Interstate Department Stores

[4] Increased competition and the changes in consumer buying habits eventually led to decreased sales in the late 1960s and early 1970s which forced the firm to file for bankruptcy in 1974.

Interstate Department Stores was incorporated in Delaware on February 14, 1928, as a holding company to operate twenty-three department stores in the states of Illinois, Michigan, Indiana, New York, Ohio, Wisconsin, Kentucky, and West Virginia.

[11] By 1958 Interstate operated 48 stores in fifteen states, selling low- and medium-price merchandise.

In 1959, Interstate entered the discount department store field by the acquisition of the two-store Los Angeles-based White Front chain in April for $1.6 million[2] and starting of the new discount chain through the opening a Family Fair store in Toledo, Ohio, and Canton, Ohio, in August and October, respectively.

The rapid growth of the Topps chain in the East and Midwest had the unwanted side-effect of forcing many of Interstate's conventional department stores to close when a new Topps discount store was situated within the same community.

In 1974, Interstate tried to acquire the variety and discount chains owned by McCrory Stores, but failed.

The one remaining successful division, Toys "R" Us, became the company's only post-bankruptcy core business.

[23] The Topps Discount Stores chain was started in Hartford, Connecticut, by Frank Beckerman[3] and Selwyn Lemchen.

In 1960, Interstate purchased the 10-unit Connecticut-based Topps Department Store chain for an undisclosed amount.

A similarly named but unrelated Canadian chain that was owned by Topp's Discount Department Stores, Ltd. had operated in Winnipeg, Manitoba, from 1962[33] to 1969.