Abraham & Straus

Infobox_Company
company_name = Abraham & Straus
company_
company_type = Defunct department store
foundation = 1881
location = Brooklyn, New York, New York
industry = Retail
products = Clothing, footwear, bedding, furniture, jewelry, beauty products, and housewares.
homepage =

Abraham & Straus (or A&S), now defunct, was a major New York City department store, based in Brooklyn, New York. Federated Department Stores eliminated the A&S brand shortly after its 1994 acquisition of R.H. Macy & Company. Most A&S stores took the Macy's name, although a few became part of Stern's, a Federated division that was based in Paramus, New Jersey, and offered lower-end goods than did Macy's or A&S.

Early history

The first Brooklyn store, opened in 1865, was 25 feet by 90 feet, and was at 285 Fulton Street, which Abraham Abraham, age 22, opened with Joseph Wechsler with $5,000 contributions each."...And Paramus Makes Ten," internal history published on opening of Paramus Park store, 1974 ]

After the opening of the Brooklyn Bridge, Abraham studied a store nicknamed Wheeler's Folly at 422 Fulton Street and bought it.Fact|date=March 2007

On April 1 1893, Nathan Straus, Isidor Straus [ [http://www.information-engineer.com/straus/nstraus.htm Mr. and Mrs. Nathan Straus - information-engineer.com - Retrieved November 8, 2007] ] and Simon F. Rothschild as partners bought out Wechsler and Wechsler & Abraham dry goods firm became Abraham & Straus (with the Straus brothers providing the financing but Rothschild being the active partner). [New York Times Company (April 2, 1893). [http://select.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=FB0D1FF93C5515738DDDAB0894DC405B8385F0D3 Now Abraham & Straus.; Big Change in a Big Store Which All Brooklyn Knows] . Retrieved March 19, 2007.]

The Strauses had run the leased china department; the brothers later gained control of Macy's [Straus Family Website (1996-2005). [http://www.information-engineer.com/straus/nstraus.htm Mr. & Mrs. Nathan Straus] . Retrieved March 19, 2007.] The company that year had 2,000 employees, and that year A&S also made Abraham's son-in-law, Simon F. Rothschild, son-in-law Edward Charles Blum and son Lawrence Abraham into partners. By 1900, the company had 4,650 employees. From the 1890s to the 1920s, A&S utilized a system of catalog store agencies across Long Island to serve customers.

In 1912, Isidor Straus, along with his wife Ida, perished in the sinking of the Titanic.

Around 1915, after Abraham's daughter married Isidor's son Percy Selden Straus, the Straus family divided up the empire with Nathan's family running A&S and Isidor's family running Macy's. [ [http://www.information-engineer.com/straus/nstraus.htm Mr. and Mrs. Nathan Straus - information-engineer.com - Retrieved November 8, 2007] ]

Beginning in 1928, the company embarked on a $7.8 million expansion of the Fulton Street Store, which included excavating a new basement without disturbing customers above. The renovated store opened October 10, just days before the Wall Street Crash of 1929. In 1929, the company also joined Filene's, Lazarus and Bloomingdale's to form Federated Department Stores. To economize during the Depression, the company began scheduling employees according to hourly sales. In addition, all employees took a 10 percent pay cut. No employees were laid off.

In 1937, Walter N. Rothschild led the company, and would be president and chairman until 1955. Following Rothschild, Sidney L. Solomon became the company's first non-family president. At the time, the company had 12,000 employees. The company grew after World War II. Its first new branch store opened in 1952 in Hempstead, following the 1950 purchase of Loeser's Garden City store. In the following decades, the company expanded throughout the New York metropolitan area.

In the 1970s, Federated attempted to update the image of A & S, and funded the construction of new, more upscale stores. A & S developed a new logo that once again branded the stores Abraham and Straus. The company opened a central Distribution Center which decreased the amount of non-selling space needed in each store. In 1978 the firm opened the first of its more upscale stores at the Monmouth Mall in Eatontown, NJ. This was followed by stores in White Plains in 1980, Mall at Short Hills in 1981, and a replacement for the chain's Babylon, Long Island store at the Sunrise Mall.

