Filene’s / William Filene & Sons Co
William Filene, Edward Filene, Lincoln Filene
Founded: 1881, Boston, Massachusetts
Defunct: 2006
Founding Member: RRA Retail Research Assoc (1916), AMC Associated Merchandising Corporation (1921), Federated Department Stores (1929), IADS International Assoc of Department Stores (1928).
1891 – William turns the business over to his sons Edward & Lincoln, who is named chairman and remains in that position until his death in 1957. 1908 – Filenes Basement was opened. 1916 – Gets other store owners to join Retail Research Assoc. 1918 – RRA expands to include AMC Associated Merchandising Corp, as the buying division. 1929 – Lincoln leads merger Filene’s with Abraham & Straus, Lazarus, and Shillitos to form Federated Department Stores (A&S dropped in 1935). Filene’s was sold to The May Department stores in 1988 by Federated and Filene’s Basement was created into a separate company. G. Fox & Co was renamed to Filene’s Basement in 1992 & Striver’s in 1994. Then Filene’s was tasked to run Kaufmann’s in 2002. May Department Stores was acquired by Federated in 2005 and became Macys in 2006, retiring the Filene’s name for good.