 | |
| Company type | Department store |
|---|---|
| Industry | Retail |
| Founded | 1857 |
| Defunct | 1999 (Ceased operation as a legal entity in 2006)[1] |
| Fate | Merged with Dillard's through Mercantile Stores |
| Successor | Dillard's |
| Headquarters | Toledo, Ohio |
| Products | Clothing, footwear, furniture, jewelry, beauty products, and housewares. |
| Parent | Mercantile Stores Company, Inc. |
| Website | www.dillards.com |
Lion Store (founded in 1857 as Frederick Eaton & Co. and incorporated in 1890 as The Lion Dry Goods Co.) was a Toledo, Ohio department store chain. Mercantile Stores operated the chain from 1914 until its 1998 acquisition by Dillard's, which retired the Lion nameplate in 1999.[2][3][4]
Originally established as a downtown-based dry goods retailer, Lion evolved during the post-war period, establishing new stores during Toledo's suburbanization and closing the downtown store in 1980 amid urban decay.[4] By 1998, the chain comprised three fashion apparel stores and two home furnishing stores in area shopping malls targeting middle to upper-middle income consumers.[5]
Long a dominant Toledo retailer, Lion held an estimated thirty to forty percent market share in 1998.[6] The store influenced the growth of Toledo's retail environment, with developers acknowledging that their projects hinged on whether Lion would become an anchor tenant.[6] Lion's outsized influence on local consumers prompted one local retail executive to jokingly remark that "people born in Toledo are born with two things: a Social Security card and a Lion credit card."[6]
- ^ "Certificate of Merger". businesssearch.ohiosos.gov. Ohio Secretary of State. Retrieved 13 January 2022.
- ^ Floyd, Barbara (17 November 2010). Wholly Toledo: The Business and Industry that Shaped the City (PDF). Toledo, Ohio: University of Toledo. p. 32. Retrieved 13 January 2022.
- ^ "Dillards, Inc. 1999 Annual Report". sec.gov. Securities and Exchange Commission. Retrieved 13 January 2022.
- ^ a b Yonke, David (2015). Lost Toledo. Charleston: The History Press. pp. 41–47. ISBN 9781626195707. Retrieved 13 January 2022.
- ^ "Mercantile Stores Company, Inc. 1998 Annual Report". sec.gov. Securities and Exchange Commission. Retrieved 13 January 2022.
- ^ a b c Chavez, John (14 August 1998). "Lion Store name may be changed by new owner". The Blade. Retrieved 14 January 2022.