WorkChoices

WorkChoices was the name given to changes made to the federal industrial relations laws in Australia by the , being amendments to the "Workplace Relations Act 1996" by the Workplace Relations Amendment (Work Choices) Act 2005, sometimes referred to as the Workplace Relations Amendment Act 2005, that came into effect on 27 March 2006.
In May 2005, Prime Minister John Howard informed the Australian House of Representatives that the federal government intended to reform Australian industrial relations laws by introducing a unified national system. "WorkChoices" was ostensibly designed to improve employment levels and national economic performance by dispensing with unfair dismissal laws for companies under a certain size, removing the "no disadvantage test" which had sought to ensure workers were not left disadvantaged by changes in legislation, thereby promoting individual efficiency and requiring workers to submit their certified agreements directly to Workplace Authority rather than going through the Australian Industrial Relations Commission. It also made adjustments to a workforce's ability to legally go on strike, enabling workers to bargain for conditions without collectivised representation, and significantly restricting trade union activity.
The passing and implementation of the new laws was strongly opposed by the left side of politics, particularly the trade union movement. It was argued that the laws stripped away basic employee rights and were fundamentally unfair. The ACTU, the peak association for Australian trade unions, consistently ran television advertisements attacking the new laws and launching its "Your Rights at Work" campaign opposing the changes. The campaign involved mass rallies and marches, television and radio advertisements, judicial action, and e-activism. The week of action culminated on 1 July 2005 with a "SkyChannel" meeting of union delegates and members organised by Unions NSW. The meeting was followed by a large rally in Sydney and events in regional areas. Individual state governments also opposed the changes. For example, the Victorian Government introduced the Victorian Workplace Rights Advocate as a form of political resistance to the changes.
"WorkChoices" was a major issue in the 2007 federal election, with the Australian Labor Party (ALP) led by Kevin Rudd vowing to abolish it. Labor won government at the 2007 election and repealed the whole of the "WorkChoices" legislation and replaced it with the "Fair Work Act 2009".
"WorkChoices" changes.
"WorkChoices" made a number of significant changes to the "Workplace Relations Act 1996", including:
Scope of the system.
Before the commencement of "WorkChoices" the Commonwealth relied on the conciliation and arbitration power (section 51(xxxv) of the Constitution) which provides that the Commonwealth may make laws with respect to "conciliation and arbitration for the prevention and settlement of industrial disputes extending beyond the limits of any one State".
The Howard Government sought to bring as many employees under "WorkChoices" as was within its constitutional powers. It relied on the corporations power (Section 51(xx) of the Constitution of Australia) extending its coverage to an estimated 85% of Australian employees. All employees of "constitutional corporations" (i.e. trading, financial, and foreign corporations) became covered by the "WorkChoices" system. Other constitutional powers used by the federal government to extend the scope of the legislation included the to cover the Australian territories, including the external territories of the Christmas and Cocos Islands, the external affairs power, the interstate and overseas trade and commerce power, and the powers of the Commonwealth to legislate for its own employees. Victoria had voluntarily referred its industrial relations powers to the Commonwealth in 1996, under section 51(xxxvii) of the Constitution.
While one of the purposes of these changes was to provide a single national industrial relations system, in practice, each of the States' systems (except Victoria and the territories) remained in force. State industrial relations systems continued to apply to employers that were not covered by federal agreements (Australian workplace agreements or collective agreements), bound to a federal award, or were not incorporated and trading, financial or foreign organisations. Employers that remained in the State systems included sole traders, partnerships, incorporated associations which are not "trading and financial corporations" and state government bodies.
Court decisions may be required to establish whether an organisation falls under this definition; areas of contention include local government and incorporated associations that undertake some trading activities, such as not-for-profit organisations. There have been several test cases in state and federal jurisdictions, including "Bysterveld v Shire of Cue" and "Bankstown Handicapped Children's Centre Association Inc v Hillman". The general principles established by this case and similar cases since the introduction of "WorkChoices" were that the types of activities carried out by an individual organisation and the extent and value of these activities must be assessed on a case-by-case basis to determine whether the activities are considered substantially "trading and financial".
Significant changes.
Changing dismissal protection laws for most employees.
"WorkChoices" contained provisions relating to both unfair dismissal and unlawful termination, which are separate matters. The Australian Industrial Relations Commission (AIRC) retained some of its role in hearing unfair dismissal and unlawful termination cases, but increased the emphasis on mediation and conciliation. It also reduced the timeframe within which employees were able to lodge such claims; claims had to be lodged within 21 days from the date of termination. Employees could apply for an extension of this timeframe, but a review of published decisions shows that extensions were infrequently granted. Fees applied for applications, at one time $55.70.
Both unfair dismissal and unlawful termination claims went through an initial hearing and compulsory conciliation conference at the AIRC. Only when the conciliation was unsuccessful and a conciliation certificate issued could the claim proceed to the next step. For unfair dismissal claims, the claim proceeded to arbitration by the AIRC, where a Member of the Commission could issue a binding decision. For unlawful termination claims, the claim proceeded to a court with appropriate jurisdiction such as the Federal Court or the Industrial Division of the Federal Magistrates Court.
Prior to "WorkChoices", unfair dismissal protections existed in awards or through state industrial relation commissions. The changes to dismissal laws was part of "WorkChoices" which reduced the protections of previous unfair dismissal laws, which were introduced at a federal level by the Labor Government of Paul Keating in 1993. The arguments for these changes related to creating jobs by removing the burden on business of dismissing unsuitable employees. Arguments against the changes included the lack of job security for employees.
"WorkChoices" introduced several restrictions on who was able to lodge an unfair dismissal claim with the AIRC. Unfair dismissal was defined by the "Workplace Relations Act 1996" (the Act) as dismissal which is "harsh, unjust or unreasonable." Employees had to be working for a business that had more than 100 employees, and served a qualifying period of 6 months to claim unfair dismissal. Other reasons that excluded an employee from taking unfair dismissal action included where an employee was employed on a seasonal basis or on a contract of employment for a specified period or task, employed on a probationary period that was reasonable and determined in advance, a short-term casual employee, a trainee engaged for a specific period, or an employee not employed under an award or workplace agreement and earning more than $101,300 per year.
Significantly, the Act also excluded employees who were dismissed for "genuine operational reasons or reasons including genuine operational reasons". "Genuine operational reasons" were defined in the Act as "reasons of an economic, technological, structural or similar nature." Interpretation of this clause by the AIRC had created precedent for a broad application of this section of the Act. In "Carter v Village Cinemas", the Full Bench of the AIRC decided upon appeal that an operational reason need only be a reason for dismissal, not the sole or dominant reason for dismissal. In another significant decision, "Andrew Cruickshank v Priceline Pty Ltd", Mr Cruickshank was employed at Priceline on a package of $101,150. He was terminated and Priceline subsequently hired a new employee in the same position on a package of $65,000–$75,000. Priceline claimed, successfully, that they had not breached the unfair dismissal provisions of the Act, as the dismissal saved the business money, therefore was for a reason including a genuine operational reason.
Unlawful termination encompassed several parts; notice of termination, Centrelink notification, and prohibited reasons. Under Section 661 of the Act, employees, other than excluded employees (including casual employees with less than 12 months' regular ongoing service, apprentices) were required to be given a specified period of notice of termination or payment in lieu of this notice. Where this was not provided to an employee, an unlawful termination application could have been lodged. In certain circumstances where a business terminates 15 or more employees, the business needed to give written notice to a body prescribed by the "Workplace Relations Regulations 2006", currently Centrelink.
Prohibited reasons for termination included discriminatory reasons such as age, race, national extraction, political opinion, sex, sexual preference, religion, marital status, disability, pregnancy and family responsibilities; refusal to sign an Australian workplace agreement (AWA) (however, it was not prohibited to deny employment to a new employee who refuses to sign an AWA); being involved in proceedings against an employer for alleged breach of the law; membership or non-membership of a union or participation in union activities; and absence from work due to illness or injury, parental leave or emergency management activities. Unlike unfair dismissal provisions, there were no restrictions on employees who can lodge unlawful termination claims for prohibited reasons.
Removing the "No Disadvantage Test" for agreements.
Prior to the "WorkChoices" coming into force, certified agreements, subsequently called Collective Agreements (CAs) and individual Australian workplace agreements (AWAs), had to pass a No Disadvantage Test. This test compared a proposed agreement to an underpinning and relevant award that had or should have covered employees up until the proposal for an agreement. The No Disadvantage Test weighed the benefits of the award against the proposed agreement to ensure that, overall, employees were no worse off.
"WorkChoices" required that employers provide employees with five minimum entitlements, which covered maximum ordinary working hours, annual leave, parental leave, personal/carer's leave and minimum pay scales. These five minimum entitlements were referred to as the Australian Fair Pay and Conditions Standard. However, the standard did not have any bearing on agreements that were certified prior to the commencement of WorkChoices: Notional Agreements Preserving State Awards (NAPSAs) if their conditions were more generous than what is provided for under the standard, those conditions will continue to apply.
Those who supported the scrapping of the No Disadvantage Test claimed that it was too complex and argued that its removal would create more opportunities for unemployed people to be offered a job. The example of "Billy" was used in material supporting the Government's position. Unions and other groups opposed to WorkChoices claimed that Billy was a perfect example of why the new laws were unfair and would lead to bosses exploiting their workers.
In response to widespread criticism, the government introduced a fairness test to replace the standard. However, the legislation was not retrospective and so did not apply to agreements created between the inception of the original WorkChoices legislation on 27 March 2006 and when the Fairness Test became operative on 7 May 2007.
Streamlined process for agreement certification.
Previously, certified agreements, which were collective agreements about employment entitlements and obligations, made by an employer directly with employees or with unions, had to be lodged and certified in the Australian Industrial Relations Commission (AIRC).
The new legislated changes transferred responsibility for overseeing the agreement certification process to the Workplace Authority, which had some of its other powers of investigation transferred to the Workplace Ombudsman. Now instead of appearing before a Commissioner at the AIRC, parties to a collective agreement were only required to lodge the agreement with the Workplace Authority.
This new process was criticised by those opposed to "WorkChoices" as they believed that it would give unions less opportunity to scrutinise and intervene where they believed an agreement had been unfairly drafted. However, the government stated in response that the intention of this part of the Act was to improve the turn-around time for agreement certification. In addition, the newly amended Act provided for substantial penalties upon employers, employees and unions where a collective agreement did not comply with the new regulations or included prohibited content.
Office of the Employment Advocate survey.
The Office of the Employment Advocate, now known as the Workplace Authority, conducted a survey ending in September 2006 which showed the following results with respect to 'protected' conditions lost in "WorkChoices" legislation: of all AWAs sampled, 88 per cent abolished or 'modified' overtime rates; 89 per cent of AWAs either abolished or 'modified' shiftwork loading; 91 per cent abolished or 'modified' monetary allowances; 85 per cent abolished or 'modified incentive payments; 82 per cent abolished or 'modified' public holiday payments; and 83 per cent abolished or 'modified' rest breaks. In each of these cases conditions were more often abolished than modified, and all modifications represented decreases in conditions. Lastly, though 66 per cent of AWAs resulted in wage increases, 52 per cent of these increases were unquantified or not guaranteed.
Passage into law.
The "Workplace Relations Amendment (WorkChoices) Bill 2005" (Cth) was introduced into the Australian House of Representatives on 2 November 2005 by the Minister for Employment and Workplace Relations, Kevin Andrews. The Australian Labor Party claimed it was not provided with enough copies of the Bill when it entered the House and mounted a campaign against the Bill in the House throughout the day. During Question Time, Opposition members continually interjected while Government members were speaking, leading the Speaker (and later the Deputy Speaker) to remove 11 of them.
