Mammoth Mart

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Mammoth Mart was a discount department store chain, located in the northeastern United States, primarily in the New England area. The chain was founded by Max Coffman and Henry Gornstein in Framingham, Massachusetts in 1956,^[1] and was something of a prototype for the large, downscale department store, selling housewares, hardware and clothing in stark, unfussy buildings, usually in suburban shopping center locations. Other discount department store retailers like K-Mart, Zayre, and Bradlees would subsequently expand on this concept.

Their advertising mascot was Marty the elephant, a smiling, blazer-wearing mammoth.

History[]

In 1956 Max Coffman and Henry Gornstein opened the first Mammoth Mart (at the time known as Mammoth Mills) in Framingham, MA. It was originally called Mammoth Mills due to the first store being in a mill building that used the same name. The name was changed to Mammoth Mart in 1962.^[2]

By 1969 the chain had 35 stores, though they filed for bankruptcy protection under Chapter XI of the Bankruptcy Act of 1898—one of the precursors (along with Chapter X of the 1898 Bankruptcy Act) of today's Chapter 11—in 1974. The chain was acquired by now-defunct King's Department Stores in 1978.

References[]

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