another one rides the bus..DILLARD..seems like many of the big retail chains were spawned in Arkansas
Arkansan founded upscale department chain
By Melissa Nelson
Associated Press
Saturday, February 9, 2002
LITTLE ROCK, Ark. -- William T. Dillard Sr., who built one the nation's largest retail chains out of a modest store he started at the end of the Depression, died Friday at his Little Rock home. He was 87.
Dillard was the chairman of Dillard's Inc., formerly known as Dillard Department Stores. The chain began in 1938 with a 2,500-square-foot store in southwestern Arkansas and now has nearly 350 stores in 29 states.
"He was quick to foresee the trend toward suburban shopping malls versus the old downtown environment," Ray Kemp, the company's retired vice chairman, said in March 1994.
Dillard was born Sept. 2, 1914, in Mineral Springs, Ark. His father owned a country store, and by the time Dillard left home for college, "I knew what I wanted to do," he said in 1984.
He graduated from the University of Arkansas with a business degree and earned a master's degree in business administration from Columbia University in 1937. He went to work for Sears Roebuck and Co. in Tulsa, Okla., then returned to Arkansas nine months later and opened his first store in Nashville.
During the first year, the store did $42,000 in business, and he made a $3,000 profit. Last year, Dillard's had sales of $8.7 billion and was the nation's third-largest upscale department store chain, behind Federated and May.
Like many upscale retailers, however, Dillard's has been hit hard by the economic decline; its stock had traded above $50 in 1992-93 but had fallen into the $10-$20 range recently.
Kurt Barnard, a retail consultant and president of Barnard's Retail Trend Report of Upper Montclair, N.J., said Dillard's death, along with last week's death of Stanley Marcus, the developer of the Neiman-Marcus chain, ended an era in American marketing.
"It was the essence of what was needed 30 years ago," he said. "Lifestyles have changed. I think Dillard's kept operating the way it used to operate when he was the head."
The family still runs the chain and holds five of the 12 seats on the board. Dillard, who worked full days well into his 80s, had turned over the day-to-day management to sons William II, Mike and Alex.
Dillard served in the Navy during World War II. By 1948, he had made enough money to open a department store in Texarkana. He sold the Nashville store and opened one in Magnolia and one across the Texas state line, in Tyler.
In the early '60s he took a risk, moving to Tulsa and buying Brown-Dunkin, which was heavily in debt.
"It was the best gamble I ever made," he said. "In 18 months I stopped the losses, refinanced and made it whole."
Before computers, Dillard had store managers call him every night with a total of the day's receipts. When one manager said he had a slow day because of bad weather, Dillard said, "If I had wanted a weather report, I would have called the weather bureau."
In 1963, Dillard and some associates bought Pfeifer's of Arkansas, then one of the state's leading stores. Six months later, he bought Blass Co., another leading store in downtown Little Rock. Dillard moved to Little Rock and established his headquarters there.
"Mr. Dillard will long be remembered as a man of tremendous vision and success in the world of retailing, but more importantly, he will truly be remembered as a man of honesty, integrity and absolute loyalty," the company said.
Dillard's funeral is scheduled for Monday in Little Rock. He is survived by his wife, Alexa, and five children. |
