The Collins Company; Cotswold Mall, Charlotte, North Carolina. Exterior view, circa 1966. (courtesy Pat Richardson)
The Collins Company; Charlotte, North Carolina. Newspaper advertisement, circa 1976. (courtesy Pat Richardson)
The Collins Company; Charlotte, North Carolina. Newspaper advertisement, circa 1972. (courtesy Pat Richardson)The Collins Company was a regional chain of specialty department stores.
Some additional info on The Collins Company-- In 1984, Peebles acquired The Collins Company, a regional department store group based in Charlotte, North Carolina, thereby giving the firm its first locations in America's increasingly popular shopping malls.
ReplyDeleteThe Collins Company was founded by my grandfather, W.A. Collins, in Conway, South Carolina, in 1928 and the headquarters was later moved to Charlotte, although some offices (his and the Controller) remained in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina for most of the company's existence. The acquisition by Peebles was in 1981.
DeleteThis brought back memories!
...I am talking with a guy (C.A.Porter, Sr.) that actually knew your grandfather & made/installed store fixtures in his stores throughout SC in the late 1940's thru the 1950's. Mr. Porter (92 yrs. old) now resides in Concord, NC & speaks very highly of your grandfather. Your grandfather used to fly his airplanes right up to the old abandoned Maxton Army AirBase building where Mr. Porter was making the fixtures.
DeleteInteresting ads for the Collins chain.
ReplyDelete1 cent for the left shoe, $28.49 for the right one!
Pat: Peebles was able to grow to malls with The Collins Company, but most of their mall stores went belly up when the name changed.
ReplyDeleteDave: Yeah, it does kind of read like that :-)
What's funny is that most department stores had a similar, specialty store-esque, advertising style back in the '70s.
I've looked ad copy from a number of chains of the era, and most of them had the same kind of phrasing and hand-drawn pictures of merchandise, regardless of where they were and what they sold.
ray was my college frat big brother great guy scott sloan
ReplyDeleteCool.
DeleteSo glad I found this page with family history about the stores! My grandfather, William Collins and my grandmother Beatrice Ambrose Collins had six sons. My dad was Richard Collins and I am named after my grandmother "Bee".
ReplyDeleteMy husband's father. Clarence Wishart Sr. Worked in the Whiteville store in the 40's then moved to Wallace to manage the Collins Dept. Store from 1951 until 1966...Harold Collins we believe owned 13 stores including the Wallace store and another brother owned other stores..Harold was good friends with Clarence...a year after Harold passed away his wife let the other brother run the stores for her..one day. Clarence showed up to find himself locked out of his store he managed..the n was told he was fired...a sad day after approx. 20 years.6 days a week...still a story we talk about as Clarence never said why he was fired. Love to know more of the story and who took over the store...
ReplyDelete