Mammoth Mart
Discount store | |
Industry | Retail |
Founded | 1956 |
Defunct | 1978 |
Headquarters | Framingham, Massachusetts |
Products | Clothing, footwear, bedding, furniture, jewelry, beauty products, electronics, toys and housewares. |
Website | None |
Mammoth Mart was a discount department store chain, located in the northeastern United States, primarily in the New England area. The chain was founded by Max Coffman in Framingham, Massachusetts in 1956,[1] and was something of a prototype for the large, downscale department store, selling housewares, hardware and clothing in stark, unfussy buildings, usually in suburban shopping center locations. Other discount department store retailers like K-Mart, Zayre, and Bradlees would subsequently expand on this concept.
Their advertising mascot was Marty the elephant, a smiling, blazer-wearing mammoth.
By 1969 the chain had 35 stores, though they filed for bankruptcy protection under Chapter XI of the Bankruptcy Act of 1898—one of the precursors (along with Chapter X of the 1898 Bankruptcy Act) of today's Chapter 11—in 1974. The chain was acquired by now-defunct King's Department Stores in 1978.
References
- ↑ Drew-Bear, Robert (1970). Mass Merchandising; Revolution & Evolution. Fairchild Publications. p. 86. Retrieved 2009-02-02.