Belk

The mission of Belk is to be the leader in their markets in selling merchandise that meets customers' needs for fashion, quality, value and selection; to offer superior customer service; and to make a reasonable profit. Reflecting the beliefs of its founders of the various Belk corporations, Belk stores want their customers to have a feeling of confidence that they will receive honest and fair treatment, that they will get full value for every dollar, and that they will be satisfied in every respect so that they will want to shop with Belk stores again. Belk stores have a responsibility to the people who make their growth and success possible. They are committed to maintaining relationships of integrity, honesty, and fairness with customers, associates, vendors, other business partners, stockholders, and with all people in every community they serve. Vision: The vision of Belk is to be dominant in selling fashion merchandise that meets customers' needs for value, quality and service. Belk hosts its first New York fashion buying show as its emphasis shifts to style. Belk, Inc., is the largest privately held department store chain in the United States. The company is headquartered in Charlotte in the middle of its traditional stronghold of North and South Carolina. While it has flagship stores at large malls, the company has opened many stores in smaller cities. In all, there are 225 Belk stores in 14 states. Belk, Inc. was formed in 1998 from a network of more than 100 separate businesses that had been built up over the previous century. Still operated by descendants of the founding Belk brothers, Belk is one of the few large family-owned retail entities remaining in the United States. Though privately held, Belk, Inc. has filed earnings statements with the Securities and Exchange Commission since its 1998 restructuring because it has some public debt. In 1891, the founder approached his brother, John Belk, to become a partner in the prospering store. Thus the Belk Brothers Company was formed. A second store was opened in 1893 in Chester, South Carolina. A third opened in Union, South Carolina, in 1894, and the following year William Belk moved to Charlotte, North Carolina, to open the company's fourth store. His brother John remained to manage the Monroe store until his death in 1928. The brothers' stores were doing so well by 1895 that other merchants even began to copy its straight-talking slogans like "Cheap Goods Sell Themselves" and "The Cheapest Store on Earth." William Belk's success resulted from some retailing ideas that were innovative for the time. In 1897, he combined the purchasing power of the four stores, plus two others in which the brothers had no financial interest, and formed a loose cooperative buying network. This allowed them to purchase goods in bulk quantity at favorable prices. All purchases and sales were cash. Belk also made extensive use of advertising. In 1899, the brothers opened a store in Greensboro, North Carolina. Boom days and postwar prosperity gave way to recession, however, and the Belks retrenched, not opening any stores between 1922 and 1925. In 1925, however, they opened three more stores and three again in 1926. In 1927, the Belks and the Leggett brothers agreed that the Leggetts would own 80 percent of the stores they opened, with Belk Brothers Company owning the remaining 20 percent. In the past, the Belks had always owned the majority of their stores. This arrangement formed the foundation of Belk's unusual organizational scheme. The years between 1910 and 1930 were prosperous for retailing. Competition, however, began to creep up on the Belks. Then the stock market crash of 1929 slowed Belk's sales growth, but its stores stayed open. Belk took advantage of other companies' misfortune by acquiring defunct stores, netting 22 stores in 1930 and 1931. In 1934, Belk opened a record 27 stores, expanding geographically into Tennessee and Georgia in the process. Charlotte was once a