Zayre () was a chain of discount stores that operated in the eastern half of the United States from 1956 to 1990. The company's headquarters was in Framingham, Massachusetts. In October 1988, Zayre's parent company, Zayre Corp., sold the stores to the competing Ames Department Stores, Inc. chain, and in June 1989, Zayre Corp. merged with one of its subsidiaries, The TJX Companies, parent company of T.J. Maxx, which still exists today. A number of stores retained the Zayre name until 1990, by which time all stores were either closed or converted into Ames stores. History Zayre was founded in 1919 as the New England Trading Company in Boston, Massachusetts, by brothers Max and Morris Feldberg. An underwear and hosiery wholesaler, the company began as a supplier to full-line department stores and specialty shops. Ten years later, the brothers launched their first retail operation, Bell Hosiery Shops (later shortened to "Bell Shops"). Within a few years, Bell Shops expanded beyond underwear and hosiery into women's specialty stores, competing with such chains as Lerner Shops and Three Sisters. By the end of World War II, there were nearly 30 Bell Shops in the New England area. In 1946, the company doubled its number of stores with its buyout of New York City-based Nugents, another women's specialty store chain. With its store base in New York, Pennsylvania, Delaware, New Jersey, and Washington, D.C., Nugents was a natural extension of the company's market area with almost no overlap. The 1950s By the early 1950s, company sales leveled off, and it became clear to the Feldbergs that drastic changes were needed for their business to remain viable. The Bell Shops/Nugent stores were suffering due to the decline of downtown business districts and to the rise of "mill" discount store operations. With the family's second generation, Stanley H. Feldberg (son of Max) and Sumner A. Feldberg (son of Morris) now in positions of responsibility, the company began to explore options, putting considerable effort into studying the hugely successful mill stores. Mill stores began operation in closed, empty textile mills available at dirt-cheap rents selling mainly clothing, linens, and other softlines. As these companies became more successful, they began to build their own new stores, either free-standing or in shopping centers, allowing greater visibility along with the benefits of custom-built facilities. Having settled on discounting as the logical direction in which to take their company, the