastern Washington, Idaho
, Montana
, Utah
, Colorado
, Nebraska
, Kansas
, North Dakota
and South Dakota
. Unfortunately, this plan coincided with the recession
of the early 1990s which would put the company in massive debt eventually leading to its demise.
and JCPenney caused Lamonts to restructure in 1992 and to file for Chapter 11 bankruptcy
in 1995 and once more in 2000. An ill-timed expansion in the early 1990s put the company so far in debt that it never quite recovered. The first bankruptcy caused the chain to slim down from 57 to 43 stores and moved their headquarters from Bellevue to Kirkland to save costs. Company officials blamed a bad inventory mix and poor sales due to unusually cold Spring and Summer seasons that finally pushed them over the edge. After emerging from Bankruptcy in early 1998, in attempt to modernize and improve their image, they rolled out a brand new store design that was brighter and more shopper-friendly.
In 1999, Lamonts turned down a merge with rival chain Troutman's Emporium
. In 2000 during Lamonts third bankruptcy, Troutman's offered a bid on the company but was outbid by Gottschalks. The company proposed to change some stores to Troutman's Emporium and sell others to The Bon Marche
, an upscale department store chain based in Seattle. Lamonts would eventually be acquired, this time by Gottschalks
out of Bankruptcy Court. Gottschalks bought 34 of the 38 remaining Lamonts stores and they were converted into Gottschalks stores by the end of the year. Unfortunately, expectations of the locations' profitability fell short, and on March 31, 2009, Gottschalks announced they were closing and liquidating the remaining 58 locations. The Original downtown Rhodes store was demolished in 2003 for the Seattle Art Museum
and new Washington Mutual
Tower.
. Other stores were opened in Salt Lake City and Omaha
. A store was also opened in The Mall of America in Minnesota. The stores, usually opened within malls, featured bright colors and graphics, play areas and specially designed fixtures targeted to children. Wide aisles, extra large dressing rooms to accommodate double strollers, and in-store restrooms with changing tables for infants were also included. The focal area in the store's center, dubbed "Lamonster Land", included video monitors with cartoons and other entertainment for kids, as well as books and stuffed animals. Lamonts shut down the chain in 1994 because of poor operation. At its peak, Lamonts For Kids operated 8 stores.
Lamonsters was a line of infant, toddler and children's clothing introduced in 1986. It was discontinued in 1995.
Department store
A department store is a retail establishment which satisfies a wide range of the consumer's personal and residential durable goods product needs; and at the same time offering the consumer a choice of multiple merchandise lines, at variable price points, in all product categories...
s founded in Seattle, Washington
Seattle, Washington
Seattle is the county seat of King County, Washington. With 608,660 residents as of the 2010 Census, Seattle is the largest city in the Northwestern United States. The Seattle metropolitan area of about 3.4 million inhabitants is the 15th largest metropolitan area in the country...
. The chain was started in 1970 when Pay 'n Save
Pay 'n Save
Pay 'n Save was a retail company founded by Monte Lafayette Bean in Seattle, Washington; 1940. Over the years, Pay 'n Save was the leading drug store chain in Washington and was the owner several Washington-based retailers including Lamonts and Ernst...
renamed its suburban branches of Rhodes, a department store chain the company acquired in 1965. Lamonts remained a division of Pay 'n Save until 1985. During the 1990s, the chain filed for bankruptcy twice and closed several stores before being sold to Gottschalks
Gottschalks
Gottschalks was a middle-tier American department store that operated 58 department stores and three specialty apparel stores in six western states ; some locations ran as Harris-Gottschalks stores...
in 2000. Gottschalks itself went into bankruptcy and liquidated in 2009.
Rhodes Department Stores
Rhodes Department store was founded in Seattle by Albert J. Rhodes in 1907 in the Arcade Building on Second Avenue. He was a former partner in the Rhodes BrothersRhodes Brothers
Rhodes Brothers was a department store located in Tacoma, Washington, established in 1892 as a coffee shop in downtown Tacoma by Albert, William, Henry and Charles Rhodes. The store greatly expanded through the years, including having a tea room, a branch library and a separate budget store...