On the same day, the Senate referred the Bill to its Employment, Workplace Relations and Education Committee. The committee allowed five days for submissions to be made to the committee, with the closing date being 9 November 2005. Five days of hearings were scheduled to be held at Parliament House in Canberra commencing 14 November with the committee reporting to the Senate on 22 November. The decision to have a rather short inquiry was criticised by Labor, who claimed that it was an attempt by the Government to avoid proper scrutiny of the Bill. By 9 November, the Senate committee had received more than 4,500 submissions, of which only 173 were published on its website. The committee did not individually acknowledge and publish all submissions, due to the large number of submissions, at least partially resulting from the ACTU campaign against "WorkChoices", which included setting up a form on its website by which people could make a submission.
The Bill passed through the House of Representatives on 10 November and was introduced into the Senate later that day by Special Minister of State, Senator Eric Abetz.
On 14 November the Senate Inquiry began its five-day hearing—in which only a fraction of the submissions were heard—with the submissions of State and Territory Industrial Relations Ministers and representatives. The representatives were each allowed only seven minutes to address the Inquiry, during which they criticised the package as being unconstitutional and undermining the rights and conditions of workers. The Bill was passed, with amendments, by the Senate, by a vote of 35–33 on 2 December 2005.
The Bill received Royal Assent on 14 December and the parts concerning the Australian Fair Pay Commission, wages for school based trainees and apprentices, and redundancy pay for small employers came into force immediately from that date.
The Minister for Employment and Workplace Relations released the first set of regulations for the Bill on 17 March 2006 and following that the complete Act was proclaimed by Australia's Governor-General Michael Jeffery. The Act commenced on 27 March 2006.
In July 2007, a biography of John Howard said he pushed the "WorkChoices" legislation through in 2006 so it wouldn't be announced in an election year, and that several cabinet ministers expressed concerns that the legislation would disadvantage too many workers.
Campaigns and counter-campaigns.
High Court challenge.
The ACTU's media campaign triggered a government counter-campaign promoting the reforms. Stage one of the government campaign preceded the release of the legislation and cost approximately $46 million, including advertisements from both the government and the Business Council of Australia, information booklets and a hotline. Government polling of the period August 2005 to February 2006, not released until March 2008, revealed that the government's advertising campaign failed to make workers less apprehensive about "WorkChoices".
The ALP, minor parties and the ACTU attacked the advertising campaign, with ACTU President Sharan Burrow describing the advertisements as deceitful party-political advertising funded through taxes. The Government argued that such expenditure is normal procedure when introducing radical change, citing the example of the GST advertising. However, that advertising was severely criticised at the time, and for the same reasons. The expenditure was challenged in the High Court of Australia by the ALP and the ACTU, in "Combet v Commonwealth", on the grounds that the expenditure was not approved by Parliament. On 29 September 2005 the High Court rejected this argument in a majority decision.
National days of protest.
On 15 November 2005, the ACTU organised a national day of protest, during which the ACTU estimated 546,000 people took part in marches and protests in Australia's state capitals and other cities. The rallies were addressed by Labor State Premiers. Other notable Australians, including former Labor Prime Minister Bob Hawke, also spoke in opposition to the industrial relations changes.
A second national day of protest was held across Australia on 30 November 2006 with rallies or meetings in about 300 sites nationwide. At the MCG the entertainment included Jimmy Barnes and the crowd was addressed by such speakers as the leader of the opposition Kim Beazley. Estimates for the Melbourne crowd ranged from 45,000 to 65,000 people at the MCG and the march to Federation Square. In other cities, an estimated 40,000 people attended a similar rally in Sydney, 20,000 in Brisbane, 7,000 in Adelaide, 3,000 in Perth, 2,000 in Darwin, and 1,000 in Canberra.
Online campaigns.
As part of its campaign against "WorkChoices", the ACTU set up the "Your Rights at Work" campaign website, with more than 170,000 people signing up to receive updates about the campaign and the e-list also being part of the online campaign actions. One of the most well-supported campaigns was "Take a Stand Barnaby!", petitioning National Party of Australia Senator Barnaby Joyce to act on his concerns about "WorkChoices" and vote against them in the Senate in November 2005. Ultimately unsuccessful, the petition received 85,189 signatures, thought by the ACTU to be a record for an Australian online petition at that time.
Other internet activism campaigns undertaken by the Rights at Work website supporters included raising $50,000 in five working days to erect a billboard on Melbourne's Tullamarine Freeway raising awareness of "WorkChoices". The online campaigns also targeted employers, like Darrell Lea CEO John Tolmie. In April, Mr Tolmie bowed to pressure and halted plans to shift his workforce onto AWA individual contracts after 10,000 Rights at Work supporters emailed him asking him to reconsider.
High Court challenge.
At the commencement of the WorkChoices reforms every state and territory of Australia had a Labor government. The States lodged a challenge to the Constitutional validity of WorkChoices in the High Court of Australia. Various union groups also lodged their own challenge in the High Court. The High Court heard arguments between 4 May 2006 and 11 May 2006. On 14 November 2006 the High Court, by a 5 to 2 majority, rejected the challenge, upholding the Government's use of the constitutional corporations power as a constitutionally valid basis for the WorkChoices reforms.
Political reactions and consequences.
When it was tabled in the Parliament, there was significant concerns from civil libertarians and the Opposition that the Bill was passed far too quickly for those voting on it to actually read the document closely, and that insufficient physical copies of the bill had been given to the Opposition to read before a vote was held.
Employer associations such as the Business Council of Australia and the Australian Chamber of Commerce and Industry had indicated they supported WorkChoices at the time, figures that ran counter to the 50 per cent of employers cited in a 2007 AC Nielsen poll as opposing the measures. The Australian labour movement, represented by the Australian Council of Trade Unions, ran a very effective media campaign attacking the proposed changes, and alternate models were proposed by the centre-left Australian Labor Party (ALP), who won the subsequent election in a landslide. The Liberal (right-wing) Government at that time used federal funds to produce and air an advertising campaign promoting WorkChoices, a decision that which was criticised by the federal opposition and challenged in the High Court. In addition, the state governments of Australia (all of which were Labor at the time) used the High Court to challenge the legality of the Commonwealth using the Corporations power to sidestep the usual parliamentary oversight and implement WorkChoices, but were ruled against.
"WorkChoices" was not a 2004 Liberal party election policy. However, following the 2004 federal election, the Liberal-National coalition held a majority in both houses of parliament, and amendments were introduced into the House of Representatives on 2 November 2005. A senate inquiry was held into the Bill from 14 November 2005 to 22 November 2005. The length of this was criticised by the Opposition as being too short. A survey by the Workplace Authority found that although most AWAs (Australian workplace agreement) removed some leave loadings, this was also accompanied by a wage rise in most cases. "WorkChoices" was passed by the Senate on 2 December 2005. The primary changes came into effect on 27 March 2006.
In December 2005, the federal ALP caucus formed an Industrial Relations Taskforce in order to investigate the adverse effects of the legislation, chaired by Brendan O'Connor, with special emphasis on the impact on regional and rural communities, women and young people. During 2006, the Taskforce traveled to every state and territory in Australia, convening meetings with individuals, employers, church and community groups and trade unions, collecting testimony in order to inform federal Labor's policy response and to publicise instances of actual exploitation. An interim report, "WorkChoices: A Race to the Bottom" was launched by Opposition Leader Kim Beazley at Parliament House, Canberra on 20 June 2006, and widely distributed.
"WorkChoices" was a prominent issue in the defeat of the centre-right Howard Liberal government at the 2007 federal election. The centre-left Rudd Labor government dismantled the legislation in 2008, declaring it "dead".
"WorkChoices" brand discarded.
The Australian Government stopped using the name "WorkChoices" to describe its industrial relations changes on 17 May 2007. Workplace Relations Minister Joe Hockey said the brand had to be dropped due to the union and community campaign against the WorkChoices laws. "It has resonated because it has been the most sophisticated and articulate political campaign in the history of this country." The ACTU countered that the name may have changed but the laws were the same.
The Government did not rename the brand, but did launch a new advertising campaign that did not refer specifically to WorkChoices. This gave rise to the jibe from critics and commentators alike that the policy was one "that dare not speak its name", an allusion to the euphemism coined by Lord Alfred Douglas for homosexuality. Another notable curiosity was the continuation of the website.
Legacy.
Kevin Rudd took over the Australian Labor Party leadership on 4 December 2006, and in the process reaffirming his opposition to WorkChoices. As Labor won government at the 2007 federal election, it retained a federal rather than states-based system. Additionally, it planned to phase out Australian workplace agreements (AWAs) over a period of years with a preference of collective agreements and awards with an exclusion to those earning over $100,000. Unfair dismissal laws were to be restored to all businesses; however, employees joining companies with under 15 employees will be placed under a twelve-month probationary period. Restrictive right of entry rules in to workplaces for unions introduced under WorkChoices were to remain and secret ballots (rather than open ballots) to decide on carrying out strikes were to continue, which would become banned except during periods of collective bargaining. The dismantling of the group of industrial relations bodies created by the government would also occur, and in their place a service known as "Fair Work Australia" would be created.
Kevin Rudd used part of the 2007 election debate to argue that the Liberal Party was being influenced by the H. R. Nicholls Society to make further reforms to industrial relations, citing Nick Minchin's attendance to last year's H. R. Nicholls Society conference, where he told the audience that the coalition knew its reform to WorkChoices were not popular but the process of change must continue, and that "there is still a long way to go ... awards, the IR commission, all the rest of it". The Australian Labor Party stated that "We know the HR Nicholls society supports the abolition of awards, supports the abolition of the minimum wage, supports the abolition of the independent umpire, the Industrial Relations Commission".
In 2007, the Society criticised the WorkChoices legislation for creating even more regulation. The Society, which in fact supports deregulation of the labour market to the extent that employers and employees simply form contracts with each other and then deal with any disputes via the courts, admonished the WorkChoices model particularly for its length and the amount of red tape, claiming it was "all about regulation" and comparing it to the "old Soviet system of command and control", as well as on federalist grounds saying "This attempt on his part to diminish the role of the states, to concentrate all power in Canberra, is very much to Australia's detriment". Society President Ray Evans stated that in creating WorkChoices "John Howard has assumed an omnipotence that Labor will inherit and to which no mortal should aspire. It will end in tears." Des Moore stated on behalf of the Society that "The HR Nicholls Society is very disappointed with the work choices changes."
Howard's successor as leader of the Liberal Party, Brendan Nelson declared that his party has "listened and learned" from the Australian public. He also declared that WorkChoices was "dead" and would never be resurrected as part of Coalition policy, and called on Rudd to move quickly to introduce draft industrial relations legislation. Former IR minister Joe Hockey said the laws "went too deep" but were introduced with "the best intentions". "As I said yesterday and I've said since election day, WorkChoices is dead, and there is an overwhelming mandate for the Labor Party's policy of tearing up WorkChoices," he said.
Former Prime Minister John Howard broke his post-election silence in March 2008 by attacking Rudd's industrial relations policy while defending WorkChoices.
In March 2008 Federal Industrial Relations Minister Julia Gillard revealed that the previous government had spent $121 million on what she described as "WorkChoices propaganda" including promotional material such as 98,000 mousepads, 77,000 pens and 100,000 plastic folders.
On 19 March 2008, a bill was passed in the Senate that prevented new AWAs from being made, and set up provisions for workers to be transferred from AWAs into intermediate agreements.
On 27 March 2008, the ban on new AWAs came into effect in Australia. The date was chosen by Acting Prime Minister Julia Gillard to have the law given royal assent as it coincided with the second anniversary of the WorkChoices legislation. "On this two-year anniversary of WorkChoices, we are here to start burying WorkChoices," announced Julia Gillard. Brendan Nelson, Leader of the Opposition, made it clear that the Liberal-National Coalition will not seek to reintroduce AWAs, saying: "I made it clear on behalf of the Coalition prior to Christmas that WorkChoices is dead."
Greens MP Adam Bandt criticised the 2014 budget as allowing WorkChoices to make an "insidious comeback".
In January 2014, Liberal Prime Minister Tony Abbott distanced himself from senator Cory Bernardi after the latter called for more flexible industrial relations laws.


