Federated Stores (Butler Brothers)

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Butler Brothers

Butler Brothers store in Chicago (c. 1900)
Founded	1877 United States
Founder	Charles Hamblet Butler George H. Butler Edward Burgess Butler
Fate	Operating in California and Oregon since 1910
Headquarters	United States
Number of locations	Lakeport, California, United States (1910-present) Newberg, Oregon, United States (1910-present)
Area served	Global
Website	City Products

Butler Brothers was a Chicago-based company specializing in retail and wholesale distribution. Established in 1877 by Charles Hamblet Butler, George H. Butler, and Edward Burgess Butler, it began as a mail-order enterprise.

History

During the 1920s, Butler Brothers expanded into retail by launching chains such as "Scott" and "L. C. Burr" stores. In the early 1930s, the company introduced the franchised Ben Franklin Stores, known for their five and dime format, along with Federated Stores—franchised dry goods outlets often described as department stores—which operated under local branding primarily in smaller communities. By 1936, the network comprised approximately 2,600 Ben Franklin outlets and 1,400 Federated locations.

Throughout the 1940s and 1950s, Butler Brothers ranked among the nation’s leading wholesalers. Unlike many contemporary franchise models that emphasize uniform branding for consumers, the Ben Franklin franchise primarily supported independent dime store proprietors by providing weekly deliveries from extensive warehouse inventories containing tens of thousands of items. This system allowed store owners to place orders on Fridays and receive replenishments by Tuesday, thereby minimizing freight costs through consolidated shipments and simplifying inventory management.

Additionally, Butler Brothers coordinated periodic promotional sales events every few weeks. Participating stores could request customized salebills featuring their own business names and often their selected discount prices. Manufacturers offered special pricing incentives to capitalize on the increased sales volume generated by these broad promotions, benefits which were passed through to retailers and shoppers alike.

Scott-Burr Stores Corp.

Scott-Burr Stores Corp., a fully owned subsidiary of Butler Brothers, managed two store chains: Scott Stores—variety outlets with price points ranging from five cents to one dollar—numbering 116 units by the end of 1938; and Burr Stores, consisting of 19 dry goods locations during the same period. The subsidiary posted net earnings of $182,000 in 1937 and $103,000 in 1938. By 1946, Scott-Burr’s monthly sales surpassed one million dollars.

Federated Stores

Federated Stores of America—distinct from Federated Department Stores, which later became part of Macy's—once operated as a network of roughly 1,400 independently owned and managed dry-goods outlets. These stores shared a unified operational framework and retailed merchandise procured and stocked by Butler Brothers. The enterprise began its activities around c. 1931. By the mid-1960s, Butler Brothers had divested their stake and ceased involvement with the chain.

Early in his career, Sam Walton (later renowned for founding Walmart) sought to become a franchisee of Federated Stores but ultimately chose to affiliate with Ben Franklin instead.

Own-branded department stores

Main article: Butler Brothers Department Stores

During the 1950s, Butler Brothers established four fully operational department stores within the Greater Los Angeles area, located at Lakewood Center (opened 1952), Downtown Alhambra, Ontario, and Van Nuys. By 1962, the company expanded to seven stores along the West Coast, including locations in Seattle and Butte, Montana. Throughout the 1960s, the Los Angeles purchasing office and manufacturing facility were situated at 3030 South Atlantic Boulevard in Vernon, an industrial district in Southeast Los Angeles County.

In 1957, Butler Brothers acquired the TG&Y variety store chain, which then operated 127 outlets.

In February 1960, Ohio-based City Products Corp, an enterprise originally founded in 1894 as an ice company, purchased Butler Brothers for $53 million plus the assumption of its liabilities.

Gallery

• 
  Butler Brothers storage facilities located in Jersey City, New Jersey, circa 1910
• 
  The former Butler Brothers warehouse situated in Minneapolis, Minnesota

See also

• Ben Franklin Stores
• The Butler Brothers Company edifice, presently called Butler Square, located in the warehouse district of Minneapolis, Minnesota
• Butler Brothers Department Stores

External links

• Ronald D. Michman and Alan J. Greco; Retailing Triumphs and Blunders: Victims of Competition in the New Age of Marketing Management ISBN 0-89930-869-4
• Sandra S. Vance and Roy V. Scott; Butler Brothers and the Rise and Decline of the Ben Franklin Stores: A Study in Franchise Retailing (1993)
• City Products