Friedman's Inc.

Friedman's Inc. was a US company that owned and operated fine jewelry specialty stores under the names Friedman's Jewelers and Crescent Jewelers. The company declared bankruptcy in 2008 and had shuttered all stores by June 2008. The company was established in Savannah, Georgia in 1920. Friedman's Inc. had around 500 locations in 23 states, and was headquartered in Addison, Texas.

Friedman's stressed value and low prices, owning the trademark "The Value Leader" and advertising "Unbeatable Values". Unlike many chain jewelers, Friedman's had many of its locations in power centers and strip malls, besides enclosed malls and outlet centers. The company had stated that they preferred locations anchored by a discounter "big box" store, almost always Wal-Mart. This fits with their core demographic of lower to middle income customers between 18 and 40.

Formerly a publicly traded company, Friedman's was privately owned after being bought less than a year after coming out of Chapter 11 bankruptcy in February 2005. They then purchased their sister company Crescent Jewelers after Crescent filed for chapter 11.

Any stores currently operating under the Freidman's or Crescent nameplates are currently owned by Whitehall Jewelers Inc, who had purchased these locations for about fourteen million dollars from bankrupt Friedman's. Whitehall went bankrupt and began liquidating all of its stores in August 2008.

References and Links

* [http://www.friedmans.com/ Friedman's Jewelers]
* [http://www.crescentjewelers.com/ Crescent Jewelers]
* [http://www.jmdutton.com/Research/FRDM/Reports/FRM_Report_100903.pdf/ Past Report on Friedman's]