Retail Histroy Timeline

Timeline created by fontaliu in Business

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Event Date:	Event Title:	Event Description:
01/01/1872	Aaron Montgomery Ward founded his company - First Mail Retailing	American merchant Aaron Montgomery Ward (1843-1913) helped create mail order retailing and built the large mail-order house which bears his name.
06/21/1879	Frank Winfield Woolworth - First Five Cents Store	Opened the first five & dime store.
01/01/1899	Sebastian Kresge - Founder of Kmart	S.S. Kresge Company founded by Sebastian S. Kresge. Nowadays, the company is known as Kmart.
01/01/1911	Hechinger stores founded - First Home Improvement Store	Hechinger stores founded - First Home Improvement Store
01/01/1922	KB Toys	Founded in 1922 by the Kaufman brothers.
01/01/1929	S.S. Kresge Company, Ltd.	Kresge Canadian subsidiary S.S. Kresge Company, Ltd. was founded
01/01/1931	Zellers Founded by Walter P. Zeller	Zellers Founded by Walter P. Zeller in Canada. W.T.Grant Co. becomes owner of Canada's Zellers discount chain in 1959.
01/01/1943	IKEA Founded	IKEA was founded in 1943 by Ingvar Kamprad in Sweden and it is owned by a Dutch-registered foundation controlled by the Kamprad family.
05/26/1948	E. J. Korvette Founded	First Discount Store.
01/01/1949	Circuit City Stores, Inc. Founded	Circuit City Stores, Inc. Founded as Wards Company
07/29/1949	Mervyns Founded
01/01/1953	Simpson-Sears Founded in Canada	Simpson-Sears founded in Canada.
01/01/1958	Ames Department Stores Founded	Gilman Brothers, opened their first Ames store in Southbridge, Mass. Also major in discount retailing. Run out of business in 2002.
01/01/1961	Target Stores founded	In 1962, the first Target store opened in Roseville, Minnesota, and in 2000 the company changed its name from Dayton Hudson to Target.
01/01/1962	First Wal-Mart Store Opened.	Wal-Mart stores founded by Sam Walton in Arkansas
01/01/1963	Kohl's Stores Founded	Max Kohl opened his first Kohl's Store in 1963.
01/01/1966	Best Buy Founded	Richard M. Schulze and business partner James Wheeler open Sound of Music, an audio specialty store, in Saint Paul, Minnesota, the future Best Buy.
01/01/1976	Opening of the First Price Club	Opening of the first Price Club. Foundation for companies like Costco.
01/01/1978	Home Depot Founded	The Home Depot was founded in 1978 by Bernie Marcus, Arthur Blank, Ron Brill, and Pat Farrah.
01/01/1982	Future Shop Founded in Canada
09/15/1983	Costco Wholesale Corporation formed	Founded by James Sinegal and Jeffrey Brotman, Costco opened its first warehouse in Seattle, Washington, on September 15, 1983.
01/01/1990	Wal-Mart Became the World's Largest Retailer	Wal-Mart becomes the world's largest retailer with $32.6 billion in sales.
01/01/1994	Wal-Mart Entered Canada	Wal-Mart entered Canada with the acquisition of 122 of the 166 Woolco stores.
01/01/1995	Amazon.com, Inc. Launched	Jeff Bezos founded Amazon.com, Inc. in 1994 and launched it online in 1995
03/01/2001	Best Buy Acquired Future Shop
01/01/2002	Ames Run Out of Business
01/22/2002	Kmart went Chpt 11.	On January 22, 2002, Kmart filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection.
11/17/2004	Kmart and Sears Merged	Kmart and Sears, Roebuck & Co. to merge to create Sears-Holding Corporation.
12/31/2005	Wal-Mart sales Hit 256Billion.
12/31/2006	Wal-Mart Sales Hit 312.4Billion.
01/01/2008	Mervyns Run Out of Business
12/01/2008	KB Toys Run Out of Business.
12/31/2008	IKEA's annual Visitors Hit 631Million World-Wide.
01/19/2009	Circuit City Run Out of Business