The story
On September 1, 1922, he opened his own store, named the Dixie Store, in a 25-foot storefront in Cushing, Oklahoma. By the following year, Anthony owned six stores: four Dixie Stores at Cushing, Pawhuska, Hominy and Barnsdall; and two C. R. Anthony Stores, at Anadarko and Chickasha, Oklahoma.
As the company grew, it financed expansion by using the profits of one store to finance another. Each manager trained the next one, and each held a one-third partnership in his store. Anthony considered his core market to be rural and small-town people, and he paid close attentions to meeting their desires in merchandise. He also believed that the owners of a business cared the most about its well-being. In 1926, he converted the company to a public corporation, but offered shares only to employees of the corporation.
Anthony chose as his slogan, "The friendliest store in town." The first large city in which Anthony opened a store was Oklahoma City, in 1939. One source said that Anthony's marketing philosophy was, ""When we come to making a decision on the selling price of an article, it should not be how much, but how little we can sell it for, and still make a profit.""C. R. Anthony's Philosophy of 1922 Remains Up-to-Date." Oklahoman. April 13, 1986. Accessed November 8, 2016."
In 1985 Anthony's introduced its own credit card.
In March 1986, the Oklahoma City station KOCO-TV, as a part of the Five Who Care Awards, gave its 1986 Corporate Humanitarian Award to C.R. Anthony Co. in recognition of contributions to Oklahoma City in areas of community service, monetary donations, employee voluntarism and the overall quality of life. The same article said that Anthonys had 88 department stores in Oklahoma in 1985, and reported sales of more than $427.5 million.
Anthony Stores milestones
C. R. Anthony opened first Dixie store in 1922.
By 1923, there were 6 Anthony's in Oklahoma (including 2 still named Dixie Stores).
By 1947 C.R. Anthony changed the name of his 75 store chain to Anthonys.
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By 1950 there were Anthonys in Oklahoma, Texas, New Mexico, Nebraska, Kansas, and Arkansas.
By 1964 there were 300 stores, west of the Mississippi River.
The chain grossed $100 million in sales in 1973.
The chain grossed $200 million in sales in 1978.
Founder's retirement and death
C.R. Anthony retired from the company in 1972 and his son Guy Anthony became president of the company. In 1980, Guy Anthony retired and his son, Bob Anthony, became president of the company. Bob Anthony remained president of Anthony's until 1987 when the company's shareholders voted to sell it to an investor group sponsored by Citicorp Venture Capital.
C. R. died June 16, 1976.
Bankruptcy
Anthonys filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in 1991 after bank lenders refused to fund seasonal line of credit after technical default on a loan At the time it operated 182 stores in the United States. It emerged from bankruptcy in 1992. Continental Bank, N. A. of Illinois cut the $32 million line of credit that Anthonys normally used seasonally to pay for new merchandise. Anthony's executives said that the bank's action was because the store chain had fallen below a ratio of fixed charges to operating income specified in the $40 million financing agreement that had allowed the corporate buyout in 1987, and that Anthony's had not fallen behind in any payments on its loans. The company had already repaid $24 million of the $40 million debt, was current on all lease and tax payments,
Sale to Stage Stores Inc.
In 1997 Stage Stores Incorporated acquired C. R. Anthony's. It rebranded most of the stores with the Stage name and closed the remaining. At the time of the merger Anthony's operated 226 stores in 14 states and opened 13 more before the buyout was complete. Stage Stores operated 316 department stores in 19 states under the names Stage, Bealls and Palais Royal. The purchase price was reportedly $92 million. Stage Stores itself filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in May 2020 after failing to find a buyer for the chain.
From Wikipedia’s article on C. R. Anthony Co., shared under CC BY-SA 4.0.4