Federal's Explained

Federal's should not be confused with Federal (disambiguation).

Federal Department Store, or Federal's, was a department store chain based in Detroit.

History

Federal's was founded in 1929.^[1] In 1961, Federal's merged with Kobacker's of Columbus, Ohio and in 1969,^[2] it bought Shifrin-Willens Jewelers.^[3] The chain filed for bankruptcy in 1972.^[4] That same year, the Federal's stores in Lansing and Kalamazoo were closed.^[5] Steven Watstein, also known as Steven West, purchased Federal's in 1978.^[6] The chain was liquidated in 1980.^{[7] [8]}

One of Federal's holdings at the time of the bankruptcy was the Hoffritz for Cutlery chain, which was sold off in 1975 in a leveraged buyout.^[9]

References

Notes and References

1. Book: Journal of the House of Representatives . State of Michigan . 1980 . 1814 . 3825172 . . 2.
2. News: Davidson Bros., Detroit, Buy Kobacker Stores . . Toledo . January 28, 1961 . 15.
3. News: Federal's Buys Shifrin-Willens . . April 29, 1969 . 7 . . .
4. Book: Rizzo, Michael F. . Nine Nine Eight: The Glory Days of Buffalo Shopping . . 2007 . 978-1430313861 . 128202051.
5. News: Store Closings Set By Federal's Chain . . December 27, 1972 . 68 . subscription . .
6. News: Steven West Assumes Control at Federal's Inc. . The Wall Street Journal . March 20, 1978 . 7 . .
7. Web site: More questions and comments about department stores from readers . The History of Department Stores (blog) . . Jan . Whitaker . Michael . Lisicky . amp . 2014-01-07 . https://web.archive.org/web/20120817132907/http://www.departmentstorehistory.net/files/Departmentstore.doc . 2012-08-17 . dead .
8. News: Wild, Wild West: Once convicted of fraud and in debt to the IRS for a cool million, Steven West is some kind of businessman . Rebekah . Gleaves . . August 29, 2002.
9. https://www.nytimes.com/1994/12/17/business/trying-a-jump-start-at-hoffritz.html Trying a Jump-Start at Hoffritz