Bergner's

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P.A. Bergner & Co.

File:Bergner's Department Store Final Logo.png
Trade name	Bergner's
Company type	Subsidiary
Industry	Retail
Founded	1889 (1889) in Peoria, Illinois
Founder	Peter Alan Bergner
Defunct	Template:End date and age (original company)
Fate	Bankruptcy (2018); e-commerce revival (2021 onwards)
Headquarters	Peoria, Illinois
Number of locations	0 (2018)
Products	Apparel, footwear, bedding, furniture, jewelry, cosmetics, housewares
Parent	Maus Frères (1938–1991) Proffitts Inc. (1991–2005) The Bon-Ton (2005–2018) CSC Generation (2018-2021) BrandX.com (2021-Present)
Website	bergners.com

P.A. Bergner & Co., commonly referred to as Bergner's, was a prominent Midwestern department store chain in the United States founded in 1889. Today, the brand operates as an online retailer managed by BrandX.com, Inc. Its primary store was situated in Peoria, Illinois within The Shoppes at Grande Prairie.

Origins

Established in downtown Peoria by Peter Alan Bergner in 1889, the flagship location was a notable red sandstone structure encompassing six stories. It featured amenities such as a tea room, millinery shop, cobbler service, and a distinguished Fine China department. This store occupied the corner of Adams and Fulton streets, directly opposite its competitor at the time, Block & Kuhl Company.

Growth and Development

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Certain locations operated under the Weise's name, with the flagship store based in Rockford, Illinois

In 1957, Bergner's inaugurated a second outlet in Peoria at the Sheridan Village Shopping Center located in the suburbs. From 1961 through 1973, this site achieved the highest merchandise sales per square foot among U.S. department stores. It was recognized as Illinois' largest department store outside Chicago during that era. Throughout the 1970s, additional branches were launched in cities including Pekin, Bloomington, Decatur, Champaign, Galesburg, Quincy, and Peru. Also during this decade, Bergner's introduced a discount store inspired by its original downtown bargain basement concept at Madison Park Shopping Center in Peoria; however, this format was not expanded further and the Madison Park location ceased operations in 1993.

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Bergner's flagship at The Shoppes at Grand Prairie

Following a four-year development period for The Shoppes at Grand Prairie lifestyle center, Bergner's opened a new flagship store there in April 2003. This location became the largest department store situated between Chicago and St. Louis.

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Some outlets were initially branded as Bergner-Weise before transitioning fully to the Bergner's name after retiring the Weise brand.

Mergers and acquisitions

File:Myers Brothers Department Store Logo.png

Myers Brothers was a retail chain acquired by Bergner's in 1978.

During the late 1970s and throughout the 1980s, Bergner's experienced significant expansion. In 1978, it purchased the eight-store Myers Brothers Company located in Springfield, Illinois. By 1985, Bergner's had expanded further by acquiring the Wisconsin-based Boston Store chain along with three former Gimbel's locations. The growth continued in 1989, when P.A. Bergner acquired Chicago’s Carson Pirie Scott for more than $450 million. Notably, Carson Pirie Scott had previously purchased Minneapolis’s Donaldson's in November 1987. This series of acquisitions solidified Bergner's as a prominent Midwestern retailer operating across five states—Wisconsin, Illinois, Minnesota, Indiana, and Iowa—under the banners of Bergner's, Carson Pirie Scott, and Boston Store.

Later years

P.A. Bergner retained ownership of the company until his passing in 1926. Following him, his son John Velde Bergner served as company president until his tragic death by suicide in 1938.

After John Velde Bergner’s death, the Swiss firm Maus Frères SA, headquartered in Geneva, took over ownership. Under Maus Frères, Bergner's adopted its distinctive red logo featuring six hexagons—a symbol it shares with five sister corporations and two other Maus subsidiaries.

The flagship downtown Peoria store operated until 1986 and was eventually demolished in 2000. Today, One Technology Plaza stands on that site. To honor Bergner's longstanding presence there, the original cornerstone from the red rock building is preserved and displayed outside a nearby college entrance.

Bankruptcy and acquisition by Proffitt's

Bergner's filed for bankruptcy protection in August 1991. It emerged from Chapter 11 bankruptcy in 1993 under the new corporate identity Carson Pirie Scott & Co., transitioning into a publicly traded entity.

In 1998, Proffitt's Inc., which later became Saks Incorporated, acquired the company. Internally referred to as the Northern Department Store group, this acquisition expanded Saks’s footprint in northern markets.

Sale to The Bon-Ton

In July 2005, Saks divested its Southern Department Store Group—comprising Proffitt's and McRae's—to Belk, Inc., based in Charlotte, North Carolina. Later that year, on October 31, Saks announced the sale of Bergner's along with other Northern Department Store Group brands (Carson Pirie Scott, Younkers, Boston Store, and Herberger's) to Bon-Ton Stores for $1.1 billion. This transaction was finalized on March 6, 2006. As of that year, the Bergner's brand remained active at fourteen locations exclusively within Illinois.

On April 17, 2018, Bon-Ton Stores declared plans to cease operations and initiated liquidation of all its 267 stores following an auction won by liquidators Great American Group and Tiger Capital Group. The winning bid was valued at approximately $775.5 million. This closure included all remaining Bergner’s outlets after more than a century of business. According to retail analyst Mitch Nolen, store closures occurred over a period of roughly ten to twelve weeks.

Subsequently, on September 10, 2018, Merrillville, Indiana–based CSG Generation acquired all trademarks and intellectual property related to The Bon-Ton (York, Pennsylvania). In early 2021, CSC Generation sold these Bon-Ton assets to New York–based BrandX.com, Inc through a private transaction.

See also

• Carson Pirie Scott – additional details regarding corporate developments

External links

• Archived version of the official website
• Announcement of The Bon-Ton's $1.1 billion cash acquisition of 142 Saks Incorporated stores, dated October 31, 2005