Belk
Encyclopedia : B : BE : BEL : Belk
Belk, headquartered in Charlotte, North Carolina, is the United States' largest privately-held department store chain.http://goliath.ecnext.com/coms2/product-compint-0000772713-page.html Selling mainly mid-range merchandise, Belk directly competes with Dillard's and Macy's.
Founded in 1888 by William Henry Belk, the store was first called "New York Racket" and then "Belk Brothers," after William Belk made his brother, John, a partner.http://www.referenceforbusiness.com/history/Al-Be/Belk-Inc.html The business grew steadily, relying on "bargain sales" and advertising to grow the business. Today, the chain is still family-owned and currently has more than 200 stores in 14 Southern states, particularly in the Carolinas.http://www.belk.comIn 2005, Belk generated US$2.45 billion in sales and employed 17,900 people.http://www.referenceforbusiness.com/history/Al-Be/Belk-Inc.htmlAlso in 2005, Belk purchased the Proffitt's and McRae's department stores from Saks Incorporated, and these stores converted to the Belk nameplate on March 8, 2006.http://www.timesnews.net/article.dna?_StoryID=3608580
Belk distinguishes itself from competitors by offering attentive customer service and a "hassle-free" return policy.
Beginning in 1921 with the Leggett Bros. stores of Virginia, the Belk family formed various partnerships with other merchandisers in different markets. (This complex story is chronicled in a book [link] about the evolution of the company.) This unusual corporate ownership structure resulted in dual or hyphened names on many of their stores. In 1998, Belk bought out or merged away this partnership structure and formed Belk, Inc. from its 112 existing Belk companies, with certain well-established partnership names allowed to remain.http://www.referenceforbusiness.com/history/Al-Be/Belk-Inc.htmlSome of the dual names used included:
- Hudson Belk (still used at most The Triangle locations)
- Matthews Belk (still used at the Gastonia, NC location)
- Belk Matthews (Macon, Georgia and southeastern Georgia)
- Parks-Belk (formerly in East Tennessee and southwestern Virginia)
- Belk Simpson (formerly in Kentucky, North Carolina and still used The Upstate of South Carolina)
- Leggett (formerly in Virginia, West Virginia, Maryland, North Carolina and Delaware)
- Belk Leggett (formerly in Danville, Virginia)
- Belk Lindsay (formerly in North Florida)
- Belk Gallant (formerly in Atlanta, Georgia)
- Belk Beck (formerly in High Point, North Carolina and Burlington, North Carolina)
- Belk Rhodes (formerly in Rome, Georgia)
- Belk Yates (formerly in Asheboro, North Carolina)
- Belk Beery (formerly in Wilmington, North Carolina and Savannah, Georgia)
- Belk-Hagins (formerly in Americus, Georgia and Dawson, Georgia)
- Belk-Tyler (formerly in Greenville, North Carolina and other parts of northeastern North Carolina).
References
External links
From Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia. Original article here. Support Wikipedia by contributing or donating.
All text is available under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License See Wikipedia Copyrights for details.