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Burlington Coat Factory
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| Burlington Coat Factory Warehouse Corporation | |
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| Type | Corporation |
|---|---|
| Founded | 1924, with retail outlets opening in 1972 |
| Headquarters | Burlington, New Jersey |
| Key people | Monroe Milstein: Founder |
| Industry | retail |
| Products | Coats, outerwear, apparel, shoes, accessories, baby clothes, furniture, toys, home decor items, and gifts. |
| Revenue | US $2.8 bn (2004) |
| Employees | 28,000 |
| Website | www.coat.com |
Burlington Coat Factory Warehouse Corporation is a national department store retailer focusing on clothing and shoes, with over 360 stores in 42 states (as of 2006). In early 2007, the first location to be opened in Canada will be at the Vaughan Mills mall in Toronto. In 2006, it was acquired by Bain Capital, LLC in a take-private transaction.[1]
The company was founded in 1924 as "Burlington Coat Factory Warehouse Corporation", a wholesaler of ladies coats and outerwear. The modern company was formed in 1972 when Monroe Milstein purchased a warehouse in Burlington, New Jersey, and started selling coats and outerwear. The company started gradually adding apparel, including suits, shoes, and accessories, and presently has even branched out to include baby items and linens, all clothing at considerable discount to some of its competition. MJM Designer Shoes and Cohoes Fashions are separate stores in the Burlington Coat Factory family. In 2007, the company announced that three of the seven Cohoes stores will close, and two of the remaining Cohoes stores will be converted to Burlington Coat Factory. The fate of the other two Cohoes stores is unknown.[1]
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Under investigation from animal welfare organization Humane Society of the United States, Burlington Coat Factory has been accused of labeling real fur products as "faux fur". The company agreed to pull the false advertisements after an undercover investigation revealed "faux fur" as actually made from the pelts of animals killed in China.[2]
Competitors to Burlington Coat Factory include TJ Maxx, Ross Stores, and Filene's Basement. A key difference between Burlington Coat Factory and other off price stores is that Burlington Coat Factory features more of a traditional department store layout than its competitors.
Burlington Coat Factory's logo is often supplemented with the tag "Not Affiliated with Burlington Industries." When Burlington Coat Factory settled a trademark dispute with fabric maker Burlington Industries in 1981, Burlington Coat Factory agreed to say in advertising -- as it does to this day -- that the two companies are not affiliated.
Burlington Coat Factory is known to some as, "The Grim Reaper of Retail," due to the fact that the company often sets up shop in older, distressed retail locations such as abandoned department stores. The addition of a Burlington Coat Factory store can be seen by some as a bad omen that a certain area is "going down." It should be noted that this is not always the case, however. This has changed even more since all of the former Cohoes Manufacturing stores were recently renamed Burlington Coat Factory including the one at the very popular and successful Crossgates Mall in the Albany suburb of Guilderland, New York, one of the largest malls in New York state.
In 2006, after changing ownership, the company for the first time began offering cash and credit card refunds. Prior to this policy change, the only refunds were in the form of store credit, regardless of whether the customer had a receipt.
| Philadelphia-based Corporations (Within the Delaware Valley) |
|---|
| Philadelphia-based Fortune 500 Corporations (by size): Sunoco | Comcast | CIGNA | Aramark | Rohm and Haas Company | Crown Holdings Incorporated | Lincoln National Corporation |
| Philadelphia-based Fortune 1000 Corporations (by size): Companies listed above, plus Sovereign Bancorp | Pep Boys | FMC Corporation |
| Delaware Valley-based Fortune 1000 Corporations (by size): Companies listed above, plus AmerisourceBergen | DuPont Company | Campbell Soup | Toll Brothers | Unisys | Jones Apparel Group | UGI Corporation | Ikon Office Solutions | Universal Health Services | SunGard Data Systems | Teleflex | Airgas | Vishay Intertechnology | Charming Shoppes | Commerce Bancorp | Hercules Inc. | Genesis HealthCare | Ametek |
| Philadelphia-based and Delaware Valley-based non-public or externally owned corporations (by size): GlaxoSmithKline (US Operations) | Burlington Coat Factory | Forman Mills |