Department Store in Tacoma
Tacoma, Washington
Tacoma is a mid-sized urban port city and the county seat of Pierce County, Washington, United States. The city is on Washington's Puget Sound, southwest of Seattle, northeast of the state capital, Olympia, and northwest of Mount Rainier National Park. The population was 198,397, according to...
but the two companies were never affiliated. He was inspired to install a pipe organ in his store after a trip to Wanamaker's
Wanamaker's
Wanamaker's department store was the first department store in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and one of the first department stores in the United States. At its zenith in the early 20th century, there were two major Wanamaker department stores, one in Philadelphia and one in New York City at Broadway...
famous Department Store in Philadelphia. Albert Rhodes died in 1921, before he had the chance to expand the store but his wife, Harriet W. Rhodes, continued operations. By 1927, the store had outgrown its quarters. Architects Harlan Thomas
Harlan Thomas
Harlan Thomas was a prominent Seattle architect in the first half of the twentieth century. From 1926 to the early 1940s he served as Chair of the University of Washington Department of Architecture. He was also a noted watercolorist.-Biography:Harlan Thomas was born in 1870 in Des Moines, Iowa....
and Clyde Gral were commissioned to design a new seven story store that would take up half of a block. It included the Aeolian Pipe organ that Albert had planned. With the prosperity following World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
, the company expanded by opening branch stores in the University District of Seattle at University Village
University Village, Seattle, Washington
University Village is an upscale shopping center in Seattle, Washington, built at the south corner of Ravenna neighborhood. The 24 acre shopping center was built in 1956 across NE 45th Street on an earlier part of the Montlake Landfill University Village is an upscale shopping center in Seattle,...
(1956), Crossroads Mall in Bellevue
Bellevue, Washington
Bellevue is a city in the Eastside region of King County, Washington, United States, across Lake Washington from Seattle. Long known as a suburb or satellite city of Seattle, it is now categorized as an edge city or a boomburb. The population was 122,363 at the 2010 census.Downtown Bellevue is...
(July, 1964), and in Lake Forest Center Mall in Lake Forest Park
Lake Forest Park, Washington
Lake Forest Park is a city in King County, Washington, United States, just north of Seattle. A bedroom community by design, most of the city consists of single-family housing on medium to large-sized lots, with an emphasis on retaining the natural features of the landscape...
(October, 1964).
In October 1967, the financially ailing Rhodes was acquired by The Pay 'n Save
Pay 'n Save
Pay 'n Save was a retail company founded by Monte Lafayette Bean in Seattle, Washington; 1940. Over the years, Pay 'n Save was the leading drug store chain in Washington and was the owner several Washington-based retailers including Lamonts and Ernst...
Corporation followed in 1968 by the singular Bell's of Burien Department Store, founded in 1956 in Burien, Washington
Burien, Washington
Burien is a city in King County, Washington, United States, located south of Seattle. As of the 2010 Census, Burien's population is 33,313, which is a 2.9% increase since incorporation. Annexation in 2011 has increased the cities population to about 45,000....
. Pay 'n Save proceeded to shutter Rhodes' flagship store in downtown Seattle in July 1968 as it shifted its focus to the suburbs. The three suburban Rhodes locations as well as the Bell's of Burien store continued to operate as they were for several years. In a move to create a strong department store brand to add to Pay 'n Saves roster of brands, the stores were all converted to the Lamonts name in 1970. The new chain was named for and by M. Lamont Bean, the head of Pay 'n Save Corp. at the time. The Bell's moniker (hyphenated with Lamonts) remained attached to the Burien store until 1974.
Expansion and troubles
After steady expansion through the 1970s and '80s, Lamonts finally came into its own when Pay 'n Save Corp. was taken over by New York investors led by brothers Eddie and Julius Trump. With $250 million in Junk Bonds, they split Lamonts and other Pay 'n Save stores from the company and brought them under the ownership of Northern Pacific Corp. With the hiring of Leonard Snyder, formerly of Allied Stores Corp., as chairman in 1987, a huge growth plan was proposed for the following years. Searching for more capital to expand, Lamonts was sold to Dallas, TexasDallas, Texas
Dallas is the third-largest city in Texas and the ninth-largest in the United States. The Dallas-Fort Worth Metroplex is the largest metropolitan area in the South and fourth-largest metropolitan area in the United States...
