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| Industry | retail |
|---|---|
| Founded | 1887 inSheboygan, Wisconsin |
| Founder | Henry Carl Prange |
| Defunct | 1992 |
| Successor | Younkers |
| Headquarters | Sheboygan, Wisconsin ,U.S. |
Area served | Wisconsin, Michigan, Illinois |
| Products | Clothing, jewelry, accessories |
| Website | hcprange |
H. C. Prange Co., sometimes shortened toPrange's, was an Americandepartment store chain begun by H. C. Prange in 1887 inSheboygan, Wisconsin. At its peak, it operated stores in the states ofWisconsin,Illinois, andMichigan. It also operated discount stores under the Prange Way name in the former two states, although this division was sold off in the 1990s. Prange's was dissolved and most of the stores converted to the rivalYounkers chain after sale in 1992.
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Henry Carl Prange was the son of farmers who had immigrated to Wisconsin from Germany following theRevolutions of 1848. In 1876, he began working at John Plath'sgeneral store inSheboygan, Wisconsin, as a clerk, janitor, and delivery boy. In 1887, he attempted to purchase a share of his employer's store; after this proved unsuccessful, he founded his own store on October 4, 1887, with his sister Eliza, and brother-in-law, J. H. Bitter. The 3,300-square-foot (310 m2) store located in Sheboygan was called H. C. Prange. Unlike his local competition, the store offered lines of credit to farmers. In 1898, it was incorporated as the H. C. Prange Company. By 1923, a new store was built on the same site with more than 180,000 square feet (17,000 m2) making it the largest store in Wisconsin outside ofMilwaukee.
H. Carl Prange's goal in 1930 during the stock market crash was to do one million dollars in the grocery business and two million in dry-goods. During the Depression, while still heavily in debt from the purchase of the Hall Dry Goods building in Green Bay, Prange acquired the LM Washburn company of Sturgeon Bay and opened the firm's third store. In 1935 a fire burned the Sturgeon Bay store to the ground. Five months after the fire a new store was built. The year 1946 saw the purchase of Appleton's Pettibone-Peabody store, one of the oldest retail organizations in the state. Over the years more acquisitions were made by the H.C. Prange Company, and existing stores underwent continuous improvement to keep abreast of the times.[1]
At its peak, the H. C. Prange Co. had 25 stores, 18 inWisconsin, five inMichigan, and two inIllinois, with a total of about 2,100,000 square feet (200,000 m2) of retail space.[2] In 1991, Prange's department store unit had sales of about $229 million (~$457 million in 2023). The company's largest store was inGreen Bay'sPort Plaza Mall. Some of the remainingPeck & Peck locations were acquired by the company after a sale by their previous owners,Minneapolis-basedSalkin & Linoff in the late 1970s.
The H. C. Prange Company's 25-unit department store division was purchased byYounkers, Inc. for $67 million (~$131 million in 2023) in 1992. Younkers also assumed about $9 million in liabilities of the division. Eventually Younkers would become a part of Saks "northern group" which later enveloped longtime Prange's competitorsBoston Store, andHerberger's under the same corporate ownership. This division was ultimately sold toThe Bon-Ton ofYork, Pennsylvania.
The former Prange's flagship store in Sheboygan ended operations in mid-January 2014 after several years of operating under The Bon-Ton's Boston Store banner after their purchase of Younkers. The building was reconstructed in 1984 when a water main break in 1982 forced demolition of the old flagship store after the building's support columns sagged. The 1984 building was torn down beginning in January 2015 over a two-month period, and was used as an open field for a series of concerts that summer before construction began on a new apartment development intended to spur the filling of professional jobs in the area.
Prange Way began as abargain basement store called Prange's Budget Store in the flagship building in 1911. The Prange Way chain later evolved into adiscount department store, with several locations throughoutWisconsin andIllinois. Two of their first major discount stores called Prange Way opened between 1965 and 1966 in the cities of Appleton and Fond du Lac, Wisconsin. The latter was an anchor store ofForest Mall, an enclosed shopping mall. Throughout the 1970s and 1980s, several more stores were opened throughout Wisconsin and Illinois, with seven in these regions being purchased from Schultz's Discount in 1989.
In 1990 the Prange Way chain was sold to a group of Prange Way managers and other investors and its headquarters relocated to De Pere, Wisconsin.[3] The chain filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in October 1995. An attorney for Prange Way cited competition from national discount chains as the reason for Prange Way's financial difficulties. Its largest debt was $3 million owed to the State of Wisconsin Investment Board. At the time, Prange Way operated 21 stores in Wisconsin and one in Minnesota, and did not plan to close any stores (though it did expect to lay off some employees).[3] However, the stores did not last long after this, as liquidation sales were soon slated to begin in November.[4] All Prange Way stores would be closed after the 1995 Christmas holiday season.[5]