Bealls History
Earlier company descriptions, brand line-ups, store counts and photographs from the history of Bealls, kept for historical reference.
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The Company Description of Its Time
Bealls comes with a naming warning, and the historical profile puts it first: Bealls and Bealls Outlet stores located in Florida, Georgia and Arizona, and the BeallsInc.com, BeallsOutlet.com, BeallsFlorida.com and Bealls.com websites, are operated by Beall's, Inc. with headquarters in Bradenton, Florida. BeallsTx.com and Bealls stores located in other states are operated by Specialty Retailers Inc. with headquarters in Houston, Texas. Specialty Retailers Inc. and Beall's, Inc. are not affiliated. This page profiles the Florida company - the one whose century-long history is told in detail below - and the distinction is made at the top exactly because shoppers and researchers confuse the two.
Depression, Repurchase and the Outlet Idea
As the business grew, Beall bought property and built a larger store a few blocks away on Manatee Avenue. During the Depression, he lost his store to the bank but continued to operate it; in 1940 he was able to repurchase the company. That same year his son E.R. joined the family business after graduating from the University of Florida; after army service he rejoined his father in 1946, and that year they changed the name to Beall's Department Store. Robert Beall ran the original downtown store until a few months before his death at age 86; the old store operated until 1987, when it was torn down for new construction, and the proceeds established the R.M. Beall, Sr. Foundation, which supports youth and education.
E.R.'s vision began the expansion into shopping centers serving the middle income retirees flocking to Florida: the second store opened in Bradenton in 1956, the third in Venice, Florida in 1961, and E.R.'s son Robert M. Beall, II (Bob) joined in 1970. In 1987 the company created the Beall's Outlet chain - Chairman E.R. Beall's response to the growing number of outlet malls in Florida - and in 1992 an Outlet store opened in Arizona, its first beyond Florida. By 2011 the Outlet chain had grown to over 450 stores in 14 states, and Bealls exceeded a billion dollars in sales annually with over 535 stores; a 2015 note keeps the same store count and adds the launch of a new coastal lifestyle concept called Bunulu.
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