based Aris Corp., owned by the Thompson family of 7-Eleven
7-Eleven
7-Eleven is part of an international chain of convenience stores, operating under Seven-Eleven Japan Co. Ltd, which in turn is owned by Seven & I Holdings Co...
fame in 1989. Not long after this, the company profits took a downturn though record sales were reported. Profits continued to slide in 1991 and 1992. In November 1992, After a financial restructuring in which the company traded most of its common stock to Lenders for a reduced debt, Lamonts proposed an ambitious plan to open three to four 25,000-to 30000 square feet (2,787.1 m²) stores a year in existing malls in Eastern Washington, Idaho
Idaho
Idaho is a state in the Rocky Mountain area of the United States. The state's largest city and capital is Boise. Residents are called "Idahoans". Idaho was admitted to the Union on July 3, 1890, as the 43rd state....
, Montana
Montana
Montana is a state in the Western United States. The western third of Montana contains numerous mountain ranges. Smaller, "island ranges" are found in the central third of the state, for a total of 77 named ranges of the Rocky Mountains. This geographical fact is reflected in the state's name,...
, Utah
Utah
Utah is a state in the Western United States. It was the 45th state to join the Union, on January 4, 1896. Approximately 80% of Utah's 2,763,885 people live along the Wasatch Front, centering on Salt Lake City. This leaves vast expanses of the state nearly uninhabited, making the population the...
, Colorado
Colorado
Colorado is a U.S. state that encompasses much of the Rocky Mountains as well as the northeastern portion of the Colorado Plateau and the western edge of the Great Plains...
, Nebraska
Nebraska
Nebraska is a state on the Great Plains of the Midwestern United States. The state's capital is Lincoln and its largest city is Omaha, on the Missouri River....
, Kansas
Kansas
Kansas is a US state located in the Midwestern United States. It is named after the Kansas River which flows through it, which in turn was named after the Kansa Native American tribe, which inhabited the area. The tribe's name is often said to mean "people of the wind" or "people of the south...
, North Dakota
North Dakota
North Dakota is a state located in the Midwestern region of the United States of America, along the Canadian border. The state is bordered by Canada to the north, Minnesota to the east, South Dakota to the south and Montana to the west. North Dakota is the 19th-largest state by area in the U.S....
and South Dakota
South Dakota
South Dakota is a state located in the Midwestern region of the United States. It is named after the Lakota and Dakota Sioux American Indian tribes. Once a part of Dakota Territory, South Dakota became a state on November 2, 1889. The state has an area of and an estimated population of just over...
. Unfortunately, this plan coincided with the recession
Recession
In economics, a recession is a business cycle contraction, a general slowdown in economic activity. During recessions, many macroeconomic indicators vary in a similar way...
of the early 1990s which would put the company in massive debt eventually leading to its demise.
Downfall
In the 1990s other more successful chains in areas with Lamonts stores such as MervynsMervyns
Mervyns was an American middle scale department store chain based in Hayward, California. It carried national brands of clothing, footwear, bedding, furniture, jewelry, beauty products, electronics, and housewares. Many of the company's stores were in shopping malls...
and JCPenney caused Lamonts to restructure in 1992 and to file for Chapter 11 bankruptcy
Chapter 11, Title 11, United States Code
Chapter 11 is a chapter of the United States Bankruptcy Code, which permits reorganization under the bankruptcy laws of the United States. Chapter 11 bankruptcy is available to every business, whether organized as a corporation or sole proprietorship, and to individuals, although it is most...
in 1995 and once more in 2000. An ill-timed expansion in the early 1990s put the company so far in debt that it never quite recovered. The first bankruptcy caused the chain to slim down from 57 to 43 stores and moved their headquarters from Bellevue to Kirkland to save costs. Company officials blamed a bad inventory mix and poor sales due to unusually cold Spring and Summer seasons that finally pushed them over the edge. After emerging from Bankruptcy in early 1998, in attempt to modernize and improve their image, they rolled out a brand new store design that was brighter and more shopper-friendly.
In 1999, Lamonts turned down a merge with rival chain Troutman's Emporium
Troutman's Emporium
Troutman's Emporium was a chain of department stores founded in 1955 by Dallas Troutman in North Bend, Oregon. Emporium's headquarters was located in Eugene, Oregon. Emporium operated stores in Oregon, Idaho, Nevada, California and Washington...