Henry Kraus

Henry Kraus (November 13, 1905 in Knoxville, Tennessee – January 27, 1995 in Paris) was a labor historian, and European art historian.
He graduated from the University of Chicago and Western Reserve University with a master's degree in 1928.
He was an organizer of the Flint Sit-Down Strike, and edited "The Flint Auto Worker".
Sol Dollinger was critical of his account of the strike.
He married Dorothy Kraus, who helped organize the UAW Women's Auxiliary.
He was the first editor of the United Automobile Workers' newspaper, "The United Auto Worker".
He moved to Paris, and worked as a European correspondent for World Wide Medical News Service.
His papers are at the Walter P. Reuther Library, Wayne State University.
Archival Collections.
The Henry Kraus Papers at the Walter P. Reuther Library date from 1926-1960. His papers reflect his attempts to organize auto workers and the early history of the United Automobile Workers from 1935-1941. Particularly well-documented in the collection are the Flint sit-down strike and factionalism within the UAW.


SavaCentre

SavaCentre was a chain of 13 hypermarkets and later a further seven discount supermarkets owned and operated jointly by Sainsbury's and BHS, beginning in 1977. Sainsbury's later took full control of the stores alone in 1989, rebranding them as Sainsbury's SavaCentre, until 2005 when the stores were integrated into the Sainsbury's supermarket brand. The hypermarket stores ranged in size from to and the discount supermarkets ranged in size from to . At the time of its inception, it was the only dedicated hypermarket chain in the UK.
History.
The initial idea.
In the 1970s, the then chairman and chief executive of Sainsbury's, John Davan Sainsbury (later Lord Sainsbury of Preston Candover), realised the threat from the emergence of hypermarkets, such as those being built by the French retailer Carrefour. The initial response by Sainsbury's was a 50:50 joint enterprise with British Home Stores, set up on 9 December 1975 as "Sabre Hypermarkets Limited", which was changed to "Savacentre Limited" on 31 December 1976.
These stores carried the complete range of Sainsbury's and British Home Stores products along with electrical goods like refrigerators, washing machines, audio and TV equipment. Typical counters included delicatessen and fresh fish counters, an in-store bakery, a restaurant and half the stores' sales areas were devoted to textiles, electrical goods and hardware. The stores also featured a petrol filling station and some stores had over 1,000 car parking spaces. Following Sainsbury's launch of its home improvements venture, Homebase, in 1981, home and gardening products featured in SavaCentre stores. Following the 1986 merger between Habitat Mothercare and British Home Stores to create Storehouse plc, baby care products were also sold in SavaCentre stores.
The first stores open.
The first SavaCentre opened at The Galleries, Washington, Tyne and Wear, on 15 November 1977, with of sales area, and the slogan "The store with more for less.". This store was extended by a further to in 1986. On 17 October 1978, the second SavaCentre opened at the Hempstead Valley Shopping Centre in Kent. At the opposite end of the Hempstead Valley Shopping Centre a Presto opened, which later became a Safeway store. Following Sainsbury's buyout of Storehouse plc's 50% stake in SavaCentre in 1989, the British Home Stores branch was located in the former Safeway store, following Safeway's 2004 acquisition by Morrisons.
The number of SavaCentres grew slowly during the 1980s. In March 1980, the third SavaCentre opened adjacent to the Eastgate Shopping Centre in Basildon with of sales area, but this store was sold to Asda in 2004. In October 1980, a fourth SavaCentre opened in Oldbury, West Midlands. In September 1981, the Calcot SavaCentre, opened in Reading, and this store was used in the SavaCentre TV adverts in 1983. The Calcot SavaCentre was further extended by in the 1990/91 financial year, but when the store was rebranded as Sainsbury's in 2005, the extension was sold off to Next with other shops Sports Direct, Dunelm and Boots.
In 1984, SavaCentre started trading in Scotland following the opening of a store in Cameron Toll, Edinburgh. At the time of building the Cameron Toll SavaCentre was Scotland's largest single level store. This store also had to compete with a smaller Safeway supermarket in the same shopping centre, until the Safeway branch closed down in 1997.
Colliers Wood, London Merton SavaCentre opened on 28 February 1989 with of sales area, making it the largest hypermarket in the UK at the time of its opening. This store was later split up, with Sainsbury's taking of the sales area. The remainder of the space was taken by Marks & Spencer in 2005, with the store exterior featuring branding of both companies. Due to having two major shops (not just Sainsburys) this branch is often still known as the London Savacentre.
Becoming a wholly owned subsidiary of Sainsbury's.
In March 1989, Sainsbury's bought out Storehouse plc's 50% share in the partnership for £123 million (valuing SavaCentre at £246 million in total or each of its then seven stores at £35.14 million each) and SavaCentre became a wholly owned subsidiary on 13 March 1989, in the last week of the financial year; the chain was rebranded "Sainsbury's SavaCentre". Sainsbury's initially negotiated a long-term contract with Storehouse to continue to supply SavaCentre with clothing, domestic textiles, lighting and other non-food lines, although these products were gradually phased out following the launch of Sainsbury's 'Lifestyle' range of own brand clothes in 1991. This was rebranded as 'I-N-I-T-I-A-L-S' in September 1996. The Sainsbury's own-label clothing range is now branded 'Tu'. At the time Sainsbury's believed there was scope for significant expansion. The deal also allowed Sainsbury's to integrate the company more fully with its existing food retailing chain, whilst retaining a separate management structure.
Further expansion.
London Colney SavaCentre, off Junction 22 of the M25 motorway in Hertfordshire, opened on 13 March 1990 with of sales area, and at the time of its opening it also became the largest hypermarket in the UK. The London Colney hypermarket was so large that two-thirds of the sales space was devoted to non-food. This store was later split up, with Sainsbury's taking of the sales area. The balance was sold off to Marks & Spencer, and the store was then rebranded as "Sainsbury's M&S" in 2005.
Cheadle SavaCentre opened in 1990 with the BHS store opening towards the car park. BHS Cheadle closed in 1994, following John Lewis' taking over BHS in the next year after closure of BHS. H&M also wanted to open, but the store opening was canelled.
The SavaCentre in Meadowhall Shopping Centre, Sheffield, opened in September 1990 with of sales area. This store was originally rebranded as a Sainsbury's in 1999, but was closed and relocated to Crystal Peaks in 2006.
It was not until October 1993 that the tenth SavaCentre opened at Beckton in East London. This store became the smallest SavaCentre, with a sales area of . At the same time, a new concept store, with of sales area, was opened adjacent to the SavaCentre. This store was based on a club warehouse type format, and was branded as "Bulksava". This format was not a success and the Bulksava branch closed down a year later.
In August 1995, the London Sydenham SavaCentre opened with a sales area of . Also in 1995, the Stockton-on-Tees SavaCentre opened, with of sales area, which was a former North Eastern Co-op store, and was later sold to Tesco in 2003. In 1997 a SavaCentre opened in the White Rose Centre, off the M62 motorway, in Morley, West Yorkshire, in Leeds, with of sales area. When this store was rebranded as Sainsbury's in 2005, the sales area was cut to .
A fourteenth SavaCentre hypermarket planned for Braehead in Glasgow, Scotland, was also due to open in 1997. This store opened in 1999 before moving to a larger in the same complex in 2009.
A fifteenth SavaCentre hypermarket was planned for Romford, North East London, but this store also only eventually opened as a large Sainsbury's.
1990s store formats strategy.
During the 1990s, Sainsbury's continued to build around 20 new freehold supermarkets of around a year. Sainsbury's argued that customers would rather experience a full grocery offer which was not compromised by non-food. With stores of SavaCentre size, not only could the full range of Sainsbury's grocery products be sold, but a further sales area of equivalent size could be devoted to non-food. SavaCentre was still only a small part of the group, and did not make a significant contribution to the Group in comparison to Sainsbury's Supermarkets.
This came at a time when arch-rival Tesco was not only matching the Sainsbury's store portfolio, but also exceeding them in terms of store size. Tesco mimicked the Sainsbury's SavaCentre format, and launched its own Tesco Extra version only as recently as 1997, which was 20 years later than Sainsbury's. Tesco pursued an aggressive expansion of its hypermarket format, converting existing stores through extensions, and paying high prices for larger pieces of land to build new ones. Although Tesco Extras or ASDA Supercentres now dominate the hypermarket format, it was Sainsbury's who pioneered the modern hypermarket.
Launching a strategic review of SavaCentre.
On 2 August 1997, Sainsbury's decided to launch a strategic review of its SavaCentre hypermarket format with the help of Coopers and Lybrand. The review concluded that to offer both the full Sainsbury's food offer and a comprehensive non-food offer, stores would have to have sales areas of at least . Obtaining planning permission for stores of these sizes in out-of-town locations was difficult, and there was also stiff competition from specialist non-food retailers at the time.
It was therefore decided that the traditional SavaCentre hypermarket format would be scrapped, and the existing SavaCentre stores would be remodelled to look like a very large Sainsbury's Supermarket, concentrating on fresh foods and home meal replacements. Under the new format, DIY and gardening products, lighting, TVs and vacuum cleaners were to be removed. It was also decided that the SavaCentre name would be re-branded as "Sainsbury's Savacentre", to emphasise that the company was now a wholly owned subsidiary of Sainsbury's.
In August 1998, the Calcot SavaCentre was the first to be remodelled to provide a greater emphasis on food, with the food to non-food ratio changing from 60:40 to 80:20. Non-food was based around four areas: Celebration - for party ideas; Indulgence - for beauty products; Baby and Toddler; and Cookshop. The refurbishment cost £26m. The Store Director from 1996 - 2002 was Chris Diplock. The Chairman of Savacentre Ian Coull, MD Jack O'Brien and other Board members all resigned.
The plan was to roll out the format, which was trialled at the Calcot SavaCentre, to the other 12 SavaCentres over the next three years. This format was not a success and the Calcot SavaCentre became the only hypermarket to be remodelled in this format. The Calcot SavaCentre was downsized and rebranded as Sainsbury's in 2005, but following a further refurbishment in 2008, a number of the products removed in the 1998 revamp were reintroduced.
Launch of discount supermarkets.
On 29 May 2002, Sainsbury's announced that it would be extending the SavaCentre format to include discount supermarkets, under the "Sainsbury's savacentre" brand name, with the slogan "Making Life Taste Better For Less". These stores were aimed at family shoppers with a much stronger emphasis on Economy ranges than a core Sainsbury's Supermarket. These stores would range in size from to of sales area, with a third of the space devoted to non-food. The plan was to launch 90 of these discount supermarkets in total, after the successful launch of six trial stores.
Only eight discount supermarkets were opened in total. The first store, with a sales area of , opened in Northfield, Birmingham on 30 May 2002. Further stores were opened in Wigan, on 17 August 2002; Ashton-under-Lyne, Wednesfield, Wolverhampton, in 2002; Knotty Ash, Liverpool, on 1 March 2003; Stoke-on-Trent, on 18 March 2003; and stores in Bolton and Grimsby both opened on 27 March 2003.
This format was not a success and all eight stores have since reverted to the core Sainsbury's brand.
Disappearance.
In April 1999, the Sainsbury's SavaCentre Head Office in Wokingham, Berkshire closed down and the administration moved to Sainsbury's Blackfriars headquarters in London. The Wokingham Head Office was originally opened in 1982.
At the same time, SavaCentre hypermarkets were integrated into Sainsbury's new "Large Store Formats Group", as Sainsbury's largest store format, a position it held until September 2010.
As a result of the 'Making Sainsbury's Great Again' recovery plan by chief executive Justin King, revealed on 19 October 2004, it was announced that the Sainsbury's SavaCentre concept would be scrapped, and would be integrated under the main Sainsbury's brand. It is believed that the SavaCentre brand name was scrapped because the SavaCentre format had had mixed success over the years, and it left the option for Sainsbury's to launch a substantial non-food offer in its heritage supermarket estate, under its own brand, in the future.
10 of the 13 former SavaCentre hypermarkets now trade as Sainsbury's, and all seven of the former Sainsbury's SavaCentre discount supermarkets now trade as Sainsbury's. The former SavaCentres in London Colney and Merton are now joint-ventures with Marks & Spencer, and have the external fascia 'Sainsbury's M&S'. The Meadowhall, Sheffield branch of SavaCentre was converted into a Sainsbury's supermarket store in 1999 and closed in 2005. At the same time as Meadowhall closed, in 2006, a replacement opened south of the city at Crystal Peaks. A number of the other SavaCentres were downsized, leaving the London Sydenham SavaCentre store the largest Sainsbury's store in the country until September 2010.
Beyond the SavaCentre format.
In 2008, the London Sydenham and Oldbury SavaCentres were remodelled to trial a launch of a non-food offer. This was the first major attempt by Sainsbury's to launch its own substantial non-food offer since the launch of the "Lifestyle" clothing range in 1991. This format became a success, and later in 2008 Sainsbury's announced that it was going to extend as many as 100 existing Sainsbury's Supermarkets to SavaCentre store sizes of of sales area or more by 2014, to carry the new non-food offer trialled in the London Sydenham and Oldbury SavaCentres. For example, the Hayes, Middlesex branch was extended from to in sales area in November 2008. The Kempshott, Basingstoke branch was extended to of sales area and was both opened and reopened by Life President Lord Sainsbury of Preston Candover himself in November 1988 and 25 August 2010 respectively.
The largest format of Sainsbury's stores are now around 100,000 sq ft, launched from September 2010. These stores have sales areas of or more with a 55:45 split between food and non-food. The first three stores of this format were launched in Crayford, Lincoln and Stanway, Essex between September and December 2010.
References.


Leggett (department store)


Safeway (UK)

