Best Products - Citizendia

For the home electronics chain see: Best Buy, for the New York department store, see Best & Company. Best Buy Co Inc ( is a Fortune 100 company and the largest specialty retailer of Consumer electronics in the United States and Canada

Best Products Co, Inc.



Fate	Liquidation


Founded	1957
Defunct	1997
Location	Richmond, Virginia
Industry	Retail
Products	home furnishings, consumer electronics, jewelry, housewares, toys

Best Products (also known simply as BEST) is a defunct chain of American catalog showroom retail stores, formerly headquartered in Richmond, Virginia. Year 1957 ( MCMLVII) was a Common year starting on Tuesday (link displays the 1957 Gregorian calendar) Year 1997 ( MCMXCVII) was a Common year starting on Wednesday (link will display full 1997 Gregorian calendar This article is about the city of Richmond the capital of the Commonwealth of Virginia. The United States of America —commonly referred to as the Catalog merchant is a term for a form of Retailing. The typical merchant sold a wide variety of household and personal products with many emphasizing jewelry This article is about the city of Richmond the capital of the Commonwealth of Virginia.

1 History
2 External links

History

Beginnings

The company was founded by Sydney Lewis and Frances Lewis. Sydney Lewis was a prominent Virginia businessman philanthropist and art collector Sydney Lewis, a lawyer educated at Washington & Lee and Harvard Business School, worked with his father managing an encyclopedia sales operation in Richmond. A lawyer, according to Black's Law Dictionary, is "a person learned in the law as an attorney, Counsel or Solicitor; a person Washington and Lee University is a private liberal arts college in Lexington Virginia, USA Harvard Business School ( HBS) is a renowned Business school in the United States Lewis thought of selling additional merchandise along with the bills for encyclopedias. In 1957, the Lewises sent out their first catalog. The first showroom was at 4909 West Marshall Street in Henrico County, just across the street from the new Willow Lawn shopping center. Henrico (hɛnˈraɪkoʊ is a county located in the Commonwealth of Virginia, a state of the United States.

The company had a strong sense of promotion and artistic sensibilities; it was legend in artistic circles that it would trade store merchandise for art. As a result, the company, as well as the Lewises, gathered a significant collection of 20th century art. Much of the Lewis Collection can be seen at the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts. The Virginia Museum of Fine arts, or ‘’’VMFA’’’ is an art museum in Richmond Virginia.

SITE

In the 1970s, Best Products contracted with James Wines’ SITE, Sculpture in the Environment architecture firm to design nine highly unorthodox retail facilities, notably a tongue-in-cheek structure in Houston, Texas with a severely distressed facade. This article is about the Decade 1970-1979 For the Year 1970 see 1970. James Wines (1932-) is an American Artist/architect associated with Environmental design. Sculpture in the Environment (SITE is an Architecture and Environmental design organisation founded in 1970 and located in the Wall Street area of This building purportedly “appeared in more books on 20th century architecture than photographs of any other modern structure” [1]. In Richmond, the company built the Peeling Wall showroom that appeared to have a peeling facade (located on Midlothian Turnpike) as well as a Forest showroom that appeared to have trees growing out of it (located on Quioccasin Road). The Manchester Turnpike was a Turnpike road in Chesterfield County in the U Photographs of these storefronts appeared in several Best catalogs. As of 2007, all of these distinctive buildings have been converted into conventional buildings by removing the architectural embelishments, or in a few cases, demolished.

Their Parham Road headquarters, built in 1981 and designed by Hardy Holzman Pfeiffer, was notable for an American Institute of Architects award and the use of Art Deco eagles rescued from a New York building. Art Deco was a popular international design movement from 1925 until 1939 affecting the decorative arts such as Architecture, Interior design, and Industrial [2] The giant BEST letters of the headquarters could be seen along Interstate 95 at Parham Road. Hardy Holzman Pfeiffer subsequently designed the West Wing of the Virginia Museum, which was funded by the Lewises.

Retail Concept

Best employed the "catalog showroom" concept for many of its product offerings. Although some product categories (such as sporting goods and toys) were stocked in traditional self-serve aisles, the majority of products (notably consumer electronics, housewares, and appliances) were featured as unboxed display models. Customers were permitted to examine and experiment with these models, and if found to be desirable, they could be purchased by submitting orders to store personnel. Saleable versions of the merchandise (typically boxed and/or in its original packaging) would then be retrieved from storage and delivered to a customer service area for subsequent purchase.

Modern Merchandising

As a cost-saving measure, Best jointly published its catalog with Service Merchandise and Modern Merchandising, and had regional non-compete agreements with those chains. Service Merchandise is a defunct chain of Catalog showroom stores carrying fine jewelry toys sporting goods and Electronics that existed from 1934 to

In 1982, Best acquired Basco and Modern Merchandising of Minneapolis and the six chains it operated — LaBelle's, Dolgin's, Jafco, Miller Sales, Rogers and Great Western. Jafco Co is a defunct chain of Catalog showroom retail stores founded by Sidney Jaffe in 1957 in Seattle Washington.

In 1985 Best Products was named the most efficient corporation in the United States by the Fortune 500 group. This was following the streamlining of Modern Merchandising into the Best Products family. The conversion was a move that analysts said would take as long as five years. Best completed the project in nine months.

Bankruptcy

Terrarium facade of Hialeah, FL showroom

Best filed twice for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection. Hialeah is a city in Miami-Dade County, Florida, United States. Chapter 11 is a chapter of the United States Bankruptcy Code, which permits reorganization under the Bankruptcy laws of the United States The first bankruptcy period began in January 1991 and lasted through June 16, 1994. Year 1991 ( MCMXCI) was a Common year starting on Tuesday (link will display full calendar of the Gregorian Calendar. Events 1487 - Battle of Stoke Field, the last dying breath of the Wars of the Roses. Year 1994 ( MCMXCIV) was a Common year starting on Saturday (link will display full 1994 Gregorian calendar) The second and final filing was made on September 24, 1996. Events 622 - Prophet Muhammad completes his hegira from Mecca to Medina. Year 1996 ( MCMXCVI) was a Leap year starting on Monday (link will display full 1996 Gregorian calendar) At the time of the second filing, Best operated 169 Best stores and 11 Best Jewelry stores in 23 states, and a nation-wide mail-order service. Some analysts believe that the catalog itself was the downfall of Best and other catalog-showroom retailers because it constrained stores’ product lines and prices for each catalog’s shelf life, sometimes up to 18 months, while competitors were free to adapt to market conditions. Many also believe that the company's bad budget management was its downfall.

Best Products was traded on the NASDAQ exchange as “BESTQ. The NASDAQ (acronym of National Association of Securities Dealers Automated Quotations) is an American Stock exchange. ” It was de-listed on November 29, 1996. Events 1777 - San Jose California, is founded as el Pueblo de San José de Guadalupe Year 1996 ( MCMXCVI) was a Leap year starting on Monday (link will display full 1996 Gregorian calendar) Best did not appeal the NASDAQ decision. By May 1997, Best had liquidated most of its assets and was declared insolvent. Year 1997 ( MCMXCVII) was a Common year starting on Wednesday (link will display full 1997 Gregorian calendar Insolvency means the inability to pay one's debts This is defined in two different waysCash flow insolvency unable to pay debts as they fall dueBalance sheet insolvency Best vacated its corporate headquarters in Richmond in January 1998 and mailed out final checks to unsecured creditors the following December (paying 96 cents per dollar owed). Year 1998 ( MCMXCVIII) was a Common year starting on Thursday (link will display full 1998 Gregorian calendar)

External links

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