ann-hope

OVERVIEW

Martin Chase got a job working at a store called Fintex. Fintex closed its doors in 1929, he then worked at Howard's Clothes until 1933. He started Marty's Clothing Mart on Eddy Street in Providence RI. He sold merchandise at lower prices than other area clothing stores by reducing overhead such as not offering alterations and using inexpensive store fixtures.

As World War II approached, the clothing market started to decline, due to the number of men serving in the armed forces. Chase then began to look for another line of work. In 1946, he purchased the Ann & Hope Mill complex in the village of Ashton in Cumberland, Rhode Island. He split the large, empty mill into several small pieces and rented them individually.

Some time before December 1953, one of the tenants left the Mill, leaving a large space vacant. Rather than dispose of it, Irwin Chase and his father, Martin, opened their first store in the textile mill. The building and store were named after a ship, the Ann and Hope, which was lost at sea off of Block Island, Rhode Island in 1806. By the following spring, the operation had become large enough that it was relocated to the ground floor. Over time more products were added, and by 1969, Ann & Hope was a thriving $40 million per year operation.

Ann & Hope also has several features now common to big-box retail facilities. Some Ann & Hope stores had full scale cafeterias, now common in Walmarts and Target Stores. When originally constructed, Ann & Hope stores also had an area that was rented to a sub-tenant, with both in-store and outside entrances, a variation of which is a relatively recent introduction in larger Walmart stores. Many Ann & Hope locations had limited success renting to tenants, and before the chain's closing in 2001, many had been converted to store run florist shops.

Walmart's Sam Walton visited the Ann & Hope chain personally in 1970, and had in-depth discussions with management and employees at the stores. All of the Ann & Hope department stores closed in the spring of 2001, except for the original location in Cumberland. High value properties that Ann & Hope owned were sold off, but many of the Ann & Hope locations are now occupied, or partially occupied, by new Ann & Hope-branded outlet stores, such as the Ann & Hope Curtain and Bath Outlet. It is also common for the Ann & Hope outlets to occupy space near where Ann & Hope department stores used to be.

Today, the second and third generations of Ann and Hope's founders operate 11 Curtain & Bath stores in 3 New England states. In addition to these stores the company runs other concepts such as Dollar Outlet and the Garden Outlet.