The Durban Family had a distribution business that supplied J.G. McCrory’s Stores from their Northeastern Ohio warehouse and the family became friends with the McCrory’s family. In honor of J.G. McCrory / McCrory Stores (and their list of buy-out partners) we decided to created a site talking about this pioneering company.

J.G. McCrory / McCrory Stores
John Graham McCrorey (1860-1923) opened his first store in Scottdale, Pennsylvania, in 1882. By 1885, the chain had five stores in Pennsylvania. McCrory was known for his thrifty nature, so much so that he legally dropped the e from his last name so he would not have to pay for extra letters on his store signs.

One of the firm’s policies was to acquire locations whenever property could be found at a reasonable purchase price. In November 1925, approximately ⅔ of its stores were leased, with the remainder owned by a subsidiary, the McCrory Realty Corporation. The retailer’s gross sales approached $30 million by the mid-1920s, when it operated 187 stores.

With 244 retail units in its chain, the company entered bankruptcy in January 1933. The company was dissolved, but it was eventually re-established as McCrory Stores and resumed operations. One of the early investors was Sebastian Spering Kresge, who later founded the S.S. Kresge chain, which became Kmart. In 1899, Kresge traded his interest in the McCrory’s Memphis, Tennessee store for McCrory’s interest in the Detroit, Michigan, store, giving him control there. In 1987, the Kmart Corporation sold its remaining Kresge and Jupiter stores in the United States to McCrory Stores.

Source: Wikipedia