Heck's Department Store

Infobox Company
name = Heck's, Inc.
company_
type = Discount department store
foundation = 1963
location_city =
location_country =
location =
locations = 70+
key_people =
area_served = West Virginia, Ohio, Indiana, Virginia, Kentucky
industry = Retail
products = Clothing, garden/seasonal, sporting goods, hardware, footwear, bedding, furniture, jewelry, beauty products, electronics and housewares.
divisions =
dissolved = 1990

" Note: for the Virginia-based store with the same pronunciation, see Hecht's."

Heck's Department Store was a chain of West Virginia based discount department stores owned by business entrepenurer Fred Haddad that existed in West Virginia, Virginia, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Indiana, and Kentucky until dissolved in September, 1990. It was founded by Fred Haddad in Charleston, West Virginia. [ [http://www.davidellis.net/HaddadFamily/Articles/CharlestonDailyMail.html Charleston Daily Mail Article ] ]

History

Heck's, Inc. was established in 1963, and between 1963 and 1990 served as a retail arm of automotive supplier Steel City Products, Inc.

Heck's stores were discount, stand alone department stores found in small cities throughout West Virginia, western Maryland, the Ohio Valley, and parts of Indiana & Kentucky. Its structure and product lines were similar to its competitors, Fisher's Big Wheel, Hills Department Stores, and G.C. Murphy's Mart.

By the mid-1980s, the chain was losing money and market share. In February 1987, a $125 million merger agreement with New York-Based Toussie-Viner Group was terminated due to weak performance by Heck's in the final months of 1986.

In September 1990, all of the assets of the Retail Division were sold to Retail Acquisition Corporation, Inc., and became L.A. Joe Department Stores. Two locations were sold to, and became, Fisher's Big Wheel.

Former locations

Indiana
*Auburn - later Fisher's Big Wheel
*KokomoMaryland
*Cumberland - later Zayre, Ames, Gabriel Brothers, now a car dealership.
*Oakland - Store abandoned.Ohio
*Athens- Now an Aldi
*Belpre
* Dover
*Heath
*Jackson
*Lancaster
*Salem - later Fisher's Big Wheel
*Wooster
*ZanesvilleWest Virginia
*Buckhannon
*Charles Town
*Charleston (Kanawha City)
*Clarksburg
*Elkins
*Fairmont
*Follansbee
*Gassaway
*Grafton
*Martinsburg* store front now occupied by Big Lots store
*Morgantown -Half the store became Doctors Offices and Advance Auto Parts (since closed)
*Oak Hill
*Parkersburg
*Princeton - now Schewels Furniture
*Saint Albans
*Westover - Now a Big Lots
*Wheeling (Warwood Shopping Plaza)Virginia
*Staunton
*Pulaski
*Radford
*Winchester
*Galax after Heck's Helig Meyers, now Schewels FurnitureTennessee
*LaFollette
*ElizabethtonKentucky
*Ashland
*Frankfort
*Georgetown
*Lexington (3 locations)Pennsylvania
*Waynesburg - original building was converted to Giant EagleHeck's former location on MacCorkle Avenue in the Kanawha City section of Charleston is now a Drug Emporium.

References

* Scripophily.com. [http://www.scripophily.net/hecksinc.html]
*New York Times: Hecks May Seek New Buyout Offer [http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9B0DEEDA1F3DF936A35751C0A961948260#]