Safeway was a British food wholesaler, chain of supermarkets and convenience shops. It started as a subsidiary of the American Safeway Inc., before being sold off in 1987.
Safeway was listed on the London Stock Exchange and was a constituent of the FTSE 100 Index, until it was acquired by Morrisons in March 2004. Most of its 479 shops were rebranded as Morrisons, with others being sold off. The brand disappeared from the United Kingdom on 24 November 2005.
In November 2016, Morrisons revived the Safeway brand for a range of products, manufactured in the company's own factories, for distribution through UK independent retailers.
History.
Early years.
Safeway Food Stores was established in 1962 in the United Kingdom by the American supermarket chain Safeway Inc., with seven supermarkets and a few smaller stores in Greater London, and its first purpose-built store was opened in Bedford in 1963. It brought many ideas from the US, including larger stores with wider aisles and delicatessens, and a much wider range of products. By 1987, it had 133 shops around the United Kingdom.
Acquisition by Argyll Foods.
In 1987, Safeway Inc put Safeway Food Stores up for sale. Argyll Foods eventually secured it for the sum of £681m, with £600m raised through a rights issue that was three times oversubscribed. The merger of Argyll and Safeway was hailed by commentators as one of the most successfully integrated retail combinations in the United Kingdom, bringing together Argyll's experienced management team, with a strong but somewhat underdeveloped retail brand.
Argyll then began converting the larger Presto supermarkets to the Safeway brand. The Presto name continued on smaller supermarkets in North East England and Scotland for several years and even enjoyed a brief revival in the early 1990s, when several new Presto shops began to open and a range of Presto own label products was introduced. The last new Presto shops opened in 1995. The revival was short lived, as in 1995, many smaller Presto shops were sold to a consortium of Spar retailers.
Over the next few years, competitive pressures intensified. Pre tax profits fell by 13% during the year ended 30 April 1994, prompting a wide ranging strategic review known as "Safeway 2000", led by the then chief executive, Colin Smith, with assistance from McKinsey Consulting. This involved the sale of the Lo-Cost discount operation, and the re design of the Safeway shops to appeal to the family shopper.
In July 1996, Argyll conducted a share buyback, and then renamed itself Safeway plc. During 1997, several Presto stores were converted to Safeway, and by the beginning of 1998, the final Presto shops were either converted or closed down. All shops traded simply as Safeway, regardless of size.
David Webster, who had taken over as chairman in 1997, after the retirement of Alistair Grant, decided to open merger talks with Asda. These talks were called off after a few weeks following a leak to a Sunday newspaper, and then briefly revived in the early months of 1998, before breaking down again.
The outcome, if the negotiations had been successful, would probably have been the disappearance of the Safeway name, and the emergence of a stronger Asda, still focussing on discount prices, but with a bigger volume to support it. This might have achieved a more secure future for Safeway, than continuing the struggle to keep up with Tesco and Sainsbury's.
Safeway was the first of the large supermarket groups to introduce a loyalty card, which it launched in 1995 and called ABC (Added Bonus Card). As this was initially only introduced into selected shops on a trial basis, however, Tesco is able to claim the title for the first nationwide introduction of a loyalty card, with Clubcard.
Safeway, in 1999, started a rail container flow carrying goods to its far north shops, some as far as Inverness, Nairn, Elgin and Buckie. The train consisted of van wagons and containers. The train was operated by EWS.
"New Safeway".
By the early months of 1999, Safeway was coming under renewed criticism from investors. Its shares had under performed the food sector over the previous five years; it had been pushed back into fourth position by Asda and it did not have enough shops of adequate size, to offer a comprehensive non food range. In July 1999, Safeway announced the appointment a new chief executive, Carlos Criado-Perez, who had held senior posts in Wal-Mart's international division.
The problem was how to distinguish Safeway from Tesco and Sainsbury's, and how to minimise its scale disadvantage. According to estimates made by the Competition Commission, Tesco was able to negotiate significantly lower prices from its suppliers than Safeway – averaging about 3% on big selling branded items.
Criado-Perez's response was to introduce selective deep discounting, the so called high/low pricing formula, which was later branded as 'substantially discredited' by Morrisons management, making deep price cuts on a limited set of products for a limited period. Criado-Perez also abandoned Safeway's loyalty card, arguing that these cards were no longer an effective marketing tool. This project was branded 'New Safeway'.
The new approach to pricing was one of the four pillars of Safeway's strategy, the others being "Best for Fresh Foods", "Best for Customer Service", and "Best for Product Availability". Criado-Perez envisaged a five-year programme of developing the shops along these lines, to be completed by 2004.
In 2002, Safeway was the fourth largest supermarket chain by sales in the United Kingdom. However, it was growing more slowly than other large chains in the United Kingdom, and this was reflected in a share price below the values of the group's assets, leading to the various takeover rumours that circulated during 2002, indicating the City was unconvinced with the Criado-Perez strategy.
Morrisons takeover.
On 9 January 2003, the much smaller Morrisons, with around 119 shops largely located in the North of England, made a surprise offer to purchase the chain, offering 1.32 new shares of Morrisons for each share of Safeway, with the co-operation of the Safeway board. However, this served only to start a stampede of other potential buyers. Sainsbury's, Asda, KKR (the company which helped finance the sale of Safeway to Argyll in 1987), Trackdean Investments Limited (controlled by Philip Green, owner of BHS and Arcadia), and Tesco all said they were considering making offers.
They were all asked to make submissions to the Office of Fair Trading (OFT) for approval under the Fair Trading Act 1973. On 23 January, Safeway's board dropped its recommendation of the Morrisons offer. Kohlberg Kravis Roberts later dropped its proposal.
On 19 March, the remaining proposals except for Trackdean's (which was said to raise no competition issues) were referred to the Competition Commission by the Trade and Industry Secretary, Patricia Hewitt. The report of the Competition Commission was made public on 26 September.
A takeover of Safeway by Sainsbury's, Asda or Tesco was "expected to operate against the public interest, and should be prohibited". However, a takeover by Morrisons was held to be acceptable on the condition that fifty three shops of the combined operation be sold, due to local competition issues. Patricia Hewitt accepted these recommendations.
Philip Green announced on 30 October that he was not proceeding with a takeover bid, on the basis that it was not clear whether approval could be obtained to sell off individual shops to other chains. On 15 December, Morrisons, the only remaining bidder, made a new offer of one share of Morrisons, plus sixty pence for each Safeway share, again with the co-operation of the Safeway board.
On 11 February 2004, shareholders of both Wm Morrison and Safeway voted to approve the merger of the two companies, subject to the result of two High Court rulings later in the month.
Shop disposals.
Originally, fifty-two shops were to be compulsorily divested after the takeover, but this was reduced to fifty after one shop in Sunderland burned down, and the lease ended on another in the city centre of Leeds. John Lewis Partnership purchased nineteen to be part of its Waitrose chain, while Sainsbury's purchased a further fourteen, and Tesco bought ten in October 2004.
Unlike other operators, most notably Tesco, Sainsbury's and the Co-op, Morrisons had chosen not to move into the convenience shop sector. Further to this policy decision, it was announced in October 2004 that the 114 smaller shops of Safeway Compact were to be sold off to rival supermarket chain Somerfield, in a two part deal worth £260.2 million in total.
