On the way to church, walking down Palm Avenue in downtown Sarasota, a friend remarks on our daughter wearing a white smocked dress. She reminds him of his sister, wearing maBest & Co. and later shopping at DePinna with his mother. DePinna? What happened to DePinna? Lisa Birnbach in herMORE HERE
We wish the greatest and oldest corporation in North America well. Founded in 1670, Hudson’s Bay company was once the government in Canada. The importance of the company to Canada would be as if the Virginia Company that founded the Virginia Colony had survived as a department store! Imagine that.MORE HERE
Many companies, large and small, are faced with the idea that a brand name might die off, might have died off or be struggling. At right, the logo for the venerable department store Abraham & Straus. The original A&S store in Brooklyn is still open, but it is now aMORE HERE
CHICAGO – The Chicago Sun-Times reports that Bonwit Teller will be coming back. It will come back as a boutique, now that revitalization company River West Brands of Chicago has bought the brand and intellectual property. Chicago-based River West Brands is a company that specializes in brand re-launches, and theMORE HERE
How about a hopeful story of a brand that came back? Reader Brian Stevens of Indiana writes to us that the L. S. Ayres & Company was a fixture in Indianapolis (along with department stores like Block’s, Wasson’s, and L. Strauss) from 1872 until it was swallowed up by whatMORE HERE
MINNEAPOLIS – “Hazel Frederick was walking along Nicollet, coming from Dayton’s Department Store, when she saw something she’d never seen before: a pretty dark-haired young girl running out into the traffic in the middle of the street, taking off her hat, and tossing it up in the air.” This isMORE HERE
It was but 20 years ago that it lived in downtown Richmond, the south’s greatest department store. Today, the Miller & Rhoads building stands empty, and the city of Richmond waits for its next use, retail. A new Hilton Garden Inn had been slated for the building forever, though nowMORE HERE
Easy to Pair. Fun to Wear. That’s the simple premise of Garanimals. And they are back this February 2008 at Wal-Mart. It’s the perfect brand to bring back. The public knows the brand story. Its simple; match the animals, and the clothes match. The line was founded in 1972, thoughMORE HERE
Richmond,Va.-based branding guru Kelly O’Keefe has put together his Hall of Shame for 2007. Many of the shamed brands were picked by his students in the Virginia Commonwealth University Adcenter program. On the list were jetBlue, Nordstrom and Facebook, all kind of “hot” brands that didn’t do everything right. HereMORE HERE
Perhaps the most famous revived brand in the U.S. is Abercrombie & Fitch (ANF). The company was once an old-line sporting goods company selling guns and tents to presidents and such. Today, American mall-goers are so mesmerized by the half-naked teens of today’s Abercrombie that we forget that it wasMORE HERE