US Stamp Sc# UX41 Vintage Gimbels New York Preprinted Sales Card 1952

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US Stamp Sc# UX41 Vintage Gimbels New York Preprinted Sales Card 1952Card has clever pre-printed hard writingGimbels From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Gimbels Industry Retail Fate Liquidation Successor None Founded 1887 Defunct 1987 Headquarters New York, New York , United States Key people Adam L. Gimbel, Bernard Gimbel Products Clothing, footwear, bedding, furniture, jewelry, beauty products and housewares Parent Formerly Gimbels Brothers Inc. Subsidiaries Formerly SaksGimbel Brothers (Gimbels) was an American department store corporation from 1887 until 1987. The company is known for creating the Gimbels Thanksgiving Day Parade , the oldest parade in the country. Gimbels was also once the largest department store chain in the country. By the time it closed in 1987, Gimbels had 36 stores throughout the United States. [1]Contents 1 Early history 2 Success 2.1 Publicity 2.2 Parade 2.3 Flagship store 2.4 Pittsburgh flagship 2.5 Relationship to Saks 3 Acquisition and closure 4 ReferencesEarly history [ edit ]The company, founded by a young Bavarian Jewish immigrant, Adam Gimbel, began as a general store in Vincennes, Indiana . After a brief stay in Danville, Illinois , Gimbel relocated in 1887 to Milwaukee , Wisconsin, which was then a boomtown . The new store quickly became the leading department store in Milwaukee. However, with seven sons Adam Gimbel saw that one store, no matter how successful, would not accommodate his family's future. As a joke of the time put it, he had "a surplus of capital and a surplus of Gimbels". [ citation needed ]In 1894, Gimbel acquired the Granville Haines store in Philadelphia , Pennsylvania (originally built and operated by Cooper and Conard), and in 1910, opened another branch in New York City . With its arrival in New York, Gimbels prospered, and soon became the primary rival to the leading Herald Square retailer, Macy's , who had a competing branch across the street . This rivalry entered into the popular argot : "Would Macy's tell Gimbels?" To distinguish itself from Herald Square neighbors, Gimbels' advertising promised more: "Select, don't settle." [2]Gimbels became so successful that in 1922 the chain went public , offering shares on the New York Stock Exchange (though the family retained a controlling interest). The stock sales provided capital for expansion, starting with the 1923 purchase of across-the-street rival Saks & Co., which operated under the name Saks Thirty-Fourth Street ; with ownership of Saks, Gimbel created an uptown branch called Saks Fifth Avenue . In 1925 Gimbels entered the Pittsburgh market with its purchase of Kaufmann & Baer's. [3] Also acquired in this transaction was Gimbels' third radio outlet, WCAE ; the company already owned WGBS in New York and WIP in Philadelphia. Although expansion spurred talk of the stores becoming a nationwide chain, the Great Depression ended that prospect. Gimbel did increase the number of more upscale (and enormously profitable) Saks Fifth Avenue stores in the 1930s, opening branches in Chicago, Boston and San Francisco.Success [ edit ] Adam Gimbel, Frederic Gimbel, and Bernard Gimbel, the original Gimbel family Philadelphia store, c.1910By 1930, Gimbels had seven flagship stores throughout the country and net sales of $123 million with 20 sites; this made Gimbel Brothers Inc. the largest department store corporation in the world. By the time of World War II, profits had risen to a net worth of $500 million, or over $8 billion in today's [ when? ] money. In 1962, Gimbels acquired Milwaukee competitor Schuster's , and in that region operated stores from both chains for a while as Gimbels Schuster's . By 1965, Gimbel Brothers Inc. consisted of 53 stores throughout the country, which included 22 Gimbels, 27 Saks Fifth Avenue stores, and four Saks 34th St.Publicity [ edit ]Despite its limited presence, Gimbels was well-known nationwide, in part because of the carefully cultivated rivalry with Macy's, but also thanks to an endless stream of publicity. The New York store rec... read more

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