Headquarters

Fred Meyer Corporate Office

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Fred Meyer Corporate Office Address

Fred Meyer, Inc.

3800 SE 22ND Ave
Portland, OR 97202

Contact Fred Meyer

Phone Number: (503) 232-8844
Fax Number: (503) 797-5609
Website: http://www.fredmeyer.com
Email: Email Fred Meyer

Fred Meyer Facts

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Fred Meyer Executives

CEO: Michael L. Ellis
CFO: David Deatherage
COO: Lynn Gust

Fred Meyer History

Fred G. Meyer started out selling cherries from a stand in Brooklyn, NY. He eventually expanded to selling cleaning supplies and cereal.

Meyer opened his first permanent location in Portland, OR in 1931. In 1951, he built a large warehouse in Portland that was torn down less than 5 years later to build the Banfield Expressway. Warehouse operations were moved to Swan Island.

In the 1960s, the company acquired Marketime Drugs and The Roundup Company. Marketime expanded their territory to Seattle, WA. The company was operating in 4 states by 1968.

Fred Meyer died in 1978 at the age of 92. In 1982, the company was purchased by private equity firm KKR.

The company continued to expand and acquired other companies in the 80s and 90s.

In 1999, Fred Meyer merged with the Kroger Corporation.

There are currently over 130 Fred Meyer stores in the US. The Fred Meyer corporate office is still located in Portland, Oregon.

Big Lots Corporate Office

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Big Lots Corporate Office Address

Big Lots Inc.

300 Phillipi RdPO Box 28512
Columbus, OH 43228

Contact Big Lots

Phone Number: (614) 278-6800
Fax Number: (614) 278-6676
Website: http://www.biglots.com
Email: Email Big Lots

Big Lots Facts

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Big Lots Executives

CEO: David J Campisi
CFO: Timothy Johnson "Tj"
COO: Lisa M. Bachmann

Big Lots History

Big Lots was founded by Sol Shenk in 1967 when Consolidated Stores Corporation was formed. The company opened it’s first Odd Lots store in Columbus, Ohio in 1982.

In 1983, Consolidated was purchased by Revco but was soon made a separate company and in 1985 began trading on the American Stock Exchange. The company opened its first official Big Lots stores in 1985.

In 1986, the company switched over to the NYSE, trading under symbol CNS.

In 1994, Consolidated acquired Toy Liquidators, which added 82 stores to the chain. In 1996, the company purchased KB Toys. Both Toy Liquidators and KB were later sold to private equity firms.

In 2001, Consolidated officially changed its name to Big Lots, Inc and its NYSE symbol changed to BLI.

The company closed 170 stores in 2005 and in 2006 began trading under symbol BIG.

In 2011, the company purchased Liquidation World, a Canadian retailer with 89 locations.

The company currently has over 1400 stores in 47 US states and Canada. The Big Lots corporate office is still located in Columbus, OH.

Stein Mart Corporate Office

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Stein Mart Corporate Office Address

Stein Mart Inc.

1200 Riverplace Blvd
Jacksonville, FL 32207

Contact Stein Mart

Phone Number: (904) 346-1500
Fax Number: (904) 398-4341
Website: http://www.steinmart.com
Email: Email Stein Mart

Stein Mart Facts

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Stein Mart Executives

CEO: Jay Stein
CFO: Gregory W. Kleffner
COO: D. Hunt Hawkins

Stein Mart History

Stein Mart was founded by Sam Stein in 1908. The first store was located in Greenville, MS. The stores originally carried general merchandise.

Sam died in 1932 and his son, Jake Stein, took over the company. Jake shifted the focus toward discount clothing.

Jake was succeeded by his son, Jay. Jay Stain grew the company from 3 stores in 1977 to 123 stores by 1996. Jay stepped down as CEO in 2002 but resumed his CEO role in 2011 after the resignations of Michael D. Fisher and Linda McFarland Farthing.

The company currently has over 260 stores in 30 US states. The Stein Mart corporate office is located in Jacksonville, FL.

