Chess King was a United States men's clothing

retailer Retail is the sale of goods and services to consumers, in contrast to wholesaling, which is sale to business or institutional customers. A retailer purchases goods in large quantities from manufacturers, directly or through a wholesaler, an ...

created by the

Melville Corporation Melville Corporation, formerly based in Rye, New York, was a large retail holding company incorporated by Ward Melville in 1922 from Melville Shoe Company. It became CVS Corporation in 1996 under a massive reorganization plan. The company traded ...

. From its founding in 1968, it grew to over 500 locations by the mid-1980s, before an eventual decline, sale, and closure of the chain in 1995.

History

In 1967, traveling salespeople from Melville's

Thom McAn The surname Thom is of Scottish origin, from the city of Aberdeen, Aberdeenshire and Angus, and is a sept of the Clan MacThomas. Thom is also a first name variant of the abbreviation "Tom" of "Thomas" that holds the "h". People with the surname ...

shoe business noted a "wide open market" for young men's clothing, which gave birth to the idea of starting a young men's clothing and shoe store. Market research reportedly found that

chess Chess is a board game for two players, called White and Black, each controlling an army of chess pieces in their color, with the objective to checkmate the opponent's king. It is sometimes called international chess or Western chess to dist ...

and

auto racing Auto racing (also known as car racing, motor racing, or automobile racing) is a motorsport involving the racing of automobiles A car or automobile is a motor vehicle with wheels. Most definitions of ''cars'' say that they run primaril ...

were popular interests of young men. The first Chess King branch opened in the Dedham Mall in

Dedham, Massachusetts Dedham ( ) is a town in and the county seat of Norfolk County, Massachusetts, United States. The population was 25,364 at the 2020 census. It is located on Boston's southwest border. On the northwest it is bordered by Needham, on the southwest b ...

(just outside

Boston Boston (), officially the City of Boston, is the capital city, state capital and List of municipalities in Massachusetts, most populous city of the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth of Massachusetts, as well as the cultural and financ ...

), in March 1968. In 1970, ''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...

'' described the store's concept as "teen-male apparel dress shops whose stores are highly identifiable, with bold coloring and designs aimed at appealing to the 12-to-20 male market." Five additional locations were opened in 1968, and 21 more in 1969. By late 1972, it had already grown to about 150 locations. By 1978, it had 300 locations. And by 1984, it had grown to over 500 stores.("Marshalls is a division of Melville Corp., which also owns Chess King, an operator of more than 500 young men's specialty stores.") Chess King also experimented with three spin-off specialty stores in the late 1980s and early 1990s. The first, named "FreeFall", carried designer labels for men and women and was geared toward higher-end, designer, brand names. The second, named "The B Club", carried activewear for both men and women. The third, named "Garage", had a '50s inspired decor along with a Nash Metropolitan automobile in most locations. The retailer was successful through the 1980s as a purveyor of wild '80s fads and fashion,("Chess King, the mall store for young men in need of flashy shirts")("At that time, he worked for Chess King, a mall-based staple of faddish clothes for young people. 'You remember the horrible clothes?' he said laughing.") but changing fashion trends contributed to the chain falling on hard times at the beginning of the 1990s. Melville would agree to sell Chess King in March 1993 to

Maryland Maryland ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Mid-Atlantic (United States), Mid-Atlantic region of the United States. It shares borders with Virginia, West Virginia, and the District of Columbia to its south and west; Pennsylvania to its north; ...

-based Merry Go Round Enterprises (MGRE), with the sale being finalized in May of that year. In January 1994, MGRE filed for

Chapter 11 Chapter 11 of the United States Bankruptcy Code ( Title 11 of the United States Code) permits reorganization under the bankruptcy laws of the United States. Such reorganization, known as Chapter 11 bankruptcy, is available to every business, whet ...

bankruptcy. In November 1995, the Chess King chain closed.("Merry-Go-Round Enterprises Inc. said it will close more than a third of its stores, including the entire Chess King men's clothing chain, as it struggles to emerge from bankruptcy court.")

References

Clothing retailers of the United States Defunct retail companies of the United States 1980s fashion Retail companies established in 1968 Retail companies disestablished in 1995 1968 establishments in Massachusetts 1995 disestablishments in Maryland Companies that filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in 1994 Companies based in Dedham, Massachusetts {{US-retail-company-stub