Hartfield-Zodys
Hartfield-Zodys operated the Hartfield chain of women's ready-to-wear apparel in the Los Angeles area, and starting in 1960, the Zodys chain of discount retail stores (1960-1986), which operated locations in California, Arizona, Nevada, New Mexico, and Michigan.
Subsidiary | |
Industry | Department store, Retail |
Fate | Bankruptcy |
Founded | June 13, 1960 in Garden Grove, California |
Defunct | March 1986 |
Headquarters | Los Angeles, California |
Area served | Arizona, California, Michigan, Nevada, New Mexico |
Products | Clothing, foodwear, bedding, furniture, jewelry, beauty products, electronics and housewares. |
Parent | Hartfield Stores/Hartfield-Zody's/HRT Industries |
Hartfield's
Hartfield was present on Broadway (Los Angeles), the main shopping district in the Los Angeles area, in the 1940s, at 545 Broadway, and a 1943 advertisement showed branches at 253 S. Market St. in Inglewood, 650 Pacific Boulevard in Huntington Park, and 705 S. Pacific in San Pedro (the latter opened 1941); busy downtown shopping districts of what were once separate towns that had become working and middle class suburbs of Los Angeles.[1] Branches opened across Greater Los Angeles over the following decades.
Zodys
The first store in this Southern California–based discount chain was opened June 13, 1960, in Garden Grove, California, by Hartfield Stores, Inc., which also operated dozens of Hartfield's department stores. From 1962 the parent company changed its name to Hartfield-Zodys. By 1969 there were 19 stores. In 1972, Hartfield-Zodys acquired the Yankee Stores chain of Flint, Michigan, briefly re-branding the stores as Yankee-Zodys, and later as Zodys.[2] In 1969 Zodys opened a 6.5-acre distribution center employing 300.[3] The Michigan stores were unprofitable, and were sold in 1974 when Hartfield-Zodys filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection.[2] A brief period of prosperity brought expansions into Arizona, Nevada and New Mexico. In 1979 there were 37 stores.
Epilogue
Bankrupt again by the early 1980s, the parent company, now known as HRT Industries, began closing stores in 1984. The remaining Zodys stores in California were shuttered in March 1986,[4][5][6] with many locations being sold to Federated Stores, the parent company of Ralphs supermarket chain,[7][8] while other locations were purchased by HomeClub, a home improvement store chain.[9]
References
- Newspaper advertisement for Hartfield Stores, Los Angeles Times, Feb. 10, 1943, p. 42
- Flinn, Gary (2004-02-20). "Hamady Sacks and Yankee Hats". Flinn's Journal. Archived from the original on May 13, 2009. Retrieved 2007-10-03.
- https://www.newspapers.com/clip/56881457/zodys-distribution-center/
- Groves, Martha (February 5, 1986). "HRT Denies It Has Decided to Shut Zodys : Says Some Retailers Have Shown Interest in Buying Ailing Unit". Los Angeles Times.
- Groves, Martha (February 10, 1986). "HRT Appears Likely to Shut Zodys Stores". Los Angeles Times.
- "HRT Industries confirmed the closing of Zodys". Los Angeles Times. March 4, 1986.
- Groves, Martha (February 26, 1986). "14 Zodys Stores Will Become Ralphs Markets". Los Angeles Times.
- "Zody's Stores Converted for Ralphs Giants". Los Angeles Times. December 21, 1986.
- "HomeClub Acquires Four Former Zody's Locations". Los Angeles Times. March 14, 1986.