Mervyn's

Mervin Morris opened the first Mervyn's in San Lorenzo, California in 1949, building a mid-priced department-store chain that anchored West Coast and Sun Belt malls with brand-name apparel and home goods. Owned for years by Dayton-Hudson (later Target), Mervyn's was sold to private-equity investors in 2004, who saddled it with debt and split off its real estate. Squeezed between Kohl's, Target, and Macy's, the chain filed for bankruptcy and liquidated its roughly 175 stores in 2008.