The Elder-Beerman Stores Corp | Histories of the Two Predecessor Firms
Histories of the Two Predecessor Firms
The Elder-Beerman Stores Corp. was formed through the 1962 merger of Beerman Stores, Inc., and the Elder & Johnston Company. Known as "The Store with the Friendly Spirit," the Elder & Johnston Company had roots in the pre-20th-century Boston Dry Goods Store located on East Third Street in Dayton, Ohio. William Hunter, Jr., Russell Johnston, and Thomas Elder, who had all worked as traveling salesmen for the venerable eastern retail firm Jordan, Marsh and Company, founded the company in 1883. After scouting the Dayton retail environment, the three partners purchased all the stock and business of a firm that had suffered heavy losses in a fire.
The partners' Boston Dry Goods Store (it was popular in the Midwest to name retail stores after prominent eastern cities) stated its objective in its first advertisement as: "To present to the public good, dependable merchandise at sensible prices." The growing establishment moved into Dayton's first skyscraper, the Reibold Building, in 1896 and incorporated as the Elder & Johnston Company in 1911. In the meantime, Johnston died and Hunter retired, leaving Elder to run the company until his death in 1936. Elder's son Robert had joined the company in 1908 after graduating from Princeton and, upon his father's death, became president. He served as president, and later chairman of the board, until retiring in 1955. Thomas Elder Marshall, a grandson of the founder, joined Elder & Johnston in 1946 and succeeded Robert Elder as president in 1953. He advanced to chairman of the board in 1956. Marshall inaugurated a semi-annual custom of giving each employee of Elder & Johnston a red rose—he had a hobby of cultivating both roses and employee goodwill.
Beerman Stores, Inc., was founded in the late 1930s by Arthur Beerman, who had moved to Dayton from Pennsylvania in 1930 at the age of 22. He went to work for brothers Chester and Raymond Adler at their home furnishings and children's clothing stores. But Beerman would not be satisfied with being a mere employee. He founded Beerman Realty Co. in the mid-1930s and would parlay savvy real estate holdings into an Ohio retail empire. During the early 1940s, Beerman opened several neighborhood "Cotton Shops," offering house dresses and aprons. The entrepreneur soon added infants' and children's wear to boost sales in the winter months, and the business incorporated in 1945.
Through his realty venture, Beerman began acquiring and developing neighborhood strip shopping centers in anticipation of the suburban exodus. When a deal to rent a two-story shopping building fell through in 1950, he took advantage of the empty space and established his own Beerman Budget department store. His venture appealed to value-oriented shoppers with its "Beerman's for Bargains" slogan. In 1953, Beerman formed Bee Gee Shoe Corporation, a partnership with Max Gutmann, to operate leased shoe departments within the stores. In 1956, Beerman bought his former employer's Home Store and opened his first shoe store, which later evolved into the El-Bee Shoe Outlet chain. Within three years, he had six stores located at shopping centers around Dayton. By 1961, Beerman had opened two additional stores and expanded into housewares.