Marshalls, Inc., is a chain of
AmericanThe United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
department storeA department store is a retail establishment which specializes in satisfying a wide range of the consumer's personal and residential durable goods product needs; and at the same time offering the consumer a choice multiple merchandise lines, at variable price points, in all product categories...
s owned by
TJX CompaniesThe TJX Companies, Incorporated , is the largest international apparel and home fashions off-price department store chain in the United States. Based in Framingham, Massachusetts, the company originally evolved from the Zayre discount department store chain, founded in 1956, which opened its first...
. Marshalls has over 750 conventional stores, as well as larger stores named
Marshalls Mega Store, covering 42 states and
Puerto RicoPuerto Rico , officially the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico , is a self-governing unincorporated territory of the United States located in the northeastern Caribbean, east of the Dominican Republic and west of the Virgin Islands...
. Marshalls is the U.S.'s second largest off-price family apparel and home fashion retailer, behind its sister company, TJ Maxx.
Marshalls traces its history to 1956, when Alfred Marshall gathered a band of innovative entrepreneurs on the East Coast who included Bernard Ribas, Norman Barren, and Frank Estes to collectively start up the "Brand Names For Less" concept.
Marshalls, Inc., is a chain of
AmericanThe United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
department storeA department store is a retail establishment which specializes in satisfying a wide range of the consumer's personal and residential durable goods product needs; and at the same time offering the consumer a choice multiple merchandise lines, at variable price points, in all product categories...
s owned by
TJX CompaniesThe TJX Companies, Incorporated , is the largest international apparel and home fashions off-price department store chain in the United States. Based in Framingham, Massachusetts, the company originally evolved from the Zayre discount department store chain, founded in 1956, which opened its first...
. Marshalls has over 750 conventional stores, as well as larger stores named
Marshalls Mega Store, covering 42 states and
Puerto RicoPuerto Rico , officially the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico , is a self-governing unincorporated territory of the United States located in the northeastern Caribbean, east of the Dominican Republic and west of the Virgin Islands...
. Marshalls is the U.S.'s second largest off-price family apparel and home fashion retailer, behind its sister company, TJ Maxx.
History
Marshalls traces its history to 1956, when Alfred Marshall gathered a band of innovative entrepreneurs on the East Coast who included Bernard Ribas, Norman Barren, and Frank Estes to collectively start up the "Brand Names For Less" concept. Contemplating the dual postwar phenomena of a boom in the economy and growth in the suburbs, Marshall and associates came upon a way to meet it profitably. Together, they opened a self-service
department storeA department store is a retail establishment which specializes in satisfying a wide range of the consumer's personal and residential durable goods product needs; and at the same time offering the consumer a choice multiple merchandise lines, at variable price points, in all product categories...
in Boston, Massachusetts, offering apparel and homewares at alluringly low prices.
The concept proved extremely successful; ten years later, Marshalls had become the leading off-price retail chain in the nation. Given the volatility of the American economy in the 1970s, with recession affecting the spending habits of most shoppers, the off-price industry gathered speed. By buying up manufacturers’ post-season, over-run, and close-out stock, Marshalls was able to offer fashionable, high-quality “designer” items at prices 20 to 60 percent less than those of the department stores.
In 1976, Marshalls was acquired by the
Melville CorporationMelville Corporation, formerly based in Rye, New York, was a large retail holding corporation incorporated in 1922 as the Melville Shoe company by Ward Melville. It changed its name to CVS Corporation in 1996...
(owner of CVS), and grew throughout the
1980sThe 1980s was the decade that ran from January 1, 1980, to December 31, 1989.The time period saw social, economic and general change as wealth and production migrated to newly industrializing economies...
. By 1993, Marshalls had expanded throughout 42 states including
HawaiiHawaii is the newest of the 50 U.S. states, and is the only state made up entirely of islands. It is located on an archipelago in the central Pacific Ocean, southwest of the continental United States, southeast of Japan, and northeast of Australia. The state was admitted to the Union on August...
, and had opened several downtown locations. In 1995, Marshalls was purchased by TJX, the parent company of its main rival, TJ Maxx, from the Melville Corporation for US$606 million.
Legal troubles
TJX paid US$10 million settlement in California to settle an employee class-action suit in 2002 which alleged that Marshalls abused exempt/nonexempt classifications to avoid the payment of overtime or compensation time to employees in certain roles performing non-exempt job duties as required by the federal Fair Labor Standards Act.
Charity
The enterprise has developed national and local partnerships with U.S. charitable organizations. All donations and fund-raising efforts from Marshalls are connected to helping children, families, and their communities with these programs:
- Domestic Violence Prevention
- United Way
- National Youth Anti-Drug Campaign
- Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation
- Saint Jude's Childrens Hospital
External links