Edison Brothers Stores, Inc., was a retail conglomerate based in St. Louis, Missouri. It operated numerous retail chains mainly located in shopping malls, mostly in the fields of shoes, clothing and entertainment, with Bakers Shoes as its flagship chain. The company was liquidated in 1999, though some of the chains it operated continued under different owners.
History
The company began on October 28, 1922, when brothers Sam, Harry, Mark, Irving, and Simon Edison—most of whom had previous experience in the shoe business working for others—opened their first shoe store, Chandler's, in Atlanta, Georgia. The store was a success and the brothers opened up a second shoe store, called Baker's, in April 1924. By 1928, the brothers operated 12 Chandler's stores; the next year, the company went public, using the money raised to open 14 more Baker's stores and three more Chandler's stores, and moved its headquarters to St. Louis.[1]
The company survived the Great Depression by emphasizing its lower-priced Baker's shoes and starting a new store called Burt's that sold shoes at an even lower price point. Stores the company opened on the West Coast took the name Leed's to avoid confusion with an existing chain also named Baker's. During World War II the company added a line of millinery to combat lost sales due to rationing of sole leather for the war effort, but the line failed. In 1948 Edison Brothers, Inc., opened its first store in a shopping mall, and the company also opened its 200th store that same year. Nine years later, Edison opened its 300th store, and in 1958 sales went above $100 million (~$ in ). Harry Edison was named chairman of the board, and Irving Edison was elected president of the company.