Zayre

Zayre was a chain of discount stores that operated in the eastern half of the United States from 1956 to 1990. The company's headquarters was in Framingham, Massachusetts. In October 1988, Zayre's parent company, Zayre Corp., sold the stores to the competing Ames Department Stores, Inc. chain, and in June 1989, Zayre Corp. merged with one of its subsidiaries, The TJX Companies, parent company of T.J. Maxx. A number of stores retained the Zayre name until 1990, by which time all stores were either closed or converted into Ames stores. The TJX Companies is still in operation today.

History

Zayre's origins go back to 1919 when brothers Max and Morris Feldberg founded the New England Trading Company in Boston, Massachusetts. An underwear and hosiery wholesaler, the company began as a supplier to full-line department stores and specialty shops. Ten years later, the brothers launched their first retail operation, Bell Hosiery Shops (later shortened to "Bell Shops"). Within a few years, Bell Shops expanded beyond underwear and hosiery into full-blown women's specialty stores, competing with such chains as Lerner Shops and Three Sisters. By the end of World War II, there were nearly 30 Bell Shops in the New England area. In 1946, the company doubled its number of stores with its buyout of New York City-based Nugents, another women's specialty store chain, similar in approach to that of Bell Shops. With its store base in New York, Pennsylvania, Delaware, New Jersey, and Washington, D.C., Nugents was a natural extension of the company's market area with almost no overlap.