The story
Federated Department Stores, now known as Macy's, Inc., founded the MainStreet chain in 1983 with seven stores in the Chicago, Illinois area. The store was a middle-market chain focused primarily on softlines, similar to Kohl's and Mervyn's. MainStreet stores often featured a "racetrack" layout like a discounter, but checkouts were distributed around the store like a traditional department store. The first locations outside the Chicago area opened around Metro Detroit in 1986.
The MainStreet chain was sold by Campeau Corporation, then-owners of Federated, in order to reduce debts following Campeau's buyout of Federated. Kohl's acquired MainStreet in 1988 for $90 million, and converted them to the Kohl's nameplate in March 1989.
The MainStreet logo remained on a plaza sign in Downers Grove known as "MainStreet Square" well into the 2000s before the sign was eventually replaced with the name kept. It had been previously anchored by a MainStreet, which now is occupied by a Kohl's.
From Wikipedia’s article on MainStreet (department store), shared under CC BY-SA 4.0.4