Portsmouth, Virginia and Greensboro, Charlotte, Raleigh and Fayetteville, North Carolina. Miller & Rhoads continued to expand to other cities in Virginia and North Carolina into the early 1980s, relocating its downtown Lynchburg and Charlottesville stores into shopping malls and opening large new locations at Lynnhaven Mall in Virginia Beach and Greenbrier Mall in Chesapeake. Even as its stores grew more contemporary, the chain adhered to many old traditions. Miller & Rhoads stores almost always had engraved metal name plaques at their entrances, even on mall entrances. An early 1980s redesign of the store logo featured curvaceous script reminiscent of calligraphy. The beginning of the end, and new beginnings The Garfinkel, Brooks Brothers, Miller & Rhoads company was acquired by Allied Stores in 1982. This marked a low point in the chain's history, as Allied closed many of the smaller stores, exiting the North Carolina market except for Raleigh, and began to neglect the maintenance on its larger stores in an effort to cut operating costs. Allied opened a small number of new, larger locations in Virginia. The downtown Roanoke store was closed in this period and replaced by a store at Valley View Mall. In an effort to revitalize the decaying downtown Richmond retail core, the city government, Miller & Rhoads, and Thalhimers teamed together in 1985 in the development of the Sixth Street Marketplace, an urban shopping center that took the place of the street that separated the two stores. Though it started out relatively popular, the downtown mall did not remain a success, and was razed by 2004. Miller & Rhoads' suburban stores continued to grow, but the downtown store's sales were generally stagnant with the exception of the Christmas season. In 1987, following its own ill-fated buyout by Campeau Corp., Allied sold Miller & Rhoads to Philadelphia developer Kevin Donohoe and store management, who began to renovate stores and plan a major expansion. At the time, Miller & Rhoads numbered 21 stores. Only two years later, in 1989, the company's future was dimming. Faced with increasing competition from stores like Leggett and Hess's and dwindling finances, Miller & Rhoads filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection and by 1990, all Miller & Rhoads stores closed their doors for good. The May Department Stores Company purchased four of Miller & Rhoads' larger suburban units in Richmond and Hampton Roads for about $22.7 million and reopened them as Hecht's in