In 1981 and 1982 the chain opened two stores at malls in the suburban Philadelphia market, The Court at King of Prussia, and Willow Grove Park. These new stores struggled to find their niche, and the two Pennsylvania stores were closed in 1987, and 1988 and occupied by Philadelphia based Strawbridge and Clothier. The Short Hills, New Jersey store seemed out of place in the very upscale mall, and customers resisted what were seen to be the stores more rigid policies concerning check acceptance, inter-store transfers, and refunds.

Eventually A & S would stock the Short Hills location with merchandise that was more befitting the location.

Historic A&S store

From the beginning, the company had high aspirations. In 1885, the company hired architect George L. Morse to work on the Fulton Street store. For their 1928 to 1930 renovations and additions, the company hired architects Starrett & van Vleck to build an Art Deco addition that faces Fulton, Hoyt and Livingston Streets. In 2003, the Brooklyn Heights Association and the Municipal Art Society put the building on a list of 28 historic buildings in downtown Brooklyn that needed to be protected. [New York Times Company (July 24, 2005). [http://travel2.nytimes.com/2005/07/24/realestate/24scap.html?pagewanted=1&ei=5070&en=0d63abbf0f2ed841&ex=1161921600 Different Name, Same Architecture] by Christopher Gray. Retrieved March 19, 2007.]

In the mid 1970s, Abraham & Straus Flagship Store, which was located in Downtown Brooklyn, made Mannequin Modeling famous. Linda Timmins, head of the division, selected one juvenile and ingénue with "The Editorial Look" from each of the High Schools across the Brooklyn and Manhattan area. The schools and its students were also selected for high academic standing; Manhattan's Performing Arts High School Yvette Post and Metropolitan Opera Juvenile Star Robert Westin and Brooklyn's Abraham Lincoln High School's Alan Jay Kahm and its Head Cheerleader Paula Gallo were some of the few selected to represent the youth of New York. These "Mannequin Models" would pose for up to an hour at a time in the windows of the store as "Living Mannequins" wearing Classic Designer Clothes to the fashions of the day designed by Nik Nik and Pierre Cardin.

The Store had to stop Mannequin Modeling in their store front windows as crowds would stop traffic and became a safety hazard. Abraham & Straus had to restrict their Living Mannequins to Mannequin Model inside their flagship store or face a stiff penalty from the City of New York. The crowds still came. Each season, the young Mannequin Models would actually be allowed to move in order to do an in-store Runway Show for the Designer de Jour. Though it was the 70s, you would never find a polyester suit nor non-designer outfit adorned by any of the models. The Brooklyn Flagship Store was the unrivaled gem of New York City department stores. The cost alone to maintain such an elegant store would be prohibitive in today’s market.

However, unlike countless numbers of downtown Department Stores that have closed throughout the nation, this historic location continues as a Macy's. As of this writing (2008), Macy's utilizes the Lower level through 5th floor for retail departments, the 6th floor for seasonal merchandise, and a beauty salon, and upper floors for a number of corporate departments. Display windows continued to be maintained along Fulton Street, and the elevator bank in the middle of the street floor continues to evoke hints of this buildings elegant past. The passenger elevators at this location were among the last in all of New York City to be converted from manual operator to automatic use. Macy's has continued to reaffirm its commitment to this location, and increased residential building in the downtown area should lead to increased utilization.

