Its flagship store was originally located at Broadway and 19th Street, in "Ladies' Mile", relocating later to 414 Fifth Avenue at 38th Street, the former flagship of Franklin Simon & Co.[7] In 1891, W. & J. Sloane incorporated and set the national decorating taste of the United States, and over the next sixty years decorated the homes of the most prominent people in the country, including the Breakers and the White House, created Hollywood movie sets, and even designed and decorated interiors of automobiles.

[9] In March 1909, Sloane's moved from Van Ness and Market and the next month held the grand opening of its grand new, 120,000 sq ft (11,000 m2), 9-story Gothic/Renaissance-style flagship store near Union Square at 216–228 (now 222) Sutter Street,[10] designed by Reid & Reid,[11] which still bears the W. & J. Sloane sign as part of its cladding.

The building at 9536 Wilshire Boulevard on the corner of Rodeo Drive would later house a branch of Los Angeles-based Haggarty's Furniture, and from 1972 to 1987, Bonwit Teller.

[4] In 1955, after a three-year internal struggle, control of the firm left the hands of a direct descendant of the Sloanes when Benjamin Coates, 37, was elected president.

[20] After the store left family hands, further growth over the decades was characterized as "over-expansion" while Sloane's lowered the price and quality of its goods during this period.

[20] Sloane's opened New York City-area suburban US branches in Garden City, Manhasset, on Post Road in White Plains, Fashion Center in Paramus, Short Hills, Red Bank, Fox Pavilion in Jenkintown, PA outside Philadelphia, and in Connecticut at Ridgeway Center in Stamford as well as in Hartford,[21] for an eventual total of 15.

City Stores was forced to file for bankruptcy in 1979 so that it could "continue operating while it works out a plan to pay its creditors.

[24] The company generated considerable wealth for the direct descendants of William and John Sloane, who include in addition to Rev.