The Treasury (store)
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| Company type | Discount Department Store |
|---|---|
| Industry | Retail |
| Founded | November 24, 1961 |
| Defunct | 1981 |
| Fate | Bankruptcy |
| Headquarters | Milwaukee, Wisconsin, United States |
| Products | Clothing, footwear, bedding, furniture, jewelry, beauty products, electronics and housewares. |
| Parent | J.C. Penney |
Treasure Island, formerly The Treasury, was a chain of discount stores owned by J.C. Penney. Through an acquisition of the General Merchandise Company in 1962, J.C. Penney entered the discount department store market by launching The Treasury.[1]
The General Merchandise Company was founded by David Kritzik and his two sons, Robert and Stanley, in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Treasure Island was founded as GMC's discount store division, with their first location opening in Appleton, Wisconsin on November 24, 1961. In 1962, J.C. Penney was looking to break into the catalog business, and used their acquisition of the Treasure Island brand name to do so.[2]
The Treasure Island name was used past the chain's expansion to Georgia (U.S. state) in 1968, but beginning with the chain's expansion to the Miami, Florida market in July 1969, new stores were opened as The Treasury. This was, according to Jack Behrendt, then-vice president of the stores under J.C. Penney, to shift the chain's image and better express its personality to re-align it with competitors. Stores in the Milwaukee, and Atlanta, Georgia markets, in which the Treasure Island name was already well established, were not renamed.
Eventually the Treasury grew to include locations in Wisconsin, most Southern U.S. states and California. Some stores also sold food and fuel, like the Wal-Mart Supercenters of today. But the recessions of the 1970s and early 1980s were too much to bear for J.C. Penney, and the discount division started losing money. The Treasury stores were eventually closed in 1981.[3] However, the mail order business, which was the main reason for J.C. Penney's acquisition of Treasure Island, remains a thriving, multibillion-dollar endeavor.
The architecture of The Treasury and Treasure Island stores, the work of Milwaukee architect Jordan A. Miller, was unique, having utilized a zig-zag pattern that was very prominent both inside and outside. This is reflected in the store logo. The original advertising slogan referred to the stores as "Under the squiggly roof." In 1979, The Home Depot chain subsequently launched its first four stores in these former Treasure Island storefronts (which it shared with Zayre) around the Atlanta area, as the home improvement chain was growing around the same time that many Treasure Island stores were already closing.[4]
Treasury Drug
The company branched out into drug stores, located in many Southern states, as Treasury Drug. Treasury Drug survived into the 1990s when J.C. Penney acquired Eckerd and converted remaining Treasury Drug locations into Eckerd stores. J.C. Penney sold the Eckerd chain to CVS and Jean Coutu Group of Canada in 2004. CVS got roughly 1,200 Eckerd stores in the Southern United States, while Jean Coutu Group got approximately 1,500 Eckerd stores in the Northeastern United States. In 2007, all the remaining Eckerd stores were sold to Rite Aid and rebranded.
References
- ^ Stafford, Roger A. (1975-09-25). "Penney Catalog Center to Stay". Milwaukee Sentinel. Retrieved 2009-09-28.
- ^ Associated Press. "Penney to Acquire Discount Company", Appleton Post-Crescent, December 19, 1961, page B-12.
- ^ Koplien, Doug. "Treasure Island stores to be closed by May", Appleton Post-Crescent, February 17, 1981, front page.
- ^ "Home Depot Opens 4th Store in Forest Park", The Atlanta Constitution, February 28, 1980, page 10-A.