- The Fair Store
Infobox_Company
company_name = The Fair Store | company_
company_type =discount department store
foundation =1874
location =Chicago, Illinois
industry =Retail
products = Apparel, fabrics, furniture, sewing machines, baby buggies, toys and games for adults, inexpensive household items
homepage = |The Fair Store was a discount
department store in theChicago, Illinois area. The store was founded in 1874-75. ['Christmas on State Street 1940's and Beyond ISBN 0-7385-1972-3 by Robert P. Ledermann page 33 founding date'] Founder Ernst J. Lehmann offered odd prices (i. e., prices not in multiples of five cents) to save customers a few pennies on every purchase. [ [http://patsabin.com/illinois/TheFair.htm] 'The Fair Store, State and Adams, Chicago, IL]The Fair Store was promoted itself as a Discount Department Store in the early 1900s in 1905. It In 1915, a booklet published by the store stated "The Fair Store is still, as it always has been and undoubtedly always will be, the store of the people, the down-town shopping center for the Savers, the market place for the Thrifty." In 1925 the stores were sold to
Kmart founding chainS.S. Kresge . [ [http://chicago.urban-history.org/ven/dss/the_fair.shtml] 'The Chicago Jazz Age link store history]The Fair - name was according to Lehmann because "the store was like a fair because if offered many different things for sale at a cheap price." ['Christmas on State Street 1940's and Beyond ISBN 0-7385-1972-3 trivia information']
In Elmwood, IL The Fair Store is still open for business selling many household items, gifts, cards, candy, toys and large variety of bedding plants (seasonal). Owned for many years by Burt Sparks then handed down to Tammie Weaver (current owner).
References
Wikimedia Foundation. 2010.
