Hartfield-Zodys was an American retail corporation begun in 1960. It operated theHartfield chain of women's ready-to-wear apparel in the Los Angeles area, and starting in 1960, theZodys chain ofdiscount retail stores (1960–1986), which operated locations inCalifornia,Arizona,Nevada,New Mexico, andMichigan.
Hartfields logoZodys old logoHartfield’s Downtown Los Angeles location at 545 Broadway was a1931 Art Deco building
Hartfield was present onBroadway, the main shopping district in the Los Angeles area in the 1940s, in theF. and W. Grand Silver Store Building at 545 S. Broadway and also at 749 S. Broadway.[2] Additionally, a 1943 advertisement showed branches at 253 South Market Street inInglewood, 650Pacific Boulevard inHuntington Park, and 705 South Pacific Avenue inSan Pedro (the latter opened 1941), all busy downtown shopping districts of what were once separate towns that had become working and middle class suburbs of Los Angeles.[3] Additional branches opened across the Los Angeles area over the following decades.
Hartfield’s decided to enter thediscount department store business with a new chain to be called Zodys, and opened its first one on June 13, 1960, inGarden Grove, in CentralOrange County, California. From 1962 the parent company changed its name toHartfield-Zodys. By 1969 there were 19 stores. In 1972, Hartfield-Zodys acquired theYankee Stores chain ofFlint, Michigan, briefly re-branding the stores as Yankee-Zodys, and later as Zodys.[4] In 1969 Zodys opened a 6.5-acre distribution center employing 300.[5] The Michigan stores were unprofitable, and were sold in 1974 when Hartfield-Zodys filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection.[4] A brief period of prosperity brought expansions intoArizona,Nevada andNew Mexico. In 1979 there were 37 stores.
Bankrupt again by the early 1980s, the parent company, now known as HRT Industries, began closing stores in 1984. The remaining Zodys stores in California were shuttered in March 1986,[7][8][9] with many locations sold toFederated Stores; Kroger, the parent company ofRalphs supermarket chain,[10][11] andHomeClub, a home improvement store chain.[12]
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