Salkin & Linoff

Salkin & Linoff was a Minnesota-based retailer of primarily private label women's, junior (and to a lesser extent) men's and children's clothes. The retailer had a wide variety of name plates, including S&L, Bostwicks,Peck & Peck, Stevensons, Wrangler Wroost, Hurrah!,Morrey Alan(later shortened to Morrey A), Nina B, Bostwicks for Men, Bostwicks for Women and Mauritizos. Founded by visionary retailer Joseph Linoff and his Cousin Sam Salkin in the early 1920s, the company filled the void in smaller midwest towns and competed with J.C. Penney's and provided similar merchandise. Joseph Linoff, prior to his untimely death in 1951 installed on of the first IBM computers to track inventory and sales.

At its peak, Salkin & Linoff was the largest independent clothing retailer in the United States, with had over 400 stores across the contential United States. However under the leadership of Sam Salkin's son Morrey, VP level managers feared the technology needed to enable POS throughout their nationwide locations was not continued. A dominate force in the marketplace, S&L lacked the important statistical data that store managers and buyers needed to make proper merchandising decisions. This unfortunately forced them out of business in 1990 and as such, the chain was basically shut down and sold off in smaller pieces. Some specific store locations of the surviving Peck & Peck chain were sold by Salkin & Linoff in the mid/late 1980s to H.C. Prange and a few single stores may remain but are now considered, at best, a tiny afterthought of American fashion retailing.

External links

* [http://www.slphistory.org/history/salkinlinoff.asp Salkin & Linoff Bankruptcy, History]
* [http://www.findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m3092/is_n19_v29/ai_9006346 1990 Article on H.C. Prange Ownership]
* [http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_hb4298/is_199011/ai_n14965656 Salkin (& Linoff) completes sale of 94 stores]