J.J. Newberry
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Company logo on a terrazzo floor at one of its former stores in Los Angeles.
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| Variety store, Five and dime | |
| Fate | Bankrupt [1] |
| Successor | Dollar Zone (2001–02) |
| Founded | Stroudsburg, Pennsylvania, United States |
| Founder | John Josiah Newberry |
| Defunct | 2001 or early 2002 |
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Area served
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Northeast, Southwest, West Coast, United States,[1] Canada |
| Parent | McCrory Stores Corporation (1972–2002) |
| Subsidiaries | J.J. Newberry Canadian, Ltd. |
J.J. Newberry's was an American five and dime store chain in the 20th century. It was founded in Stroudsburg, Pennsylvania, United States, in 1911 by John Josiah Newberry (1877–1954). J.J. Newberry had learned the variety store business by working at S.H. Kress stores for 12 years between 1899 and 1911, after having worked for department store Fowler, Dick, and Walker for five years. There were seven stores in the chain by 1918.
The company was a family business. J.J. Newberry was joined in management by his brothers C.T. Newberry and Edgar A. Newberry in 1919, at which time there were 17 stores with yearly sales of $500,000.
Over the years, the Newberry chain acquired other stores including Hested in Wyoming, Missouri, North Dakota, Colorado, and Nebraska, and Lee Stores in South Dakota, Minnesota, and Iowa. At the time of founder J.J. Newberry's death (1954), the chain had 475 stores. By 1961, the company operated 565 stores with total yearly sales of $291 million. The chain also operated a larger department store called Britt's Department Store.
The 439 unit JJ Newberry Co. was sold to McCrory Stores in 1972. It continued to operate under the Newberry name as a division of McCrory Stores. McCrory opened stores under the Newberry banner especially in the Northeast and California where the name had a strong presence. The demise of the company became evident following a Chapter 11 Bankruptcy filing in 1992. [2] [3] 300 McCrory stores, mostly Newberry's, closed in 1997,[4] but some lingered on, with at least one Newberry's (in Portland, Oregon) closing as late as 2001.[5][6]
Early J.J. Newberry stores featured a recognizable logo composed of gold serif letters on a red background[7][8] that usually occupied the entire width of the store. Later stores featured a cursive 1960s modern logo style, dropping the "J.J." altogether.
Poet Donald Hall wrote a poem, "Beans and Franks," about the closing of a J.J. Newberry store in Franklin, New Hampshire.[9]
References
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- ↑ Heinz, Spencer (April 2, 2001). "Five-and-dime retailer will soon ring up its final sale".The Oregonian, p. B1.
- ↑ Photograph of a former J. J. Newberry store in North Adams, Mass.
- ↑ Photograph of a former J. J. Newberry store
- ↑ "Beans and Franks"
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