Mercantile Stores Company Inc. until 1998, was a traditional department store

Department store

A department store is a retail establishment which satisfies a wide range of the consumer's personal and residential durable goods product needs; and at the same time offering the consumer a choice of multiple merchandise lines, at variable price points, in all product categories...

 retailer operating 102 fashion apparel stores and 16 home fashion stores in 17 states. The stores were operated under 13 different nameplates and varied in size, with the average store approximating 170000 sq ft (15,793.5 m²). Store names included Bacon's

Bacon's

Bacon's was a chain of department stores based in Louisville, Kentucky.Jeremiah Bacon opened a store called Bacon's Dry Goods in 1845 on Market Street near Hancock Street. In 1876 he moved into a structure four times larger than the original. In 1901, Bacon's opened a location on Fourth and Market...

, Castner Knott

Castner Knott

Castner Knott Company was a Nashville, Tennessee-based regional department store chain. The chain was in business for a century from 1898 to 1998, in its later years as a division of Mercantile Stores Company....

, deLendrecie's, Gayfers

Gayfers

Gayfers was a regional department store chain in the southern United States. Most stores were located in the Southeast. The chain became part of Dillard's in 1998.-History:...

, Hennessy's

Hennessy's

Hennessy's was an American department store owned by Mercantile Stores and was headquartered in Billings, Montana. When Mercantile Stores was acquired by Dillard's in 1998 the 100 year old name was retired in favor for Dillard's.-History:...

, J. B. White

J. B. White

J.B. White was a department store chain in the Southeastern United States founded in Augusta, Georgia in 1874 by James Brice White, an Irish immigrant. Owned by now-defunct Mercantile Stores for most of its existence, most locations of the chain were in South Carolina, though locations existed in...

, The Jones Store Company, Joslins

Joslins

Joslins Department Store began as J. Joslins Dry Goods Store founded by John Jay Joslin in 1873; It was a direct competitor to The Denver Dry Goods Company which commenced operations in 1888. The Joslins building is a landmark in Denver, Colorado and is currently a Courtyard by Marriott...

, Lion Store

Lion Store

The Lion Store is a defunct retailer and department store chain in the city of Toledo, Ohio. The stores were bought by Mercantile Stores and were eventually sold to Dillard's.-History:...

, Maison Blanche

Maison Blanche

.Maison Blanche was a department store in New Orleans and later also a chain of department stores. It was founded in 1897 by Isidore Newman, an immigrant from Germany....

, McAlpin's

McAlpin's

McAlpin's was a Cincinnati-based department store founded in 1852 as Ellis, McAlpin & Co. McAlpin's opened their landmark downtown location on Fourth Street in 1880. In 1954, McAlpin's became the first Cincinnati department store to open a suburban site, in the Western Hills Shopping Center.Two...

, and Root's.

Each store offered a wide selection of merchandise with special emphasis placed of fashion apparel, accessories and fashion home furnishings. This was aimed at middle and upper-middle income consumers. In addition to its department store operations the company maintained a partnership position in five operating shopping center ventures. Each of these centers had a retail outlet of the company.

The store chain was formed in 1914 out of the bankruptcy of H.B. Claflin & Company

H.B. Claflin & Company

H.B. Claflin & Company was a Manhattan based dry goods business which was incorporated in 1890. The company acted aswholesalers who were middlemen between manufacturers and retailers of dry goods. The corporation became insolvent in June 1914, with adebt of $34,000,000...

. Its stores were separated into two store chains, Associated Dry Goods

Associated Dry Goods

Associated Dry Goods was a chain of department stores that merged with May Department Stores in 1986. It was founded in 1916 as an association of independent stores called American Dry Goods, based in New York City.-History:...

 - with brands such as Lord & Taylor

Lord & Taylor

Lord & Taylor, colloquially known as L&T, or LT, based in New York City, is the oldest upscale, specialty-retail department store chain in the United States. Concentrated in the eastern U.S., the retailer operated independently for nearly a century prior to joining American Dry Goods...

 and Hengerer's

Hengerer's

The William Hengerer Company, known informally as Hengerer's was a Buffalo, New York-based department store chain, with stores exclusively located in the Western New York region.-History:...

 - and Mercantile Stores Company. In May 1998 Mercantile Stores was acquired by Dillard's

Dillard's

Dillard's, Inc. is a department store chain in the United States, with 330 stores in 29 states. Headquartered in Little Rock, Arkansas, Dillard's locations are concentrated in Texas and Florida; with a major presence in other states including Arizona, Iowa, Colorado, Wyoming, Kansas, Missouri,...

of Little Rock, Arkansas, for $2.9 billion. Later that year, Dillard's announced plans to sell off 26 of the newly acquired locations where there already were Dillard's stores.