In Northern Ireland, Morrisons sold former Safeway shops to Asda. These included a shop in Bangor, which actually opened after the takeover by Morrisons, in June 2005.
Morrisons continued to sell and close shops not covered by the Competition Commission ruling, which it felt did not fit with the scale and layout of its format of "Market Street". In total, 254 shops were sold off by October 2005, which left the chain with around 367 shops by November 2005. In all, seventy two shops were sold that were neither part of the original Competition Commission ruling nor part of the Safeway Compact portfolio.
One of the largest single purchases in 2005 was that of five shops by Waitrose in August. On 18 July 2005, a further six shops were sold to Waitrose, including the former Safeway shop in Hexham, Northumberland, which became the most northerly Waitrose branch in England.
In May 2005, Morrisons announced the termination of Safeway's joint venture forecourt shop petrol station format with BP. Under the deal, the premises were split 50/50 between the two companies. Five sites were subsequently sold on to BP, while Morrisons sold the rest of its sites to Somerfield and Tesco, which both maintain a presence in this market sector.
Morrisons also sold Safeway's Channel Islands shops, in Guernsey and Jersey, to CI Traders, where they continued to trade under the Safeway brand name, despite selling products from chains such as Iceland. In February 2011, CI Traders sold the Channel Island Safeway shops to Waitrose, and the Safeway brand disappeared from the Channel Islands.
On the Isle of Man, the Douglas shop was sold to Shoprite, and the Ramsey shop was sold to the Co-op. The shop in Gibraltar was originally marketed for sale, but was then converted. In November 2005, plans were submitted for the extension and redevelopment of the shop, in order to introduce the full Morrisons format.
In September 2005, the company announced the closure of former Safeway depots in Kent, Bristol and Warrington, with the loss of around 2,500 jobs. The Kent depot was later sold to upmarket rival Waitrose, whilst the Warrington depot was sold to frozen food rival Iceland. Part of the Bristol depot was sold off to Gist. The shop conversion process was completed on 24 November 2005, when the last Safeway fascia disappeared from the United Kingdom.
Partial brand revival.
In November 2016, Morrisons announced a revival of the Safeway brand, on food products that it manufactures for retailers. However, these products would not be sold in Morrisons. Morrisons, which is also the fourth largest food producer in the United Kingdom, is seeking to utilise more of the capacity within its food manufacturing sites, and sees Safeway as the ideal brand to front products for sale through third party retailers.
In August 2017, McColls signed an agreement to stock Safeway-branded products in its nationwide chain of small-format convenience stores. Items have since gone on sale and a new Safeway website has been launched.


Richard Schneirov

Richard Schneirov (born 1948) is a professor of history and noted labor historian at Indiana State University.
Early life and education.
Schneirov attended Grinnell College from 1966 to 1968, where he helped found and lead that school's chapter of Students for a Democratic Society (SDS). He also started the underground newspaper "Pterodactyl." He transferred to the University of Illinois at Chicago, where he received a bachelor's degree in 1971.
He obtained a master's degree in history in 1975 and a Ph.D. in history in 1984, both from Northern Illinois University.
Career.
Schneirov was named a Fulbright Scholar after receiving his doctorate. During the 1985 to 1986 academic year, he lectured at the Institut Fur England und Amerikastudien at the University of Frankfurt in Frankfurt am Main, Germany. He returned to Germany in 2011, where he taught at Westfallische Wilhelms-Universitat in Muenster.
In 1986, Schneirov won appointment as an adjunct professor at The Ohio State University.
In 1989, Schneirov was named an assistant professor at Indiana State University. He was promoted to associate professor in 1993, and made a full professor in 1999.
In 2020 Schneirov entered "phased retirement" from Indiana State University. He will teach in the Fall of 2020 and 2021.
Research interests.
Schneirov is a noted scholar of working-class history and of the Gilded Age-Progressive Era. Much of his research has focused on the American labor movement during the Gilded Age. He has also researched the period of the 1960s and 70s, and regularly teaches a class: "The Sixties: Counterculture and Protest."
Schneirov's most notable work is his 1998 book, "Labor and Urban Politics: Class Conflict and the Origins of Modern Liberalism in Chicago, 1864-97." The work won the Urban History Association's Kenneth Jackson Award in 1999 for best book in North American urban history. The book is a definitive account of the rise of the Chicago labor movement during the Great Railroad Strike of 1877, the struggle for the eight-hour day, and the Pullman Strike of 1894.
The work is considered a major reinterpretation of Gilded Era history. Schneirov's thesis is that the American labor movement exerted a profound influence on Chicago and urban politics, and radically transformed liberal and progressive political thought. As noted labor scholar Joseph McCartin observed:
In 2006 Schneirov contributed an important article periodizing the Gilded Age: “Thoughts on Periodizing the Gilded Age: Capital Accumulation, Society, and Politics, 1873-1898” and rejoinder to responses by Rebecca Edwards and James L Huston, Journal of the Gilded Age and Progressive Era 5 (July 2006): 189-240.
In 2012, Schneirov has published "Chicago in the Age of Capital: Class, Politics, and Democracy during the Civil War and Reconstruction" (with John B. Jentz). The book charts the rise of a capitalist economy and society out of an artisan one and the ensuing political consequences.
In 2014 Routledge published his extended essay and primer on American democracy (with Gaston Fernandez), "Democracy as a Way of Life in America: A History."
In 2019 Schneirov published a re-interpretation of AFL founder Samuel Gompers in “Uncovering the Contradictions in Samuel Gompers’s ‘More’: Reading ‘What Does Labor Want?” Journal of the Gilded Age and Progressive Era. Schneirov views Gompers as a leader who tried to bridge diverse discourses and political viewpoints within the late nineteenth century labor movement, rather than simply representing a narrow stratum of craft workers.
Schneirov's current research agenda focuses on American politics and culture during the Gilded Age and Progressive Era.
Memberships, honors and awards.
Memberships.
Schneirov is or has been a member of the board of editors of Labor, Labor History, and the Journal of the Gilded Age and Progressive Era. He is a reviewer for the "Journal of American History," "Social Science History," "Industrial and Labor Relations Review," the University of Illinois Press, and Cornell University Press.
In 2000, he founded the William English Walling Society, which since 2004 has become defunct.
Schneirov is or has been a member of the Labor and Working-Class History Association, Organization of American Historians, the Society of Historians of the Gilded Age and Progressive Era, Eugene V. Debs Foundation, and the Illinois Labor History Society.
Schneirov is also a member of the American Association of University Professors (AAUP).
From 1997 to 2001, he was the AAUP chapter president at Indiana State where he led the fight for university policy protecting the professional rights of contingent faculty. He served on the AAUP National Committee on Contingent Faculty and the Profession from 2004 to 2008. From 2006 to 2010, he was president of the AAUP's Indiana Conference.
Honors and awards.
Schneirov was named a Fulbright Scholar in 1985 and again in 2011, and received a National Endowment for the Humanities research grant in 1988 and again in 1995.
He received a University Continuing Education Association Creative Program Award grant in 1994.
In 2004, Indiana State honored him with the Theodore Dreiser Distinguished Research and Creativity Award.
Schneirov's 1998 book, "Labor and Urban Politics: Class Conflict and the Origins of Modern Liberalism in Chicago, 1864-97," won the Urban History Association's Kenneth Jackson Award for the best book in North American urban history.
Publications.
[Many of the articles below are available on Academia.edu]


