is a
Department Store chain in the
Midwestern United States . The chain concentrates on the middle and upper-class segments of the market.
The company was founded by
Polish immigrant brothers Lipman, Samuel, and Marcus Younker, who opened a general store in
Keokuk, Iowa , in 1856. Herman Younker, the youngest of the brothers, opened a dry goods store in
Des Moines, Iowa , in 1874. Following Samuel's death in 1879, the Keokuk store was closed and the Des Moines location became the main store. In 1899 the Younker brothers' main store in downtown Des Moines was moved to 7th and Walnut Streets, and it operated at the same location for 106 years before closing on
August 12 ,
2005 . The downtown Des Moines store became known for its Tea Room restaurant, which opened in 1913 and closed shortly before the store did. It also installed
Iowa 's first
Escalator , known as the "electric stairs," in 1939.
A series of additions, enlargements, and mergers resulted in the company changing its name to Younkers Incorporated. The Grand Department Store in downtown Des Moines was purchased in 1912. The company started growing in the 1920s by acquiring other department stores throughout Iowa, including Wilkins Department Stores (1923), Harris-Emery (1927), and J. Mandelbaun and Sons (1928). The Iowa-based retailers Britnalls of
Marshalltown and Davidson's of
Sioux City were acquired in 1948 and Yetters of
Iowa City was acquired in 1949. By 1978 Younkers had 28 stores in five states.
in
West Des Moines, Iowa .]]
Younkers was operated by the Equitable of Iowa insurance company from 1979 to 1992. Under Equitable's ownership, Younkers acquired all 11 locations of the
Omaha, Nebraska -based
Brandeis department store chain in 1987. After becoming a publicly-traded company on the
NASDAQ on
April 22 ,
1992 , Younkers purchased the 22 stores of the
H.C. Prange chain in
Wisconsin and
Michigan .
After a hostile
Takeover bid by
Carson Pirie Scott was rejected in 1995, Younkers' shareholders agreed to a friendly takeover by
Proffitt's , Inc., of
Knoxville, Tennessee . The acquisition was completed in October 1996; Proffitt's would later acquire Carson Pirie Scott, and in 1998 Proffitt's merged with
Saks Fifth Avenue to form
Saks Incorporated . In 2003, Saks closed Younkers' headquarters in Des Moines and merged its operations with those of Carson Pirie Scott in
Milwaukee, Wisconsin . Saks sold Younkers and its other Northern Department Store Group stores (Carson Pirie Scott,
Bergner's ,
Boston Store , and
Herberger's ) to
Bon-Ton Stores in a $1.1 billion deal that was completed on
March 6 ,
2006 .
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As of
April 1 ,
2006 , Younkers has 47 stores in Iowa,
Illinois ,
Michigan ,
Minnesota ,
Nebraska ,
South Dakota , and
Wisconsin . Most of its stores are anchors of
Shopping Malls .
