Best Products Company, Inc., or simply Best, was a chain of American catalog showroom retail stores founded by Sydney and Frances Lewis in 1957 and formerly headquartered in Richmond, Virginia. The company was in existence for four decades, until 1998. In 1996, the company operated 169 Best stores and 11 Best Jewelry stores in 23 states, as well as a nationwide mail-order service. Best Products was traded on the NASDAQ exchange as "BESTQ".
History
The company was founded by Sydney Lewis and Frances Lewis. Sydney Lewis, a lawyer educated at Washington and Lee University and Harvard Business School, worked with his father managing an encyclopedia sales operation in Richmond. Lewis thought of selling additional merchandise along with the bills for encyclopedias. In 1957, the Lewises sent out their first catalog. The first showroom was at 4909 West Marshall Street in Richmond, just across the street from the new Willow Lawn Shopping Center.
The company had a strong sense of promotion and artistic sensibilities; it was legend in artistic circles that it would trade store merchandise for art. As a result, the company, as well as the Lewises, gathered a significant collection of 20th-century art. Much of the Lewis Collection can be seen at the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, and a café named after the company opened in that museum in 2010.