Stein Mart
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| Stein Mart Inc. | |
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| Type | Public (NASDAQ: SMRT) |
| Founded | 1902 |
| Headquarters | Jacksonville, Florida, USA |
| Key people | Jay Stein, Chairman James G. Delfs, CFO D. Hunt Hawkins, EVP Operations |
| Industry | Retail (Department stores) |
| Products | boutique, apparel, footwear, linens and home decor |
| Website | [1] |
Stein Mart (NASDAQ: SMRT)is an American chain of department stores based in Jacksonville, Florida. The company reported over $1.5 billion in sales in its 2006 year and that it has 268 stores with 14,500 employees in 30 states plus Washington, DC. Stein Mart has locations in most of the Southern, Midwestern, Mid-Atlantic, and Southwestern United States.
[edit] History
Stein Mart was founded by Sam Stein, a Russian immigrant who opened his first store in Greenville, Mississippi, in 1902. Under Stein, the store remained a general merchandise department store; upon his death in 1932, Stein's son Jake took over the store and redirected its focus toward discounted clothing.
Stein Mart helped to define "off-pricers" as a new category in retail.[citation needed] The chain targeted customers who shopped department stores on a regular basis, inducing them to purchase Stein Mart goods by offering discounts of 25 to 60 percent off department store prices. By the late 1970s, Stein Mart was the leading retailer of clothing for the family in the Mississippi Delta.[citation needed]
Under Jay Stein, Stein Mart grew from three stores in 1977 to 40 stores in 1990, and then to 123 stores by the end of 1996. In determining the prime locations for new Stein Mart stores, management targeted cities with populations of 125,000 or more and relied on demographic research regarding income, education, and occupation to help predict whether a community might support a discounter of designer merchandise.
According to Stein Mart's early 1997 10K report, the company planned to open between 26 and 28 stores in 1997, some in states new to the company, such as California, Nevada, Iowa, and Wisconsin.
