Dillard's is the outgrowth of a department store founded in 1938 by William T. Dillard; its corporate headquarters remain located at the eastern edge of Little Rock's Riverdale area and many of its executives and directors are members of the Dillard family. The family retains control of the company through its ownership of Class B Common Stock; the Class A common stock is publicly traded on the New York Stock Exchange.[5]
Dillard began his first store in Mineral Springs, Arkansas, in what was locally known as "the tater house". It was located across the street from the community's Methodist church. The building that housed the original store was torn down in the early 2000s. Dillard sold the original five and dime store in Nashville, Arkansas, to develop a department store in Texarkana, Arkansas, initially as the minority partner in Wooten & Dillard. In 1956, Dillard led an investment group that acquired the Mayer & Schmidt store in Tyler, Texas. This store eventually took on the name "Dillard's Mayer & Schmidt" until 1974, when it was replaced with a mall-based location south of downtown Tyler.
In 1960, Dillard acquired and turned around the failing Brown-Dunkin store in Tulsa, Oklahoma. The success of this turnaround was followed in late 1963 by acquiring the Joseph Pfeifer store in Little Rock, Arkansas, and in early 1964 acquiring the other main store in Little Rock, Gus Blass Co. Dillard used this as an opportunity to relocate his headquarters to Little Rock. In 1969, Dillard and his investors took Dillard Department Stores, Inc., public on the American Stock Exchange.
The chain then expanded rapidly as an anchor in suburbanshopping malls, and took advantage of market conditions to acquire smaller chains and its ability to turn around locations that other companies could not operate profitably. Expansion of the Dillard's chain increased rapidly during the 1970s, mainly through expanding into new malls being built in smaller cities in Texas.
In 1971, five Texas units were acquired from Fedway, a division of Federated Department Stores; the stores were rebranded as Dillard's in 1972. In 1974, five Leonard's stores were acquired in Fort Worth, and a commitment to open a new downtown Fort Worth store at the Tandy Center, the site of the original Leonard's. Also in 1974, the former Brown-Dunkin, Blass, Pfeifer and Mayer & Schmidt stores were fully renamed Dillard's.
In 1987, Dillard's purchased 26 of Joske's 27 stores in Texas and Arizona and the four-unit Cain-Sloan chain in Nashville, Tennessee, from Allied Stores Corp. This deal gave Dillard's two major anchor locations at several malls in Texas and Arizona with many of the second locations being converted to a separate, expanded home and men's stores, a format that Dillard's utilized greatly, both to grow its store size cost-effectively and to prevent competitors from gaining valuable real estate. Additionally, the Joske's acquisition gave Dillard's entry into the Houston market. That same year, Dillard's co-founded CDI Contractors, a construction company that would help build, remodel, and repair most of its locations, with William "Bill" Clark and Braggs Electric Construction Company.[7]
Dillard's in 1988 acquired the former Selber Bros. clothing department store chain, founded in 1907 in Shreveport, Louisiana, which also had a few locations in Texas.[8]
In 2004, Dillard's store credit card operation, operated as Dillard's National Bank, was sold to GE Money Bank. Customers can now be issued Dillard's/American Express cards as well as the traditional Dillard's store charge cards. These cards can be used at any store that accepts the American Express brand.
