Lamonts

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Lamonts Apparel, Inc.

Former type	Department store
Fate	Acquired by Gottschalks
Founded	1965 Seattle, Washington
Defunct	2000
Headquarters	Kirkland, Washington
Industry	Retail
Products	Clothing, footwear, bedding, furniture, jewelry, beauty products, and housewares.
Website	None

Lamonts was a chain of department stores founded in Seattle, Washington in 1965. It was known for its moderately priced casual wear and children's clothing, which was spun off as a concept store Lamonts For Kids for several years before closing. At its peak, Lamonts operated over 70 department Stores and specialty Stores throughout the Western United States. The company restructured in the early 1990s, went bankrupt twice, and closed down many under-performing stores before being acquired by Gottschalks in 2000. Gottschalk's itself has now declared bankruptcy and as of April 2009, all locations including remaining former Lamonts locations will be liquidated and closed.

History

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 Brothers 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.^[1]

Lamonts was created in 1967 after The Pay 'n Save Corporation acquired Bell's of Burien, a clothing store in Burien, Washington. Rhodes Department Stores of Seattle was acquired that same year. The three suburban Rhodes locations in Bellevue, Lake Forest Park, and University Village, along with the Bell's of Burien store, were renamed Lamonts in 1969-70, after M. Lamont Bean, the chairman of Pay 'n Save at the time. The Bell's moniker remained attached to the Burien store until 1974^[2]. The first store built from the ground up opened in 1966 at Westwood Village in White Center. Rhodes' downtown flagship store was closed in 1966 as the company shifted its focus to the suburbs.

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, formally of Allied Stores Corp., as chairman in 1987, a huge growth plan was proposed for the following years.^[3]. Searching for more capital to expand, Lamonts was sold to Dallas, Texas based Aris Corp., owned by the Thompson family of 7-Eleven fame in 1989.^[4] Not long after this, the company profits took a downturn though record sales were reported.^[5][6] 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 30,000-square-foot (2,800 m²) stores a year in existing malls in Eastern Washington, Idaho, Montana, Utah, Colorado, Nebraska, Kansas, North Dakota and South Dakota.^[7] Unfortunately, this plan coincided with the recession of the early 1990s which would put the company in massive debt eventually leading to its demise.^[8].^[9]

Connection with Troutman's Emporium

In 1999 Lamonts turned down a merge with rival chain Troutman's Emporium.^[10] 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.

Downfall

In the 1990s other more successful chains in areas with Lamonts stores such as Mervyns and JCPenney caused Lamonts to restructure in 1992 and to file for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in 1995^[11] 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.^[12] The new prototype wasn't enough and, in 2000 Lamonts was acquired by Gottschalks out of Bankruptcy Court and 34 of the 38 remaining Lamonts stores 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.

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, Idaho. 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.^[13] 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.

References

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
• Historic Images of Rhodes from University of Washington Special Collections