Elder-Beerman - Fashion Company Profile
Elder-Beerman was the Dayton, Ohio department store chain whose history runs from an 1883 dry goods store through the 1962 merger that created its name to its 2003 acquisition by The Bon-Ton. When Bon-Ton was liquidated in 2018, every remaining Elder-Beerman store closed - the last of them on August 29, 2018 - ending 135 years of trading under the Elder name.
Company Snapshot
- Status
- Closed - acquired by The Bon-Ton in 2003; when Bon-Ton was liquidated in its 2018 bankruptcy, all remaining Elder-Beerman stores closed on August 29, 2018. The name later passed to CSC Generation and then BrandX, and the brand's website has remained inactive
- Type
- Was a department store chain - Elder-Beerman Stores Corp., later a Bon-Ton nameplate
- Headquarters
- Dayton, Ohio, United States
- Founded
- 1883, in Dayton, Ohio, as the Boston Dry Goods Store (later Elder & Johnston); the Elder-Beerman name dates to the 1962 merger
Company Profile
This page is therefore a historical profile, with no shop box and no official-site button: the chain's own story - Arthur Beerman, the Bee Gee Shoe sideline, the 1995 Chapter 11 turnaround and the three chains it acquired - is summarised below and kept in full on the history page. The Elder-Beerman name survives only as a brand asset held by BrandX; it no longer operates stores.
The two threads join in 1962, when Beerman Stores merged with Elder & Johnston Company to form the Elder-Beerman. For the next 20 years, the Elder-Beerman Stores Corp. grew to include furniture and home lines, and the company expanded with new stores throughout western Ohio and several surrounding states, competing with its Dayton rival, Rike Kumler. That sentence carries the chain's identity: a regional department store, rooted in Dayton, selling clothing alongside furniture and home goods across the surrounding states - the classic mid-American department store form, kept here as recorded.
Elder-Beerman History
The earlier record for this company - its history, past brand line-ups, figures and photographs from the periods described - is kept on a separate page for historical reference.
Elder-Beerman History & Historical Profile →Common Questions
When did Elder-Beerman begin?
Its history began in 1883 when the Boston Dry Goods Store opened in Dayton, Ohio, later incorporated as Elder & Johnston Company; the Elder-Beerman name itself dates to the 1962 merger of Beerman Stores with Elder & Johnston, in the historical record.
Which chains did Elder-Beerman acquire?
Three, as recorded: Mabley & Carew of Cincinnati in 1978, Meis of Terre Haute in 1989, and Stone & Thomas of Wheeling in 1998.
Who acquired Elder-Beerman, and when?
The Bon-Ton acquired Elder-Beerman in 2003, in the historical record; the historical record also records a Chapter 11 reorganization filing in 1995, after which Max Gutmann and Herb Glaser returned from retirement to turn the company around.
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