Timeline

*1865 - Founded in Brooklyn as Wechsler & Abraham by Abraham Abraham and Joseph Wechsler
*1893 - The Straus family, who acquired a general partnership with Macy's department stores in 1888, buys out Joseph Wechsler's interest in Wechsler & Abraham, changing the store's name to Abraham & Straus. While Abraham & Straus did not become a part of Macy's, the two stores did share an overseas office and maintained close ties.
*1929 - Federated Department Stores, Inc. is formed as a holding company by several family-owned department stores, including Abraham & Straus and F&R Lazarus & Co. (along with its Cincinnati-based subsidiary, Shillito's) and Filene's of Boston. Corporate offices established in Columbus, Ohio, later moved to Cincinnati.
*1992 - Federated Department Stores, merges with Allied Stores Corporation. A consolidation of the A&S and Jordan Marsh divisions results in the A&S/Jordan Marsh division, headquartered in Brooklyn, NY. Early in the new year, Macy's files for protection under Chapter 11.
*1994 - Federated Department Stores acquires the now bankrupt R.H. Macy & Company, and combines Macy's, headquartered in New York City, with A&S/Jordan Marsh.
*1995 - The name Abraham & Straus is dropped in favor of the more widely known name Macy's, and Macy's East is formed. Other A&S locations were converted to Stern's.

Former locations

Connecticut

*Trumbull - Trumbull Shopping Park, (Now Westfield Trumbull) (opened 1963 as Read's, became Jordan Marsh 1987, Abraham & Straus 1992, Macy's 1995, closed 2006)

New Jersey

*Eatontown - Monmouth Mall (became Stern's 1995, closed 2001, now Boscov's closing October 2008)
*Paramus - Paramus Park (opened 1974, became Macy's 1995)
*Short Hills - The Mall at Short Hills (opened 1981, closed/converted to Macy's 1995)
*Woodbridge Township - Woodbridge Center (opened 1971, closed 1995, sold to Sears)

New York

*Babylon, Sunrise Highway, freestanding, replaced by Sunrise Mall store, later Caldor.
*Brooklyn - Fulton Street (flagship)) (opened 1865, became Macy's 1995)
*Carle Place - Carle Place furniture store (freestanding) (opened 1971 as Abraham & Straus, became Macy's Furniture/Clearance 1995)
*Garden City - Roosevelt Field (opened 1992, closed 1995, converted to Bloomingdale's, relocated from Garden City freestanding store)
*Garden City - 855 Franklin Avenue (converted to outlet 1992, closed 1995)
*Hempstead - Hempstead Avenue (freestanding) (opened 1952, closed 1992) demolished in 2000, now site of Chuck E. Cheese)
*Huntington Station - Walt Whitman Mall (opened 1962, became Macy's 1995.
*Lake Grove - Smith Haven Mall (opened 1969, became Stern's 1995, closed 2001, demolished 2005, location currently site of Smith Haven Mall Lifestyle Center)
*Manhasset - 1100 Northern Boulevard (freestanding; on the Miracle Mile) (opened 1965, became Macy's 1995)
*Manhattan - A&S Plaza (later known as Manhattan Mall) (Originally Gimbel's Flagship store, Building converted to A&S Plaza, 1988, Stern's 1995, closed 2001 by 2010 will become Penney's)
*Massapequa - Sunrise Mall "(now Westfield Sunrise)" (replacement for Babylon store 1981, became Stern's 1995, closed 2001, now Wal-Mart location)
*Nanuet - Nanuet Mall (opened 1994, became Stern's 1995, closed 2001, now Boscov's)
*Queens-Rego Park - Queens Center (opened 1973, became Macy's 1995)

*Valley Stream - Green Acres Mall (opened 1986 as Abraham & Straus in former Gimbels location, became Macy's 1995)
*White Plains - Galleria at White Plains (opened 1980, became Stern's 1995, Macy's 1996)
*Yorktown Heights - Jefferson Valley Mall (opened 1983 as Read's, became Jordan Marsh 1987, Abraham & Straus 1992, Macy's 1995)

Pennsylvania

*King of Prussia - The Court at King of Prussia (opened 1981, closed 1987 and sold to Strawbridge & Clothier, closed 1995 in favor newly acquired former Wanamaker's store, converted into mall expansion space 2001, section now called 'Pavilion' at King of Prussia)
*Willow Grove - Willow Grove Park Mall (opened 1981, closed 1988 and sold to Strawbridge's, closed 2006, lower two floors becoming Boscov's)

References