Where is the nearest belk store
The History of Belk Department Stores
what's up guys Justin with the podcast
dojo a few weeks ago I covered the
history of the Kmart stores and this
week I want to talk about the history of
belf department stores as I mentioned in
the community tab I am really enjoying
doing company histories and I think is
the breath of fresh air this channel
needs so without further ado let's talk
about Belk department stores going all
the way back to Monroe North Carolina in
1888 William Belk opened up his first
apartment store using a $750 investment
in a $500 loan the store's original name
was New York racket in attempt to
attract customers he would eventually
convince his brother to be a business
partner coming with that the name would
change too from New York racket to Belk
Brothers I wonder if it would have
stayed New York racket if the brother
had not joined William Belk used a few
simple business practices to keep his
stores alive he would buy large
quantities of items and sell them for a
low mark up all merchandise was sold at
its retail price with no haggling
allowed and customers could return
merchandise at any time if they were not
satisfied yes these business that
practices seemed very commonplace today
but for William Belk time this was quite
revolutionary in 1921 John Belk nephew
will leg it opened up a store with the
Belk and Wilmington North Carolina and
his brother Fred Leggett would open up a
store in Danville Virginia now this is
the perfect time to mention that in 1923
the Belk brothers began to hire and
train men to open and run stores early
partners in these stores would have
their names added to the storefront so I
mentioned the Leggett brothers their
stores would be called Belk Leggett
however unlike other store partners the
Leggett brothers owned 80 percent of
their stores and Belk owned the
remaining 20% also remember the Leggett
name it'll be very important later
during the stock market crash of 1929
sales did slow for Belk however they
found a way to make this work in their
favor as many stores and companies were
folding Belk acquired that her defunct
stores and opened 22 stores between 1930
and 1931
in 1934 ELQ opened 27 new stores and
expanded into Georgia and Tennessee in
the process Belk would also move its
headquarters to Charlotte North Carolina
as it was steadily growing with the rise
of other companies such as JCPenney
Montgomery Ward and Sears Belk cut costs
in order to update their stores so how
did they cut costs rather than having
quarterly meetings they just held one
annual convention
William Bell died in 1952 at the age of
89
however he worked for the company as the
head until the day of his death after
the death of William Belk his son Henry
took over the company as well as his
other two sons John and Tom six months
after the death of William Belk henry
Belk opened up the first shopping center
location in Florida this brought
something new to the table fancy and
interior music playing in items out for
self-service once again commonplace now
but was groundbreaking back then Henry
would continue to open up more stores
without consulting his family which
resulted in lawsuits the lawsuits were
eventually dropped but Henry but left
Henry to his Belk Lindsay company and
made John Belk president of the company
John would eventually become chairman of
the company and making Tom the president
the feud between them and Henry would
last for the next four decades by the
late 1950s ELQ had 16 stores in 16
states with 325 locations as the 60s and
70s progressed Belk had to start making
the change to shopping malls and adjust
to credit card sales although 87% of all
transactions were still a cash stores
had to start carrying more upscale
fashion brands and products as well tom
was now the president and CEO and he
hosted the first fashion buying show in
New York in 1983 leading to four major
fashion designers competing for
representation in the show though some
stores retained their bargain budget
items most stores adapted to the new
vision of more upscale items and located
themselves in shopping malls and
shopping centers
the company celebrated its 100th
anniversary in 1988 by opening a new
office complex in Charlotte North
Carolina
the 90s recession proved to be difficult
as a result of the rise of discount
stores however Belk was known to have a
rock-solid foundation and survived it
all Leggett who had been a longtime
partner of the chain was looking to
merge with Dillard's department stores
this resulted in Belk taking control of
the Virginia stores in the fall of 1996
now I remember when I said remembered a
Leggett name
well story time as I mentioned him other
videos of mine Leggett was an anchor at
South Park Mall in Colonial Heights
Virginia which was also my childhood
mall Virginia Center Collins had a
legged as well
well I remember Belk showing up to
replace the Leggett wing in 1996 for
about a year until Dillard's took over
in fact after Dillard's moved in
I thought Belk had gone out of business
until I was driving through North
Carolina and saw a Belk store if you had
them all with a Leggett in it please let
me know down below a sudden shift and
management happened at the start of 1997
when Thomas Belk unexpectedly died after
gallbladder surgery leaving his three
sons to take over this also makes the
third generation of Belk that run well
belf department stores they each had a
strategy which involved cost reduction
consolidation of operations and a
special focus on inventory and the
customer there were currently 225 stores
in 13 states in 1997 with half of them
being North Carolina and South Carolina
the 112 companies involved with Belk
merged into one company Belk
incorporated I also heard that a lot of
this was so that way they wouldn't have
to file a hundred separate tax returns
in the late 90s of Belk national bank
opened in Lawrenceville Georgia
increasing credit-card businesses Belk
tried online kiosks and the stores to
increase sales but only had luck with
more wedding registries they did however
launch an online store in 2001 Bell
continued to prosper in the tooth
even after the economy took the hit
after the September 11th attacks in 2005
to 2006 Belk acquired more than 90
profits McRae's and Parsons of
department department stores from Saks
giving them company leverage in Alabama
Mississippi and Tennessee and 2013 Belk
decided to celebrate 125 years by
investing 800 million dollars over the
course of three years to fund improving
their technology improving customer
service their supply chain distribution
remodel existing stores and open new
stores 2016 marked not only the first
CEO of Belk but also the first CEO who
was not connected to the Belk family
this new CEO is Lisa Harper with a new
admission to uphold the modern southern
style while focusing on Belk rich
history the company announced a two-year
plan in 2017 to open and refresh stores
and invest 30 million dollars into
e-commerce and improve the mobile app
and that brings us up-to-date with what
is happening with Belk as of 2020 I have
to say of all the companies I've
researched for this YouTube channel I
was pleasantly surprised with this one
no scummy CEOs bad business decisions a
very strong company indeed I hope the
current CEO continues to make the
company flourish and prosper before we
close out tell us your experience with
these stores did you have a Leggett in
your area anyway guys hope you enjoyed
the video hope you learned something
until next time
