Butler Brothers was a retailer and wholesale supplier based in Chicago. It was founded in 1877 as a mail-order company by George H. Butler and Edward Burgess Butler

Edward Burgess Butler

Edward Burgess Butler was an American businessman who founded Butler Brothers department stores. He served as the first president of the Pasadena Society of Artists.-Biography:...

.

History

In the 1920s, Butler Brothers moved into retailing with a chain of "Scott" and "L. C. Burr" stores. In the early 1930s, they developed the Ben Franklin Stores

Ben Franklin Stores

Ben Franklin Stores are a chain of five and dime discount stores found in small towns throughout the United States currently owned by Promotions Unlimited. They are organized using a franchise system, with individual stores owned by independent proprietors. It was perhaps the first retail...

 and Federated Stores, both of which were franchised five and dime

Five and Dime

Five and Dime is a cartoon short by Walter Lantz which features Oswald the Lucky Rabbit. It is the 74th Oswald short produced by Lantz and the 125th overall. It also is among the number of shorts that feature Oswald in his fully clothed appearance....

 stores. Most were in small towns. By 1936 there were 2,600 Ben Franklin stores and 1,400 Federated stores.

In the 1940s and 1950s, Butler Brothers was one of the largest wholesalers in the country. Unlike many modern franchises, which seek to present a uniform identity to consumers, the Ben Franklin franchise largely benefitted dime store owners by making weekly shipments from their warehouses, where tens of thousands of items were kept in inventory. Not only could a store owner order merchandise on Friday and receive it on Tuesday to replenish empty shelves, but by consolidating shipments, saved a considerable amount on freight, and found it easier to manage his inventory.

Butler Brothers also organized special sale events every few weeks. Stores could order salebills with their own names on them, and in many cases, with sale prices they chose for the merchandise. Manufacturers would offer special prices to get the extra sales inherent by being included in such large promotions, which Butler Brothers would pass along,

In February of 1960 the company was bought out by City Products Corp of Ohio, a company which had been in existence since 1894 as an ice company, for $53 million plus the company's liabilities.

See also

• Ben Franklin Stores
  Ben Franklin Stores
  Ben Franklin Stores are a chain of five and dime discount stores found in small towns throughout the United States currently owned by Promotions Unlimited. They are organized using a franchise system, with individual stores owned by independent proprietors. It was perhaps the first retail...
  
  
• Butler Brothers Company (building), now known as Butler Square, in Minneapolis, Minnesota
  Minneapolis, Minnesota
  Minneapolis , nicknamed "City of Lakes" and the "Mill City," is the county seat of Hennepin County, the largest city in the U.S. state of Minnesota, and the 48th largest in the United States...
  
  's warehouse district
  North Loop, Minneapolis
  The North Loop is a neighborhood of the Central community of Minneapolis, Minnesota. The neighborhood is commonly known as the Warehouse District from the city's shipping hub years. It includes the Minneapolis Warehouse Historic District which is listed on the National Register of Historic Places...
  
  

External links

• Ronald D. Michman, and Alan J. Greco; Retailing Triumphs and Blunders: Victims of Competition in the New Age of Marketing Management ISBN 0-89930-869-4
• Sandra S. Vance and Roy V. Scott; Butler Brothers and the Rise and Decline of the Ben Franklin Stores: A Study in Franchise Retailing (1993)
• City Products