Here's some background culled from the various online sources:
Venture Stores, Inc.
A former chain of retail stores that operated in the American Midwest. The company operated over 90 stores, and was based out of the St. Louis suburb of O'Fallon, Missouri.
Opened: 1970 in St. Louis, MO
Headquarters: O'Fallon, MO
Employees: 18,000
Website: www.venturestores.com (archived at Deadmalls.com)
History
1970: First store opened in in the St. Louis suburb of Overland (location became a Kmart and is now a Home Depot).
1976: Expanded to 20 units.
1978: Venture purchased 23 Turn Style locations in the Chicago area from Jewel food stores, and expanded to over 40 locations. They were the largest discount chain in Chicago with inner city locations other than Zayre/Ames.
1985: Over 50 stores, most of which were in Chicago and St. Louis.
1990: Venture became a private corporation, operating in eight states: Missouri, Illinois, Kentucky, Iowa, Oklahoma, Kansas, Arkansas, and Indiana.
1995: 115 stores in 9 states, having expanded into Texas in 1993.
1998: Bankruptcy. Stores closed in late April
Laura, a Venture fan and super-friend of the blog was kind enough to share some of her cool Venture collectables to help me round out this post
Ad from Oklahoma Cit, Christmas 1984
Venture's advertising slogan during the 1980s was "Save With Style." In the 1990s, Venture used two other slogans; the first was tied to the remodel and
restrategizing to be like Kohl's and that slogan was "See What's New For You!". By the time they closed they used the slogan "See What A Little Money Can Buy".
Bankruptcy
By the late 1990s, the chain found that it was unable to compete against other retail chains, such as Wal-Mart, Target, and Kmart. Venture tried to return to its founding principles as an upscale discounter and remodeled most of its stores. While facing vast competition Venture made a fatal mistake trying to expand into Texas instead of protecting its core markets. Venture sold the Texas stores to Kmart in 1996 and closed its distribution center in Corsicana, Texas. The company entered Chapter 11 bankruptcy on January 20, 1998, and tried to operate with a smaller number of stores. The effort was not successful, and the company announced its closing on April 27, 1998. Most of the former Venture buildings were absorbed into other chains, such as Kmart, Kohl's, ShopKo, and Burlington Coat Factory
Posts
4 comments:
Awesome entry, Matt! I'm glad you were able to use my pics. I'm also geeking out about the Venture sign pics, since I didn't have any of those in my files--thanks for posting those!
Laura
Glad there's a couple of new pics for you. Thanks again for taking the time to send in the scans; you really helped to make it a great post. I'll be sure to post any new Venture related things that come my way.
Dr.G
I grew up near St Louis, so I totally remember Venture (now), but had completely forgotten about it until I saw your post.
I still dig the name and design. It's very appealing in the way Target is today. Thanks for the post.
I miss Venture, everyone I know & have talked to about the store says they miss venture. I shopped there more than I ever did those other places. Target just plain stinks! All their clothes are for younger people, and they aren't that low on prices. BRING VENTURE BACK!
Post a Comment