Goody's (store)

Goody's Family Clothing Inc.
Goody's
Department Store
Industry Clothing
Founded 1953
Headquarters Houston, Texas
Products Apparel, accessories, cosmetics, footwear, and housewares
Parent Stage Stores, Inc.
Website http://www.stagestores.com
A Goody's location in Georgia

Goody's Family Clothing Inc. is an American chain of department stores, owned and operated by Stage Stores, Inc. and headquartered in Houston, TX, that specializes in retailing on-trend apparel, accessories, cosmetics, footwear, and housewares.

It is a successor to a chain of clothing retailers that was based in Knoxville, Tennessee. At one time Goody's operated close to 500 stores in the U.S South and Midwest, including Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maryland, Mississippi, Missouri, North Carolina, Oklahoma, Ohio, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, Virginia, and West Virginia. In late 2010, Goody's opened 17 new stores in the Southeast.

Brands exclusively found at Goody's include Valerie Stevens; Signature Studio; Sun River; Rustic Blue; Rebecca Malone; and Wishful Park.

History

Goody's was founded in 1953 in Athens, Tennessee, by M. D. Goodfriend as an offshoot of a family retail business, The M. Goodfriend Store, that the founder's father, Mike Goodfriend, had started in Athens in 1913. The new store, Athens Outlet Store, focused on the sale of closeout, irregular, and previous-year merchandise. The business grew, operating 20 stores by 1970.[1]

In 1978, the name was changed to "Goody's". "Goody" was the college nickname of M. D. Goodfriend's son Bob, who had joined the family business in 1972. In 1979, Bob Goodfriend became president of the business and the company changed its merchandise focus from the outlet model to offering current, first-quality, brand-name merchandise.[1] With this new strategic direction, the chain expanded rapidly. A private-label clothing line was launched in 1993. By 1998, the chain recorded $1 billion in annual sales, and in 2000 it opened its 300th store. By 2004, there were more than 350 stores recording annual sales of $1.3 billion.[1] In 2006 Goody's became a privately held company again when it was acquired by GMM Capital and Prentice Capital Management in January 2006. Sales in 2006 totaled $1.6 billion.[2]

References

  1. 1 2 3 Carly Harrington, Goody's legacy in Knoxville one of growth, charity Archived 2009-01-18 at the Wayback Machine., Knoxville News Sentinel, January 18, 2009, page C1
  2. ↑ Carly Harrington, "Goody's to close 69 of its stores", Knoxvillebiz.com, June 10, 2008
This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.