. In 2000 during Lamonts third bankruptcy, Troutman's offered a bid on the company but was outbid by Gottschalks. The company proposed to change some stores to Troutman's Emporium and sell others to The Bon Marche
The Bon Marché
The Bon Marché, whose name means "the good deal" or "the good market", was the name chosen for a department store launched in Seattle, Washington, United States, in 1890 by Edward Nordhoff. The name comes from Le Bon Marché, a noted Paris retailer and one of the world's first department stores,...
, an upscale department store chain based in Seattle. Lamonts would eventually be acquired, this time by Gottschalks
Gottschalks
Gottschalks was a middle-tier American department store that operated 58 department stores and three specialty apparel stores in six western states ; some locations ran as Harris-Gottschalks stores...
out of Bankruptcy Court. Gottschalks bought 34 of the 38 remaining Lamonts stores and they were converted into Gottschalks stores by the end of the year. Unfortunately, expectations of the locations' profitability fell short, and on March 31, 2009, Gottschalks announced they were closing and liquidating the remaining 58 locations. The Original downtown Rhodes store was demolished in 2003 for the Seattle Art Museum
Seattle Art Museum
The Seattle Art Museum is an art museum located in Seattle, Washington, USA. It maintains three major facilities: its main museum in downtown Seattle; the Seattle Asian Art Museum in Volunteer Park on Capitol Hill, and the Olympic Sculpture Park on the central Seattle waterfront, which opened on...
and new Washington Mutual
Washington Mutual
Washington Mutual, Inc. , abbreviated to WaMu, was a savings bank holding company and the former owner of Washington Mutual Bank, which was the United States' largest savings and loan association until its collapse in 2008....
Tower.
Concept stores
In 1991 Lamonts launched Lamonts For Kids which focused on children's clothing, one of Lamonts most profitable departments (accounting for 17 percent of its sales). The first store opened in Boise, IdahoBoise, Idaho
Boise is the capital and most populous city of the U.S. state of Idaho, as well as the county seat of Ada County. Located on the Boise River, it anchors the Boise City-Nampa metropolitan area and is the largest city between Salt Lake City, Utah and Portland, Oregon.As of the 2010 Census Bureau,...
. Other stores were opened in Salt Lake City and Omaha
Omaha
Omaha may refer to:*Omaha , a Native American tribe that currently resides in the northeastern part of the U.S. state of Nebraska-Places:United States* Omaha, Nebraska* Omaha, Arkansas* Omaha, Georgia* Omaha, Illinois* Omaha, Texas...
. A store was also opened in The Mall of America in Minnesota. The stores, usually opened within malls, featured bright colors and graphics, play areas and specially designed fixtures targeted to children. Wide aisles, extra large dressing rooms to accommodate double strollers, and in-store restrooms with changing tables for infants were also included. The focal area in the store's center, dubbed "Lamonster Land", included video monitors with cartoons and other entertainment for kids, as well as books and stuffed animals. Lamonts shut down the chain in 1994 because of poor operation. At its peak, Lamonts For Kids operated 8 stores.
Lamonsters was a line of infant, toddler and children's clothing introduced in 1986. It was discontinued in 1995.
Further reading
- California Clothier May Enter Utah Market. (5/01/2000). Enterprise
- "Lamonts No Longer An Acquisition Target." Wenatchee Business Journal (1999): B23.
External links
- Pipe Organ At Rhodes - University of Washington Special Collections
- The Seattle Times/Seattle P-I archives.
- List of Gottschalks locations
- http://content.lib.washington.edu/cgi-bin/queryresults.exe?fg=&CISOOP1=all&CISOBOX1=&CISOFIELD1=CISOSEARCHALL&CISOOP2=exact&CISOBOX2=rhodes+department+store&CISOFIELD2=CISOSEARCHALL&CISOOP3=any&CISOBOX3=&CISOFIELD3=CISOSEARCHALL&CISOOP4=none&CISOBOX4=&CISOFIELD4=CISOSEARCHALL&cisobox1=&cisobox2=rhodes+department+store&cisobox3=&cisobox4=&searchall=on&CISOROOT=allHistoric Images of Rhodes from University of Washington Special Collections]