Dollar General Corporate Office

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Dollar General Corporate Office Address

Dollar General Corporation

100 Mission Ridge
Goodlettsville, Tennessee 37072

Contact Dollar General

Phone Number: (615) 855-4000
Fax Number: (615) 386-9936
Website: http://www.dollargeneral.com
Email: Email Dollar General

Dollar General Facts

Founder: Cal Turner
Date Founded: October 1939
Founding Location: Scottsville, Kentucky
Number of Employees: 130000

Dollar General Executives

CEO: Todd Vasos
CFO: John W. Garratt
COO: Jeff Owen

Dollar General History

In October of 1939, former farmers James and Cal Turner opened J.L. Turner and Son with an initial investment of $5,000 each. The switch to retailing from farming resulted in annual sales above $2 million by the early 1950s. By the mid-1950s, this father and son team had 35 department stores in Kentucky and Tennessee. The first store actually called Dollar General wasn’t opened until 1955, with the idea that all items in the store would be $1 or less. The idea took off quickly and all J.L. Turner stores were changed to Dollar Generals. The chain reached 29 stores by 1959.

J.L. Turner died in 1964 and Dollar General went public in 1968. In 1977, Cal Turner, Jr. took over as president of the company, making him the third generation to run the company. Cal ran Dollar General until 2002.

In 2007, Dollar General was acquired by private equity firms and taken private. 2 years later, in 2009, the company was made public via IPO.

In 2014, the company was fined $52,000 by OSHA for health and safety violations in a Brooklyn store for blocking fire exit doors with merchandise. The company was fined again in 2016 also for blocking fire exits, as well as for exposing employees to possible electrocution by removing or not replacing face plates on electrical outlets.

In mid-2015, CEO Rick Dreiling announced his retirement and was replaced by COO Todd Vasos. That same year, the company posted annual revenue of $20.369 billion.

The company announced in September of 2016 that they had plans to hire an additional 10,000 employees and open 900 new stores in the next year, as well as an additional 1,000 in fiscal 2017.

The company acquired Family Dollar in 2017 and has stated that at least half of these stores will be rebranded to the Dollar General name.

Due to Trump’s tariff’s on Chinese goods, Dollar General stated that they would be forced to raise prices once the items stored in warehouses have been depleted.

In June 2019 FedEx and Dollar General announced a partnership which would allow customers to drop off packages at Dollar General stores for FedEx pickup and drop-off.

Dollar General settled a lawsuit in Vermont, which found more than 300 cases of stores listing one price on the shelf but charging a different price. The company agreed to pay $1.75 million but did not admit to any errors.

In 2016, the company has over 12,500 stores in 43 US states. The Dollar General corporate office is located in Goodlettsville, Tennessee.

Rent-A-Center Corporate Office

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Rent-A-Center Corporate Office Address

Rent-A-Center, Inc.

5501 Headquarters Drive
Plano, Texas 75024

Contact Rent-A-Center

Phone Number: (972) 801-1100
Fax Number: (866) 260-1424
Website: http://www.rentacenter.com
Email: Email Rent-A-Center

Rent-A-Center Facts

Founder: Thomas Devlin and W. Frank Barton
Date Founded: 1973
Founding Location: Witchita, Kansas
Number of Employees: 22200

Rent-A-Center Executives

CEO: Mitchell Fadel
CFO: Maureen Short
COO: Ann Davids

Rent-A-Center History

Rent-A-Center or RAC for short was founded in 1973 by Thomas Devlin and W. Frank Barton. Mr. Devlin came up with the rent to own idea after working for an appliance rental company in Wichita, KS.

The company offers brand name new and used household appliances, televisions, computers, and other electronics on a rent to own scale. Customers can return items for any reason, then pick up the items and resume payments again if they wish. Delivery, pick-up, repair, and service are all included in the rental price.

The company went public in 1995 and has gained many of its current locations through acquisitions of other companies including DEF Investments, Thorn Americas, Rent-Way, Rainbow Rentals, and Rent-Rite.

The company is publicly traded on the NASDAQ under the ticker symbol: RCII

Annual revenue in 2015 was $3.28 billion. RAC has 22,200 full-time employees.

In July of 2015, the company sold several of its Ontario, Canada, locations to EasyHome Financial for $3.4 million. The company has plans for expansion in Mexico, where there are currently 176 locations.

In November 2017, RAC came under federal investigation for alleged unfair, abusive, and deceptive practices.

The company reduced the number of corporate employees by 25 percent or approximately 250 jobs in March 2018.

Rent-A-Center currently operates over 3000 locations in the US, Canada, Puerto Rico, and Mexico. Although originally founded in Wichita, the corporate office is now located in Plano, Texas.