Rich's was a family-owned business that was established in 1962. It grew out of Jerry's Army Navy Surplus in

Salem, Massachusetts Salem ( ) is a historic coastal city in Essex County, Massachusetts, United States, located on the North Shore (Massachusetts), North Shore of Greater Boston. Continuous settlement by Europeans began in 1626 with English colonists. Salem was one ...

. The Rich family once operated 29 discount merchandise stores in

Maine Maine ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the New England region of the United States, and the northeasternmost state in the Contiguous United States. It borders New Hampshire to the west, the Gulf of Maine to the southeast, and the Provinces and ...

New Hampshire New Hampshire ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the New England region of the Northeastern United States. It borders Massachusetts to the south, Vermont to the west, Maine and the Gulf of Maine to the east, and the Canadian province of Quebec t ...

Vermont Vermont () is a U.S. state, state in the New England region of the Northeastern United States. It borders Massachusetts to the south, New Hampshire to the east, New York (state), New York to the west, and the Provinces and territories of Ca ...

, and

Massachusetts Massachusetts ( ; ), officially the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, is a U.S. state, state in the New England region of the Northeastern United States. It borders the Atlantic Ocean and the Gulf of Maine to its east, Connecticut and Rhode ...

History

Jerry Rich, a Russian immigrant living in Salem, Massachusetts, established Jerry's Army-Navy Surplus in 1929. Rich's was founded in 1961 by Rich, his sons Bennett and Howard and his son-in-law Joel Saxe. Similar to chain stores like

Ames AMES, short Air Ministry Experimental Station, was the name given to the British Air Ministry's radar development team at Bawdsey Manor (afterwards RAF Bawdsey) in the immediate pre-World War II era. The team was forced to move on three occasion ...

and Bradlee's, the chain offered discounted brand-name merchandise. In 1994, the company had sales of $240 million (~$ in ). By Jerry Rich's death in 1995, the chain had 28 locations across New England.

Bankruptcy and closure

Due to retail consolidation and pressure from

Walmart Walmart Inc. (; formerly Wal-Mart Stores, Inc.) is an American multinational retail corporation that operates a chain of hypermarkets (also called supercenters), discount department stores, and grocery stores in the United States and 23 other ...

, the chain went bankrupt on March 14, 1996. Financial records in its bankruptcy filing detailed $63.4 million in assets and $51.3 million in liabilities. Although the business was initially optimistic about its ability to emerge from bankruptcy, the store shuttered all its locations in December 1996. Nearly 2,000 workers at the company's 28 stores in Massachusetts, Maine, New Hampshire, and Vermont lost their jobs by February 1997.

References

Retail companies established in 1962 Defunct discount stores of the United States Surplus stores Retail companies disestablished in 1997 1962 establishments in Massachusetts 1997 disestablishments in Massachusetts Companies based in Salem, Massachusetts {{US-retail-company-stub