CSS Industries

CSS Industries, Inc., was founded in 1923, as City Stores Company. Its headquarters is at 1845 Walnut Street, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, with showrooms in New York City, Memphis, Tennessee, Minneapolis, Minnesota, and Hong Kong. The company designs, manufactures, and distributes seasonal and everyday greeting cards and novelties.

City Stores Company, 1923–1985

City Stores was a holding company, incorporated in the state of Delaware, that owned directly or indirectly all or a substantial majority of the stocks of several department and specialty stores in six states. It eventually controlled 39 stores in 19 states. The stores were serviced by a New York resident buying corporation, City Stores Mercantile Company, Inc., a subsidiary wholly owned by City Stores. In the 1950s, City Stores merged with Specialty Stores Co becoming City Specialty Stores.

City Stores started in 1923 with the acquisition of three department stores: B. Lowenstein, Inc., of Memphis, Tennessee; Maison Blanche Co., of New Orleans, Louisiana; and Loveman, Joseph & Loeb, of Birmingham, Alabama. The following year City Stores purchased Kaufman-Straus Co. of Louisville, Kentucky. In 1928, the company acquired a majority interest in Lit Brothers of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, later merging it into City Stores' operations in 1951. After going into receivership in 1931, City Stores Company could no longer meet its financial obligation to