Euphemius of Constantinople

Euphemius of Constantinople (died 515) was Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople (490–496). Theophanes calls him Euthymius. Prior to his appointment, Euphemius was a presbyter of Constantinople, administrator of a hospital for the poor at Neapolis, unsuspected of any Eutychian leanings, and is described as learned and very virtuous.
Acacian schism.
In 482, Emperor Zeno had published a decree called the "Henotikon", which forbade in the current theological discussions any other criterion but those of the Councils of First Council of Nicaea and First Council of Constantinople (ignoring the decrees of Chalcedon), carefully avoided speaking of Christ's two natures, and used ambiguous formulae that were meant to conciliate the Monophysites. Despite his efforts, the "Henotikon" really satisfied no one: Monophysites disliked it as much as the Orthodox. However, Acacius at Constantinople, Peter Mongus Patriarch of Alexandria, and Peter the Fuller Patriarch of Antioch had all signed it. Pope Felix III convened in 484 a Roman synod of sixty-seven bishops that condemned the emperor's decree, deposed and excommunicated Acacius, Peter Mongus, and Peter Fuller. Acacius retorted by striking the pope's name from his diptychs and persecuted Catholics at Constantinople. When he died, Fravitta, his successor, applied for recognition at Rome, but in vain, since he would not give up communion with Peter Mongus.
Euphemius immediately recognized the Council of Chalcedon, restored the pope's name to his diptychs, and broke with Peter Mongus, who died in October of the year of Euphemius's accession (490). By these acts, he showed his desire to heal the rift with Rome. Unfortunately, he still refused to erase the names of his two predecessors (Acacius and Fravitta) from the diptychs, where they appeared among the faithful departed. Pope Felix insisted that heretics and favourers of heresy should not be prayed for publicly; Euphemius repeated his attempts at reconciliation to Pope Gelasius I, but the problem of his predecessors remained; Euphemius could not remove their names from the diptychs without causing embarrassment or insult to those they had baptized and ordained. Gelasius allowed that in other circumstances he would have written to announce his election, but sourly observes that the custom existed only between bishops who were united in communion, and was not to be extended to those who, like Euphemius, preferred a strange alliance to that with St. Peter. As a mark of condescension Gelasius granted the canonical remedy to all who had been baptised and ordained by Acacius.
Theodoric the Great had become master of Italy, and in 493 sent Faustus and Irenaeus to the emperor Anastasius I to ask for peace. During their sojourn at Constantinople the envoys received complaints from the Greeks against the Roman church, which they reported to the pope. Euphemius urged that the condemnation of Acacius by one prelate only was invalid; to excommunicate a metropolitan of Constantinople a general council was necessary.
Patriarch and Emperor.
Before the accession of the Emperor Anastasius I, Euphemius had made him sign a profession of faith; eventually he fell foul of the emperor. As the Isaurian War was then under way, Euphemius was accused of treason by revealing the emperor's plans to his enemies. A soldier, either by Anastasius's own order or to gain his favour, drew his sword on Euphemius at the door of the sacristy, but was struck down by an attendant. The emperor further wanted back his written profession of faith, which Euphemius refused to give up, so Anastasius assembled the bishops who were in the capital and preferred charges against their patriarch, whom they obsequiously excommunicated and deposed (496). The people loyally refused to surrender him, but inevitably yielded to the emperor.
Meanwhile, Euphemius, fearing for his life, sought sanctuary in the baptistery, and refused to go out until Macedonius II had promised on the word of the emperor that no violence should be done to him when they conducted him to exile. With a proper feeling of respect for the dignity of his fallen predecessor, Macedonius made the attendant deacon take off the newly-given pallium and clothed himself in the dress of a simple presbyter, "not daring to wear" his insignia before their canonical owner. After some conversation, Macedonius (who would follow Euphemius to the very same place of exile under the same emperor) handed to him the proceeds of a loan he had raised for his expenses. Euphemius was exiled to Asia Minor and died in 515 at Ancyra. He was recognized to the end as lawful patriarch by his peers in the East who included Elias of Jerusalem Patriarch of Jerusalem, and Patriarch Flavian II of Antioch.


Slave Coast of West Africa

The Slave Coast is a historical name formerly used for that part of coastal West Africa along the Bight of Benin that is located between the Volta River and the Lagos Lagoon. The name is derived from the region's history as a major source of African people taken into slavery during the Atlantic slave trade from the early 16th century to the late 19th century.
Other nearby coastal regions historically known by their prime colonial export are the Gold Coast, the Ivory Coast (or Windward Coast), and the Pepper Coast (or Grain Coast).
Overview.
European sources began documenting the development of trade in this region and its integration into the trans-Atlantic slave trade around 1670. The slave trade became so extensive in the 18th and 19th centuries that an "Atlantic community" was formed. The slave trade was facilitated on the European end by the Portuguese, the Dutch, the French and the British. Slaves went to the New World, mostly to Brazil and the Caribbean. Ports that exported these enslaved people from Africa include Ouidah, Lagos, Aného (Little Popo), Grand-Popo, Agoué, Jakin, Porto-Novo, and Badagry. These ports traded in slaves who were supplied from African communities, tribes and kingdoms, including the Alladah and Ouidah, which were later taken over by the Dahomey kingdom.
Researchers estimate that between two and three million people were stolen out of this region and traded for goods like alcohol and tobacco from the Americas and textiles from Europe. Current estimates are that about 12 million African people were shipped across the Atlantic from West Africa, although the number purchased by traders was considerably higher. This complex exchange fostered political and cultural as well as commercial connections between these three regions. Religions, architectural styles, languages, knowledge, and other new goods were mingled at this time. In addition to the enslaved people, free men used the exchange routes to travel to new places, and both slaves and free travellers aided in blending European and African cultures. After the institution of slavery was abolished by European countries, the slave trade continued for a time with independent traders instead of government agents.
The coast was also called "the White man's grave" because of the mass amount of death from illnesses such as yellow fever, malaria, heat exhaustion, and many gastro-entero sicknesses. In 1841, 80% of British sailors on expeditions up the Niger River were infected with fevers. Between 1844 and 1854, 20 of the 74 French missionaries in Senegal died from local illnesses, and 19 more died shortly after arriving back to France. Intermarriage has been documented in ports like Ouidah where Europeans were permanently stationed. Communication was quite extensive between all three areas of trade, to the point where even individual enslaved people could be tracked.
Human toll.
The trans-Atlantic slave trade resulted in a vast and unknown loss of life for African captives both in and outside the Americas. Over a million people are thought to have died during their transport to the New World. More died soon after their arrival. The number of lives lost in the procurement of slaves remains a mystery but may equal or exceed the number of people who survived to be enslaved.
The savage nature of the trade led to the destruction of individuals and cultures. Historian Ana Lucia Araujo has noted that the process of enslavement did not end with arrival on Western Hemisphere shores; the different paths taken by the individuals and groups who were victims of the trans-Atlantic slave trade were influenced by different factors—including the disembarking region, the ability to be sold on the market, the kind of work performed, gender, age, religion, and language.
Patrick Manning estimates that about 12 million enslaved people were victims of the Atlantic trade between the 16th and 19th century, but about 1.5 million people died on board ships. About 10.5 million slaves arrived in the Americas. Besides the enslaved people who died on the Middle Passage, more African people likely died during the slave raids in Africa and forced marches to ports. Manning estimates that 4 million people died inside Africa after capture, and many more died young. Manning's estimate covers the 12 million people who were originally destined for the Atlantic, as well as the 6 million people destined for Asian slave markets and the 8 million people destined for African markets. Of the slaves shipped to the Americas, the largest share went to Brazil and the Caribbean.


