Reuters
- Payless ShoeSource is closing all of its US stores this year after years of competition with Amazon, Target, and Wal Mart.
- But the shoe retailer was once an extremely profitable company, opening stores in all 50 states and in Central America.
- In the 1970s, Payless earned $75 million in sales annually.
- But in 2017 and 2019, the company filed for bankruptcy.
- Visit Business Insider’s homepage for more stories.
Payless ShoeSource — which was once the largest and most successful family-owned business in the country — is shutting its doors.
After years of struggling and competing against online retailers and big box stores, Payless filed for bankruptcy in February and said it plans to close all 2,500 of its retail stores in what could be the largest retail liquidation in history, reports Business Insider’s Hayley Peterson.
From its rise in the 1960s to its recent downfall, this is the history of the Payless retail store.
The first Payless store opened in 1956 as Pay-Less National in Topeka, Kansas.
James Leynse/ Getty
Cousins Louis and Shaol Pozez started Payless as a small chain of shoe stores in the Midwest that focused on self-service shoe retail.
The cousins let customers shop for shoes themselves, allowing the company to employ fewer people.
NurPhoto/ Getty
The self-service strategy allowed each store to only operate with a manager and a couple of cashiers.
The retail stores quickly became popular, allowing the cousins to purchase the Hill Brothers Shoe Company in Missouri.
NurPhoto/ Getty
The company opened locations in Oklahoma, Texas, and Nebraska.
See the rest of the story at Business Insider
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Source: Business Insider – folito@businessinsider.com (Frank Olito)