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- 1Macy's
Macy's traces its origins to a small dry goods store opened by Rowland Hussey Macy in New York City in 1858, and it grew into one of the largest and most iconic department store chains in the country, anchored by its flagship Herald Square store in Manhattan. Macy's has produced the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade since 1924, an annual event featuring giant character balloons that became one of the most widely watched televised holiday traditions in the United States, giving the company a level of cultural visibility far beyond ordinary retail advertising. The Herald Square flagship store was, for much of the 20th century, promoted as the "world's largest store," and Macy's broader chain became deeply embedded in American retail history, including its central role in the classic holiday film "Miracle on 34th Street." Macy's combination of its historic Herald Square flagship and its iconic Thanksgiving Day Parade has made it one of the most culturally significant department store chains in American history.
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0 - 2Nordstrom
Nordstrom began as a single shoe store, Wallin & Nordstrom, opened in Seattle in 1901 by Swedish immigrant John W. Nordstrom, and it expanded gradually over decades into a full-line department store chain particularly known for an unusually strong customer service reputation. The company's customer service culture became legendary within the retail industry, including a widely circulated (and much-debated in its exact accuracy) story about a Nordstrom store accepting a tire return despite never having sold tires, a story frequently cited in business schools as an example of extreme customer-first policy. Nordstrom Rack, the company's off-price retail division launched in 1973, let the brand extend discounted access to its merchandise to a broader, more price-conscious customer base while preserving its flagship stores' more upscale full-price positioning. Nordstrom's combination of its legendary customer-service reputation and its successful off-price Rack division has made it one of the most respected department store chains in American retail.
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0 - 3Sears
Sears began as a mail-order watch business founded by Richard Sears in 1886, and its subsequent mail-order catalog, offering everything from clothing to entire mail-order houses, made it one of the most significant retail forces in American history for well over a century. Sears pioneered numerous major retail innovations, including the Craftsman and Kenmore private-label brands and, for a time, held the title of largest retailer in the United States, with its catalog serving as a genuine lifeline for rural Americans without easy access to city stores. The company's dramatic decline through the 2000s and 2010s, culminating in a 2018 bankruptcy filing, became one of the most widely studied cautionary tales of legacy retail failing to adapt to e-commerce and changing consumer habits, despite its historic dominance for most of the 20th century. Sears's combination of its historic mail-order catalog dominance and its dramatic, closely watched later decline has made it one of the most historically significant department store chains in American retail history.
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0 - 4JCPenney
JCPenney was founded by James Cash Penney in Kemmerer, Wyoming in 1902, originally as a single dry goods store called the Golden Rule, built around a business philosophy explicitly named for treating customers as the founder would want to be treated himself. The chain grew into a major national department store brand known particularly for its middle-market positioning, offering more accessible pricing than higher-end department stores while maintaining a broader merchandise selection than discount retailers. JCPenney's widely publicized and ultimately unsuccessful 2012 attempt to eliminate coupons and sales in favor of simplified "everyday low pricing," led by former Apple retail executive Ron Johnson, became one of the most closely studied retail strategy failures in recent business history after it alienated the chain's price-conscious core customer base. JCPenney's combination of its century-long middle-market department store legacy and its widely studied 2012 pricing-strategy failure has made it one of the most instructive department store chains in American retail history.
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0 - 5Kohl's
Kohl's began as a Milwaukee grocery store chain founded by Polish immigrant Maxwell Kohl in 1927, before the company transitioned into department store retail in the 1960s and eventually sold off its original grocery operations entirely to focus on apparel and home goods. The chain built its business model around suburban strip-mall locations rather than traditional indoor shopping malls, a strategic choice that gave it more convenient, easily accessible parking and store access than mall-anchor competitors during a period when many other department stores were mall-dependent. Kohl's became known for its extensive loyalty rewards program and frequent significant discount promotions, along with more recent partnerships allowing in-store Amazon returns, reflecting an effort to drive consistent store foot traffic in an increasingly online-shopping-dominated retail environment. Kohl's combination of its suburban strip-mall retail strategy and its aggressive loyalty and discount promotional model has made it one of the most resilient traditional department store chains in modern American retail.
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0 - 6Neiman Marcus
Neiman Marcus was founded in Dallas in 1907 by Herbert Marcus, his sister Carrie Marcus Neiman, and her husband Al Neiman, built from the outset as a purveyor of high-end luxury fashion at a time when most Texas retailers focused on more practical, mass-market goods. The store's annual Christmas Book catalog became famous for its outlandish, ultra-high-priced "fantasy gifts," including items like his-and-hers submarines and private jets, generating significant national media attention each holiday season disproportionate to the catalog's actual sales. Neiman Marcus became closely associated with Texas's specific brand of high-end luxury retail culture, and its stores' emphasis on personal styling services and an elevated, exclusive shopping experience distinguished it from more broadly accessible department store competitors. Neiman Marcus's combination of its luxury-first positioning since its 1907 founding and its famously outlandish annual Christmas Book has made it one of the most distinctive high-end department store chains in the country.
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