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Heck's operated three locations in Huntington -- including this one on 14th. Street West
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HUNTINGTON
-- Long before Walmart ventured into West Virginia,
the state had its own homegrown
chain of discount department stores.
In 1959, four
Boone County businessmen opened the first Heck's department store in Charleston:
Fred Haddad,
Thomas Ellis, Lester Ellis and Douglas Cook. Heck's offered a large
inventory of clothing, home furnishings, hardware,
health and beauty aids,
jewelry, toys, small appliances and sporting goods. It sold nationally
advertised
items and its own line of goods at low prices.
The company
thrived and expanded greatly from the 1960s through the '70s and '80s, buying
other out-of-state discount chains.
It built an impressive headquarters on
Kanawha Boulevard in Charleston and a distribution center in Nitro. According
to
an article in the "West Virginia Encyclopedia," Heck's was at one point the only
West Virginia company listed on the New York Stock Exchange.
At its peak
in the mid-1980s, Heck's operated 127 stores in nine states,
employed more than
8,000 workers and had assets of $300 million.
Heck's had
three stores in Huntington in the Fairfield Plaza on Hal Greer Boulevard, at
U.S. 60 East and Roby Road
and at 14th Street West and Monroe Avenue. It also
operated stores in Barboursville; Proctorville,
Ohio, and Ashland, Russell and
Prestonsburg, Kentucky.
But increased
competition from Walmart and other discount chains ultimately took its toll.
Profits steadily fell and in 1987
the company was forced to file for Chapter 11
bankruptcy. Its bankruptcy filing indicated the discount chain
owed more than
$140 million to 2,300 creditors.
Heck's
continued to operate at a reduced size until 1990, when Jordache Enterprises
purchased it by paying $1 and agreeing
to assume its large debts. A year later, Jordache closed the chain's few remaining stores and liquidated what was left of
its assets.
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Note: This Article and picture appeared in the Herald-Dispatch Newspaper on Dec. 22 , 2014
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