Civil Service Supply Association

Civil Service Supply Association was a department store on the Strand, London. Founded in the 1860s on Victoria Street, the shop moved to the Strand in the following decade, remaining open until 1982.
History.
In 1864, a group of clerks in the General Post Office joined together to buy a half chest of tea. Their first transaction resulted in them saving 9 pence to the pound, and they decided to extend their purchasing to coffee, sugar and other grocery products.
In January 1865, they formed the Post Office Supply Association, a co-operative with forty members. The co-operative was so successful that by April the scheme had been opened up to all civil servants and the name changed to the Civil Service Supply Association. Civil servants could purchase tickets for 2 shillings and sixpence, which would entitle them to purchase goods at the store or from firms associated with the association.
Their first premises were on Victoria Street, but by 1877 they had moved to 425 Strand, a building designed by architects Lockwood & Mawson. In 1927, the co-operative was incorporated as a private company, becoming a fully fledged department store and severing its links with the Civil Service. The building was completely rebuilt at this time in the art deco style. The store remained open until 1982 when it was closed following a severe fire.


Grand Union (supermarket)

Grand Union Supermarkets, later known as Grand Union Family Markets and often referred to simply as Grand Union, was an American chain of grocery stores that did business primarily in the northeastern United States. It operated stores in other areas of the country including the midwestern and southeastern states, and internationally in the Caribbean and Canada. The company was founded and headquartered in Scranton, Pennsylvania, and moved to Brooklyn, New York in the early 20th century. Grand Union moved again to Elmwood Park, New Jersey and finally to Wayne, New Jersey before the company was forced into Chapter 7 bankruptcy in 2001 and sold to C&S Wholesale Grocers.
After C&S bought Grand Union it down-scaled most of its operations, keeping only a number of stores in upstate New York and New England open. The chain was sold to Tops Friendly Markets in 2012; in 2013 Tops rebranded the remaining Grand Union stores with the Tops logo and the "Grand Union" name was discontinued.
History.
Origins.
Grand Union started in Scranton, Pennsylvania as the Jones Brothers Tea Company in 1872. By the 1930s it was one of the largest grocery chains in the United States. The name "Grand Union" was inspired by the desire to "unite shoppers with low prices in a 'Grand Union of Value as described by company associate Elvin Sanders. The store's mascot was Abraham Lincoln wearing a deli apron, and most stores featured a costumed Lincoln to accomplish deeds, talk to customers, and proclaim the general splendor of the Grand Union, and to urge them to "Save the Union" when the company faced economic hardship.
In the early 1950s, Grand Union began construction on a new shopping center in what was then known as East Paterson (now Elmwood Park) New Jersey. The strip was to include a new Grand Union store with an office tower attached that would serve as the company's new corporate headquarters. The store and new headquarters opened in 1951. In 1987, Grand Union moved its corporate headquarters to Willowbrook Center in Wayne, abandoning its Elmwood Park offices. Grand Union did not close the Elmwood Park store, though, and it remained in operation until 2001.
In 1956, Grand Union opened a discount department store chain (called "Grand Way") in Keansburg, New Jersey. Many of these stores combined a grocery store and a department store, which was similar to the combination Bradlees and Stop & Shop stores that were around during that time as well.
Others were separate stores. For instance, a multi-level Grand Way store was built on a vacant lot across from the Elmwood Park corporate headquarters while the company built a strip mall in nearby Paramus, where the Grand Way anchored one end with the Grand Union anchoring the other. These stores were eventually closed and sold to other competitors, such as Winn-Dixie. The Elmwood Park and Paramus Grand Way stores were sold to Kmart; the Paramus store was liquidated and closed in December 2014 while the Elmwood Park store met that same fate in 2017.
In 1959, Grand Union's 38 stores it operated in Ontario, Canada, were sold to Steinberg's (supermarket), a Quebec-based supermarket and department store chain. Those locations were quickly rebranded into Steinberg's grocery stores, but over time most of their former Grand Union stores were closed and moved to new stores, due to poor locations compared to local competitors.
Ownership by "The Red Raider" James Goldsmith.
British corporate raider Sir James Goldsmith acquired Grand Union in the early 1970s. Grand Union was a money loser during much of Goldsmith's time of ownership. Goldsmith presided over the closing of the Grand Way chain in 1978 and the exit of Grand Union from most of the rest of the nation outside of the Northeast and New England in the mid-1980s.
In the 1980s Grand Union acquired many former A&P stores in northern New Jersey that A&P closed after acquiring the metropolitan New York operations of Stop & Shop and a controlling stake in the southern grocery chain Big Star Markets. In October 1986, Grand Union leased ten stores in the Albany area from Weis Markets, including nine stores that had operated under the Albany Public Markets banner. In the mid-1980s, Goldsmith brought in former Target Corporation executive Floyd Hall to manage the chain. Goldsmith also had world-renowned artist Milton Glaser complete a graphical redesign of the chain, which included the "red dot" theme. Through the new management under Hall, the chain was able to make record-making profits throughout the late 1980s. Goldsmith sold the chain to Floyd Hall and a group of investors in 1988. The chain, however, was quickly resold.
1989 acquisition by Gary Hirsch.
In 1989, investment banker Gary D. Hirsch, a partner in the firm Miller Tabak Hirsch & Co. acquired a portion of the Grand Union Company with Salomon Brothers. Grand Union was Hirsch's fourth major supermarket purchase since 1987, as he had acquired the Pennsylvania-based Penn Traffic, the Syracuse, New York-based P&C Foods, and the Columbus, Ohio-based Big Bear Stores in the previous two years. Hirsch assumed the position of chairman while Joseph McCaig became CEO. Floyd Hall left upon the acquisition.
Under Hirsch's leadership the company was driven into serious debt and ran out of the necessary capital for store improvements and upgrades, making it difficult for them to compete with other better financed retailers. Still, gradually, Grand Union remodeled most of its stores. Some of its older, run-down stores were closed and converted to other uses. Grand Union's big disadvantage was that its average store was 35,000 square feet while most supermarkets being built were over 50,000. The company also built a few larger stores.
In 1995, Grand Union's ongoing financial difficulties forced the company into its first bankruptcy as it filed for Chapter 11. In 1996, shortly after Grand Union emerged, Hirsch announced his resignation and sold his share of the company.
The J. Wayne Harris era.
In 1997, Grand Union brought in J. Wayne Harris to begin a turnaround of the ailing chain. Harris had recently been an executive at A&P and at Kroger, and had an excellent reputation in the industry.
Harris immediately began remodeling stores and building larger ones, which put even more stress on the company's finances and forced another Chapter 11 filing in 1998. The company emerged again in 1999 and had $175 million in new capital, which Harris used to finish the remodels on the stores that were still in the process and to acquire more construction permits for larger stores. He also used some of the money for new store formats, with three emerging. One was "Grand Union Fresh Market", which catered more to an upscale gourmet clientele more in the vein of its competitor Kings. Another was a discount grocery store named "Mega Save". A third was Grand Union's answer to limited selection chains such as Aldi and Save-A-Lot, called "Hot Dot".
None of these ideas worked out, and again Grand Union's finances reached dire straits. In addition to this, many of Grand Union's executives were found to have been stealing money such as Don Vaillancourt, who was convicted of embezzling over $2 million from the company in 2002. Harris was forced out in 2000 and took a job with JCPenney, who hired him to revive their Eckerd drugstore chain. Harris failed to do that as well, and Eckerd was sold to a combination of Jean Coutu Group and CVS Corporation in 2004. Its stores were converted to the Rite Aid banner.
In addition to the now-critical debt being borne by Grand Union, the company was unable to build the stores it wanted to as there was not enough money left. A Fishkill, New York store was sold to a ShopRite ownership group before it could open, and the construction of a store in its home area of Wayne, New Jersey, was halted for over a year.
In October 2000, Grand Union filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy for a third time. Two months later, the bankruptcy was converted to a Chapter 7 bankruptcy after it was discovered that the damage Harris' failed ideas and the embezzlement scandal had done to the company left it with so little money that Grand Union could not operate or supply any of its stores. A search for a buyer began, but in spite of the filing the stores continued to do business as before.
2001 acquisition by C&S Wholesale Grocers.
Grand Union's Chapter 7 filing had a large effect on its supplier C&S Wholesale Grocers, a New England-based wholesale food distributor of which Grand Union was its largest customer. C&S also was one of Grand Union's largest creditors, and made a stalking horse offer to take control of the company in early 2001 that was approved.
Shortly afterward, C&S began reorganizing Grand Union's operations. This resulted in a consolidation that left the chain with only a relatively small number of stores in smaller cities and towns across Upstate New York and New England. In addition, Grand Union's stores in the Northeast, where it was long established, were closed. Many of the medium-sized and most of the larger Grand Union stores, as well as most of the construction permits for stores that had yet to be built or finished, were sold to Ahold while C&S continued to supply the stores. At the time of the acquisition of Grand Union by C&S, Ahold had been looking to establish a presence in the Northeast as well through its Edwards Super Food Stores chain and was initially a bidder for Grand Union. Eventually Ahold converted the Edwards stores to Stop & Shop, reintroducing the brand to the area, and later converted the Grand Union stores it acquired to Stop & Shops as well. Ahold began supplying Grand Union stores for some time prior to their rebranding. This meant that although the store retained the Grand Union sign on the outside and various other signage on the inside, it had Stop & Shop branded items on the shelves.
Other supermarket chains that purchased Grand Union stores included Tops, which was at the time also an Ahold subsidiary, Shaw's, Hannaford, Price Chopper and Pathmark. Some of the other medium-sized stores were sold to department store chains such as Marshalls and Kohl's, while many of the smaller stores were sold to independent grocers and drugstore chains such as Eckerd, Rite Aid, CVS, and Walgreens. Other stores, like the former flagship in Elmwood Park, were demolished after closing and replaced with other buildings.
As for the stores that remained under the Grand Union banner, they became part of a rebranded Grand Union Family Markets, complete with a new logo that discarded the 1980s "Red Dot" logo. Many of the stores did keep the Red Dot, although not all of them did.
Acquisition by Tops Markets.
On July 19, 2012, Tops Markets announced that it would acquire the 21 remaining Grand Union stores in the Adirondack Region and parts of Vermont. The terms of the deal were not disclosed. On May 28, 2013 grand reopening ceremonies were held for 9 stores which had been re-bannered under the Tops Friendly Markets name. The remaining 12 stores held grand reopening ceremonies on July 2, 2013 under the Tops Friendly Markets banner, effectively bringing an end to the Grand Union supermarket chain.


