Payless ShoeSource, Inc. | Introduction
Introduction
3231 Southeast Sixth Avenue
Topeka, Kansas 66607-2207
U.S.A.
Telephone: (785) 233-5171
Toll Free: (877) 452-7500
Fax: (785) 295-6220
Web site: http//www.payless.com
Public Company
Founded: 1956 as Pay-Less National
Employees: 30,000
Sales: $2.78 billion (2003)
Stock Exchanges: New York
Ticker Symbol: PSS
NAIC: 448210 Shoe Stores; 454110 Electronic Shopping and Mail-Order Houses
Payless ShoeSource, Inc. is the largest footwear retailer in the United States. The company operates about 4,700 stores in all 50 states as well as Puerto Rico, Guam, Saipan, the U.S. Virgin Islands, Canada, Central America, the Caribbean, Ecuador, and Japan. It also sells footwear via the Internet at www.payless.com. Payless has built its success by offering a large selection of shoes at very low prices, most selling for less than $15 as of 2004. The company has been able to maintain its affordable prices by sticking exclusively to a self-service format, keeping a tight rein on cost structure, and insisting on efficient sourcing and inventory controls. Payless ShoeSource targets as its main customers women from 18 to 44 years of age with household incomes of less than $75,000, and it estimates that in any given year, 40 percent of the women in this target group buy at least one pair of footwear at a Payless store. Payless was acquired by the May Department Stores Company in 1979. The company remained a May subsidiary until 1996, when it was spun off to May shareholders as an independent, publicly traded firm.