Contents
Acknowledgments
1. Christmas 1991: One Last Memory
2. “A First-Class, One-Price Establishment”
3. At the Crossroads of America
4. The 1920s: A Decade of Innovation and Growth
5. Navigating through the Great Depression
6. L. S. Ayres and Company and the Community
7. Ayres at War: Corporate Citizen, Successful Store
8. L. S. Ayres and Company at Holiday Time
9. “That Ayres Look”: Hallmark of a Great Brand
10. “No Price Penalty for Fashion at Ayres”: The Downstairs Store
11. Ayres beyond the Fashion Floor: A Full-Service Department Store
12. Postwar Growth and Prosperity
13. A Tradition Continues: Ayres Buys Charles Mayer and Company
14. Onward to Glendale (and Lafayette)
15. “Meet Me at Noon outside the Tea Room”
16. Ayr-Way: Ayres Invents the Discount Store
17. The 1960s: Meeting the Challenges of a Changing Marketplace
18. An Equal-Opportunity Employer—and Beyond: Ayres as a Leader in Race Relations
19. Kaufman’s and Wolf and Dessauer: The Path to the End of the Line
20. The Sale
21. The Late 1970s and 1980s: A Larger and More Upscale Ayres
22. Death of a Brand: May Company’s (Almost) Hostile Takeover
Bibliography
Index