Bidtopia

Bidtopia was an e-commerce site originally launched in 2007 as a private auction site for Warehouse86 Ventures, LLC. Paul St. James, an owner of Bargainland, which had been the largest PowerSeller on eBay that same year, started the new enterprise in response to changes in eBay policies regarding high volume sales of brand name merchandise and restrictions on sellers with poor customer feedback. Bidtopia suffered the loss of one of its three distribution centers in 2008, and went offline and possibly out of business in early 2010.
Features and policies.
Bidtopia was designed with innovative features meant to enhance the online auction format, such as a unique feedback system, a requirement that all items can be sold for as little as 99 cents, and "popcorn bidding", a response to concerns about last second bids, or auction "sniping", wherein the auction deadline was extended by one minute if there was a bid within the last minute before the auction was to close. Bidtopia later allowed other sellers with online business experience into their marketplace and added the requirement that seller accounts and bidder accounts be mutually exclusive, as their needs and desires are vastly different. Under Bidtopia's feedback system buyers were allowed to leave a positive, neutral or negative feedback message for a seller for any reason, at any time after the completion of the auction, and even if the sale itself was not completed. Sellers, however, were limited to making a +1 or -1 change to the buyer's Transaction Score, a metric of how many times the buyer had followed through with payment for auctions they had won. Bidtopia's philosophy was that a bidder had a single obligation in the auction transaction, to pay for their order in a timely fashion. The buyer would receive a -1 in the event that a seller reported that they had not paid promptly, and would receive a +1 if the seller reported a successful transaction. The buyer would also automatically receive a +1 if after 30 days the seller had failed to make a negative report. Any bidder whose account accrued a Transaction Score of less than 90%, and had 5 or more negative transactions would be suspended from further bidding.
Other key differences.
Unlike their competitors in the online auction space, Bidtopia required that new bidders verify their identity and ability to pay with a 99 cent sign-up fee. Initially, there was only one seller, Bidtopia itself, but later the marketplace was expanded to include other sellers with online auction experience. Sellers could not sign up and shortly thereafter start creating auctions, but instead had to be individually approved by Bidtopia's management, a requirement meant to help curb problems related to fraud and the sale of stolen goods. Bidtopia had no means for sellers to directly create auctions via its website, instead of requiring that such sellers use either software of their creation or third-party tools designed to interact with the application programming interface for Bidtopia's auction software.
Final years.
In 2008, Bidtopia's distribution center in Southaven, Mississippi was badly damaged when it was struck by a tornado. What little had survived was destroyed a week later by a fire that engulfed the facility, forcing Bidtopia to run its operations from its two other locations, in Mississippi and Utah. Bidtopia, which had been reportedly doing well to that point, sought out and agreed upon a partnership with Ken May and Bill Doherty, a former CEO and executive, respectively, of FedEx, and seemed to be on the road to recovery. But within a year the company would be off the Internet, with customers reporting that in early February 2010, Bidtopia stopped allowing new auctions to be started, and would not respond to queries from customers, sellers, or the news media. With no new auctions, activity on the site slowed to a crawl and then died. In June 2010, Bidtopia announced plans to restructure the site once again as a private marketplace, but some time thereafter the site was made inaccessible to visitors, and it has not reappeared since.
Controversy.
Prior to the founding of Bidtopia, Bargainland was a controversial seller on eBay. While it was the largest seller on eBay in 2007 and had over a million positive feedback message, it also had one of the lowest feedback scores of any high volume seller at the time, dipping below 90% positive on several occasions. Owner Paul St. James claimed that the reasons for this low feedback were due to the nature of his business in remaindered, damaged or liquidated goods, and unfair business practices on the part of resellers who he claimed were repeat customers of his service making purchases in order to immediately resell the item on eBay at a higher price, and yet also hitting Bargainland with repeated negative feedback in hopes of discouraging their customers from purchasing directly from Bargainland.


Musicland

The Musicland Group, Inc. was an entertainment company that ran Musicland, Sam Goody, Discount Records, Suncoast Motion Picture Company, On Cue, and the Media Play Superstore Chains. The Musicland Group was purchased by Best Buy in 2001 at the height of Musicland's success, which ultimately led to its demise. Jack Eugster was the CEO of The Musicland Group, from 1980, until February 2001. Its headquarters were in Minnetonka, Minnesota.
History.
The first Musicland store was opened in 1955 in Minneapolis by Grover Cleveland Sayre II, where the company continued to be headquartered for the remainder of its history, by Heilicher Brothers, a Minneapolis-based regional record distributor and owner of the Soma Records label. In 1964 Musicland merged with JL Marsh and in 1968 with Pickwick International. In 1977, American Can Company purchased Pickwick International and in 1978 purchased the Sam Goody chain of record stores, which had a long history going back to 1951 in New York. Shortly after, Musicland began converting the majority of its stores to the Sam Goody brand name, although some locations did retain the Musicland name into the early 2000s.
In 1997, the Musicland Group converted the remaining Musicland stores to the Sam Goody brand.
The company expanded rapidly during the mall boom of the 1980s and continued to grow into the nineties, enjoying a long tenure as the United States' largest specialty retailer of entertainment products. Most of its Sam Goody stores were located in shopping malls. The company helped launch the careers of many prominent artists, including Michael Jackson. In 1986, the first Suncoast Motion Picture Company store was opened as Paramount Pictures (the name change would come in 1988.) This store concept specialized in movies and movie memorabilia, also located in shopping malls. In 1992, Musicland launched a major initiative with the rollout of its big-box Media Play concept. Media Play was a chain of retail superstores that sold movies on video, DVDs, music, electronics, video games, books, toys, and games in the United States. Each store essentially contained a book store, a movie store, a music store, and a video game store under one roof. At their height, they operated 72 stores in 19 states with 2,000 employees. The first store opened in Rockford, Illinois, in 1992.
Hundreds of stores were slated to be opened, but only 89 ever were. Mostly freestanding, the stores averaged a massive in metropolitan areas. During the same period, the company also developed a small market Media Play by opening On Cue stores across the country as well. These "small town Media Plays" also sold Music, Books and Movies, as well as musical instruments and gave small towns that were not near a major metro a place for great selection.
In 2001, The Musicland Group Inc. was purchased by Best Buy inc. as part of its initiative to diversify its retail holdings to reach a larger demographic with its consumer electronics and entertainment products. By then, Musicland numbered over 1300 stores. Their intention was to transform Sam Goody into a destination for young people looking for hip electronics. They launched a major remerchandising campaign and converted Musicland's On Cue concept of rural stores to the Sam Goody brand, reducing its position in books and moving more into video games and DVD. Many Musicland employees, particularly management, were not happy at all with the Best Buy acquisition or their business model and tactics.
As part of a 2002 settlement with 41 states over CD price fixing Musicland, along with retailers Tower Records and Trans World Entertainment, agreed to pay a $3 million fine. It is estimated that between 1995 and 2000 customers were overcharged by nearly $500 million and up to $5 per album.
Downfall.
Best Buy failed to generate the results they were looking for with Musicland, losing $85 million in 2002. Best Buy admitted mall based retail was a different business concept from their Best Buy stores, and that they had failed at properly running The Musicland Group. As a result, they put the company up for sale and were likely just weeks away from liquidating the entire chain when they found a buyer in Sun Capital Partners of Boca Raton, Florida. Sun Capital acquired the company in a cash-free transaction in exchange for acquiring Musicland's debt and leases. Sun Capital attempted to get the company back to basics, but ultimately the dual pressure of internet downloading and big box competition proved too much and in December 2005 Sun Capital announced the closure of all remaining Media Play stores. The now Sun Capital owned Musicland Group filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in January 2006, and in February announced the closing of 226 Sam Goody and 115 Suncoast Motion Picture Company stores, and all Media Play locations.
In March 2006, Trans World Entertainment announced the purchase of Musicland's remaining 400 Sam Goody and Suncoast stores from Sun Capital, along with their websites. Trans World kept 345 of those stores open and closed 55. Transworld began converting the remaining Sam Goody mall stores to FYE, their signature retail brand, but chose to keep the Suncoast Motion Picture Co. name on about 170 stores.
Recent years.
More than 100 Sam Goody stores remained in operation as of January 2007, but as a result of a disappointing fourth quarter and full year 2006 for Transworld Entertainment, chief executive Robert Higgins announced in their fourth quarter earnings conference call that many of those remaining Sam Goody stores would be facing closure. In late 2006, Transworld started converting Sam Goody stores to FYE stores.
In Popular Culture.
A Musicland store was one of the various stores reconstructed for the set of R. L. Stine's "Fear Street" at the North DeKalb Mall in Atlanta, Georgia.


Lillie Rubin

Lillie Rubin was a chain of women's clothing shops in the United States, from the 1946 until 1999.
History.
Lillie Rubin began with a single store in Miami Beach, Florida at 1037 Lincoln Road, where an Apple Store resides today, in 1946. A second store opened in Palm Beach, Florida on December 15, 1955.
Founder and namesake Lillie Rubin died at age 90 in 1984, at which point her chain had grown to 50 stores. The chain was the target of a potential lawsuit from the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission in 1995, following a complaint filed in Phoenix, Arizona the year before, after a male applicant was denied a job due to his gender. The case was, however, quietly dropped by 1996. The chain filed for Chapter 11 Bankruptcy in 1996, then shrunk to 59 stores from a 1994 peak of 79. The assets of the company were bought by Elmsford, New York based investor Asher Fensterheim for $7 million, and were formed into a new company, Lillie Rubin Fashions, which was to operate 38 stores.
The company filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy a second time in February 1998, with the 25 stores being sold to The Forgotten Woman, a New York City based chain of 9 plus-size woman's clothing stores. While the chain intended to continue operating the majority of stores under the Lillie Rubin name, The Forgotten Woman filed for bankruptcy the following year, closing all 30 stores in 1999.