Dillard's

:The Dillards is a progressive bluegrass band.

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The Dillards - Progressive bluegrass

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Dillard's (NYSE: DDS) is a major department store chain in the United States, with some 329 stores in 29 states as of 2005. Its locations are concentrated in the South, particularly Texas, Louisiana, and Florida. It is the outgrowth of a Nashville, Arkansas department store founded in 1938 by William Dillard; its corporate headquarters remain located in Little Rock and many of its executives and directors are members of the Dillard family.

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NYSE - Department store - United States - South - Texas - Louisiana - Florida - Nashville, Arkansas - 1938 - Little Rock

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Dillard sold the Nashville store to develop a larger one in Texarkana, Arkansas in 1948, and opened a second store in Tyler, Texas in 1956. Thereafter the chain grew rapidly as an anchor in suburban shopping malls, and took advantage of market conditions to acquire smaller chains as well as units of other major chains including Mervyn's, Proffitt's, and Macy's locations.

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Texarkana, Arkansas - 1948 - Tyler, Texas - 1956 - Suburb - Shopping mall - Mervyn's - Proffitt's - Macy's

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The 1980s brought the purchase of many smaller local chains. In 1984 in St. Louis and Kansas City, Dillard?s acquired Stix, Baer & Fuller's 12 stores from Associated Dry Goods Corp. Two department store divisions from Dayton Hudson were purchased as well in 1984: Diamond's and John A. Brown, with locations in Arizona, Nevada and Oklahoma. Twelve of R. H. Macy Co.'s stores in the Midwest were bought in 1986. In 1987, Dillard's purchased the 27-store Joske?s chain in Texas and Arizona and three units of the Cain-Sloan chain in Nashville, Tennessee from Allied Stores Corp. 1988 brought a 50% interest in the Ohio chain of Higbee Department Stores with partner Edward J. DeBartolo Corp. (the remainder was acquired from DeBartolo in 1992). The D.H. Holmes company was purchased in 1989, bringing 18 units in the South to the Dillard fold. The J.B. Ivey chain of 23 stores in Florida, North Carolina and South Carolina were added in 1990. This was followed by the acquisition of 8 Florida Gulf Coast stores from Maison Blanche Co. in 1991 (which had acquired them as Robinsons of Florida only a few years before), 7 southern Virginia stores from Proffitt's in 1997 (which had acquired them from Hess's in 1993) and culminated with its purchase of Mercantile Stores Co., Inc. in 1998. Dillard's sold or swapped approximately a third of Mercantile Stores with Belk, Inc., May Department Stores Co. and Saks, Inc., enabling to enhance its position in several markets in the South, Midwest and Mountain States.

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1980s - 1984 - R. H. Macy Co. - 1986 - 1987 - 1988 - 1989 - 1990

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The chain continues to expand, and has recently begun adding stores in nontraditional shopping centers: its largest store at 350,000 square feet (33,000 m²) is located at Scottsdale Fashion Square in Scottsdale, Arizona.

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Scottsdale Fashion Square - Scottsdale, Arizona

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