- Mammoth Mart
-
Mammoth Mart 
Former type Discount store Industry Retail Founded 1956 Defunct 1978
location = Framingham, MassachusettsProducts Clothing, footwear, bedding, furniture, jewelry, beauty products, electronics, toys and housewares. Website None Mammoth Mart was a discount department store chain, located in the northeastern United States, primarily in the New England area. The chain was founded by Max Coffman in Framingham, Massachusetts in 1956,[1] and was something of a prototype for the large, downscale department store, selling housewares, hardware and clothing in stark, unfussy buildings, usually in suburban shopping center locations. Other discount department store retailers like K-Mart, Zayre, and Bradlees would subsequently expand on this concept.
Their advertising mascot was Marty the elephant, a smiling, blazer-wearing mammoth.
By 1969 the chain had 35 stores, though they filed for bankruptcy protection under Chapter XI of the Bankruptcy Act of 1898--one of the precursors (along with Chapter X of the 1898 Bankruptcy Act) of today's Chapter 11--in 1974. The chain was acquired by now-defunct King's Department Stores in 1978.
Locations(partial list):
- Bristol, Connecticut (Route 6), now Shop Rite
- Guilford, Connecticut (Route 1), now Wal-Mart
- North Haven, Connecticut (Middletown Avenue/Quinnipiac Avenue), later Mars Dept. Stores, now Covideon Factory
- Putnam, Connecticut (Route 44), site torn down and redeveloped as Wal-Mart
- Brunswick, Maine (Old Bath Road), now home to BIW-related administrative offices
- Presque Isle, Maine
- Rockland, Maine (Route 1), later a King's, then an Ames; currently a Walmart.
- Scarborough, Maine (Route 1), currently being redeveloped for MaineHealth, the nonprofit parent of Maine Medical Center.
- Bel Air, Maryland (store became Kings, then Ames) it is now a Gardiners furniture store.
- Lexington Park, Maryland (St. Mary's Square), now a Rose's
- Lowell,Massachusetts (211 Plain Street Later the location of Stuart's Department Stores
- Waldorf, Maryland (Shoppers World)
- Dudley, Massachusetts, (Dudley Plaza, Airport Road,) later a King's.
- Canton, Massachusetts (Tri-Town Mall, at Cobbs Corner), later a King's
- Fairhaven, Massachusetts
- Franklin, Massachusetts (Route 140 - East Central Street, Horace Mann Plaza), now Bob's Store
- Marlborough, Massachusetts, Boston Post Road (Route 20)
- New Bedford, Massachusetts (Kings Highway Plaza), later a King's, THB Home Center, Ames and presently AJ Wright
- Holyoke, Massachusetts (U.S. Rt. 5)
- Raynham, Massachusetts (Rt. 44?), later a King's
- Salisbury, Massachusetts (Rte. 110, Crossroads Plaza)
- Detroit, Michigan (Old Federal Department Store at SW corner of Grand River and Greenfield)
- Somersworth, New Hampshire (Tri-City Plaza), now home to a craft store
- Plaistow, New Hampshire
- Henderson, North Carolina (US1 Business North), later became King's, now Roses Store
- Hickory, North Carolina (NC-127 North)
- Statesville, North Carolina, turned into Kmart, now Fred's
- Newport, Vermont, later an Ames store
- Woonsocket, Rhode Island, later became Kings
- Bennington, Vermont, later became Kings, now Walmart
- Brattleboro, Vermont, (Putney Rd in the Brattleboro North shopping plaza. Became Kings, then Ames.
- Kingston, New York, Route 9W (Mammoth Mall, now King's Mall)
References
- ^ Drew-Bear, Robert (1970). Mass Merchandising; Revolution & Evolution. Fairchild Publications. pp. 86. http://books.google.ca/books?id=5GFCAAAAIAAJ&q=%22Mammoth+Mart%22+%22Max+coffman%22&dq=%22Mammoth+Mart%22+%22Max+coffman%22&client=firefox-a&pgis=1. Retrieved 2009-02-02.
Categories:- Companies established in 1956
- Defunct discount stores of the United States
- Companies disestablished in 1978
- Companies based in Massachusetts
- Discount stores
- United States retail company stubs
Wikimedia Foundation. 2010.