In 2008, Dillard's closed their travel agency, Dillard's Travel, alongside all in-store locations due to economic conditions. Dillard's Travel previously operated in 43 of the 318 stores.[10] Also in 2008, stores opened at both The Shops at Wiregrass and Pier Park in Florida. Dillard's also announced that it had completed a transaction to acquire the remaining fifty percent (50%) interest in CDI Contractors, LLC and CDI Contractors, Inc., which it did not already own.[11]
By August 2020, it had not yet opened.[13] In September 2019, Dillard's remained headquartered in Arkansas, with 260 "full-line" stores and 29 clearance centers. It had locations mostly in the South and Southwest of the United States, in 29 states overall. The company was also a significant owner of property in the United States, and it owned 44,300,000 square feet (4,120,000 m2) of the 49,000,000 square feet (4,600,000 m2) it used for its business and retail operations.[14]
In March 2020, Dillard's attracted note in the press for keeping many of its 290 stores open during the coronavirus pandemic,[15][16] with Dillard's stating "we are open with limited hours where not ordered to close by state or local government mandate."[15]
In April 2020, Dillard's closed around 200 out of its 285 stores in response to COVID-19. Its online store remained open.[17] In May 2020, Dillard's had reopened all but two of its locations in Tampa Bay, according to its website at the time.[18] That week, management and Dillard's CEO, William Dillard II, informed its annual meeting that the company's first quarter had been the worst in its history, due to the coronavirus, saying Dillard's business had become "total chaos" by the end of April as a result. At the time, Dillard's had 257 department stores, and 28 clearance stores, and had reopened stores in 21 states or more.[19]
In August 2021, the company released its second quarter report. It did not release "store comps relative to pandemic-dominated 2020; comparable store retail sales compared to 2019 rose 14%." After an $8.6 million net loss in August 2020, the company noted that it instead had made a net income in August 2021 of $185.7 million.[20]
For 2023 (for the 53 weeks ending 3 February 2024), Dillard's net income was $738.8 million. Net sales for the same period were $6.75 billion. Operating expenses to 3 February 2024 were $1.77 billion.[21]
In March of 2024, Dillard’s opened their first location in the upper midwest in Sioux Falls, South Dakota, in the Empire Mall.
The chain continues to expand and has recently added stores in non-traditional mall shopping centers. Currently, the largest Dillard's store at 365,000 square feet (33,900 m2) is located at Scottsdale Fashion Square, an enclosed super-regional mall in Scottsdale, Arizona. Within the Dallas/Fort Worth area, the chain has two flagship stores with a 299,000-square-foot (27,800 m2) store at the Northpark Center in Dallas and a 310,000-square-foot (29,000 m2) store at the North East Mall in Hurst.[23] Its flagship store in the East Coast region, at 260,000 square feet (24,000 m2), was located in the MacArthur Center in downtown Norfolk, Virginia, closed in 2023. It announced construction of a new "flagship" store in Lubbock, TX on Nov 15th, 2022. This store will be 220,000 sq ft. The home store for the chain is in Little Rock; the divided store is located in the trend-conscious Park Plaza Mall, one of the city's oldest continuously operating shopping centers in its midtown section.
As of April 2020, Dillard's operated 28 clearance stores in the United States.[19] Dillard's Clearance Centers occupy 26 mall spaces throughout multiple states for the clearance stock of clothing from prior seasons.[24] They are usually located within lower-income areas as the no longer high priced items are not as covetable for the general clientele Dillard's procures. The 265 regular department stores ship the clearance clothing at already 65% off to these Clearance Centers where the clothing is then marked down further to liquidate the heaps of clothing and shoes.[24]
The Clearance Centers rival that of a Marshalls or TJ Maxx with unknown sizes or quantities of a specific item. However, all the clothing at Dillard's Clearance Centers are direct from the normal Dillard's Department Stores close to and surrounding the one outlet. The goods that are sent to these stores are including, but not limited to: overstocked, offseason, didn't sell well, or damaged.[25] This is an easy way to buy all of the brand-specific items at a cheaper, more economical price.
The hours may vary a little bit by store or holiday; however, the generic hours of a Clearance Center are Tuesday through Saturday from 12 pm to 7 pm and Sunday from 12 pm to 6 pm. On Mondays, the Clearance Centers are closed for the restocking of the Clearance items.[26]
On a week-to-week basis, each Dillard's Clearance Center receives further markdowns by each department; older merchandise is marked down to an amount ending in "99 cents," representing a 65% discount.[26]
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