Flagship store
Ayres offered a full line of merchandise and services, but it was especially known for women's fashions and its Tea Room, Christmas events and displays, and the budget store.
The Tea Room, which operated at the Indianapolis flagship store from 1905 to 1990, served shoppers in a formal setting. Its purpose was to entice shoppers into the downtown store; the restaurant itself never operated at a profit. The local gathering spot also provided informal modeling of store fashions for its diners, who were predominantly women. The menu, which remained consistent for decades, included favorites such as chicken pot pie, chicken velvet soup, and special desserts for children The Tea Room has been re-created at the Indiana State Museum in Indianapolis.[13] Over the years, in-store food options at the Indianapolis flagship store also included a soda fountain, a basement coffee and snack bar, and, in the 1970s, a cafeteria-style tea room on the balcony overlooking the main floor. Ayres branch stores also included cafeterias and tea rooms. The downtown Indianapolis Tea Room survived until 1990. The other restaurants closed after Ayres was acquired by the May Company in 1986. Ayres's seasonal departments, events, and displays earned the company media coverage and drew thousands of visitors to Ayres with the hope they would stay and shop. On the night before Thanksgiving in 1947, a bronze cherub appeared on the Indianapolis flagship store's large, outdoor clock at the corner of Meridian and Washington Streets. The three-foot cherub remained on the clock until Christmas, beginning an annual holiday tradition. Ayres was also known for beautiful Christmas decorations, especially its elaborate window displays. Planned months in advance, these holiday windows had a different theme each year. The store expanded its holiday area to include toy displays and a Santa's workshop. After World War II, Ayres provided telephone visits with Santa and live television broadcasts. From 1958 through 1961, the Santa Claus Express, a miniature electric train, gave children rides through the store's Christmas display. Beginning in the 1940s, the downtown Indianapolis store also provided visits with a costumed Easter Bunny. In 1957, a group of live barnyard animals joined the annual Easter celebration.
The Ayres Economy Basement concept dates back to the opening of its Indianapolis flagship store in 1905. The Economy Basement, later known as the Downstairs Store and Budget Store, operated differently from those of other retail department stores. The Ayres basement store did not offer cheaply made, inferior goods. Instead, it sold lower-priced items of good quality that served as an entry point for less-affluent customers until they could afford full-priced goods on the upper floors. It also served as a training ground for Ayres managers. By the 1960s, the Budget Store had declined and was eclipsed by Ayr-Way, the Ayres discount subsidiary, and changes in shopping trends and pricing. The Budget Store concept was eliminated in the mid-1980s.
The L.S. Ayres Annex Warehouse, an Italianate-style brick building on Maryland Street, south of the flagship store, was originally called Elliott's Block. Built in 1875 for Calvin A. Elliott, a wholesale liquor merchant, the warehouse was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1973.[14]
Branches
In May 1958, the first Ayres branch stores opened in Market Square Shopping Center in Lafayette, Indiana. In August 1958, Ayres opened another branch in the new Glendale Shopping Center at Sixty-second Street and Keystone Avenue on Indianapolis's north side in a joint venture between Ayres and Landau and Perlman, a Chicago developer. Additional branches were opened in Indianapolis and other Indiana markets in the 1960s and 1970s. These included the Greenwood Shopping Center (1965) in Greenwood and Ayres Glenbrook (1966) in Fort Wayne. After Ayres was acquired by Associated Dry Goods, the company opened additional Ayres stores in Indiana shopping malls: Lafayette Square Mall (1973) and Washington Square (1975) in Indianapolis, Scottsdale (1971) in South Bend, Muncie Mall (1977), Southlake (1978) in Merrillville, University Park Mall (1979) in Mishawaka, and College Mall (1982) in Bloomington.
Specialty shops
From 1919 until the early 1930s, Ayres operated two specialty shops during the tourist season at the French Lick Springs Hotel, a resort and spa in southern Indiana. The shops offered gifts, accessories, lingerie, and sportswear. In August 1955, Ayres opened the Boulevard Shop, a boutique in Indianapolis's Marott Hotel. The gift shop moved to a new location in the Stouffer Hotel on Meridian Street in Indianapolis in 1967 and remained there until it closed in the 1980s
In 1968, Ayres opened small specialty fashion shops, the Sycamore Shop and Cygnet. The Sycamore Shop catered to young adults and featured traditional clothing and accessories for men and women. The Cygnet Shops were modern fashion stores for young women. The first Sycamore Shop opened in Lafayette Square shopping center in Indianapolis; the first Cygnet Shop opened in Terre Haute, Indiana. By 1971, about a dozen of these shops were operating in suburban malls in Indiana, Ohio, and Kentucky. While the Cygnet Shops closed in 1975, the Sycamore Shops continued to expand, even after The May Department Stores Company acquired Ayres and its parent company, Associated Dry Goods, in 1986. Three Ayres executives purchased the Sycamore Shops from the May company and continued to operate the specialty chain. By 1990, there were 160 Sycamore Shops operating in five states. Sycamore Shops later filed for bankruptcy and forced to liquidate in late 1995 and early 1996.[15]
Subsidiaries
Around 1914 the Ayres family established Murray Investments, a holding company that owned the store's real estate, which was leased back to Ayres. The subsidiary also provided for future expansions with the acquisition of additional land in Anderson, Indianapolis, South Bend, and Evansville, Indiana. Owned by the Ayres family, Murray Investments merged with L. S. Ayres Company in the late 1960s and provided the company with approximately $3.6 million in equity capital. The merger also increased Ayres family ownership of the company to 67 percent.
In September 1954 Ayres opened a new wholly owned subsidiary called the Murray Showrooms, which was open only to the interior decorator trade. The Indianapolis showroom, located at 31 West Thirteenth Street, operated like the Chicago Merchandise Mart and was the only one of its kind in Indiana. In 1960, Ayres opened a second location, in the Cincinnati suburb of Kenwood, Ohio, but it underperformed and was closed in 1965. The Indianapolis store survived until the late 1970s and was liquidated in 1982 after the showroom's roof collapsed.[16]
In 1958, Ayres acquired The John Bressmer Company, located in Springfield, Illinois, and continued to operate the store under the Bressmer name. The modern, six-story downtown store was known for its quality fashions and customer service and became a training ground for Ayres managers. William P. Arnold, who joined Ayres in 1947, became Bressmer's president and moved on to become president and CEO of J. W. Robinson's and president, CEO, and board chairman of Associated Dry Goods
Ayr-Way
Ayres developed a discount store format called Ayr-Way in 1961[17] and opened its first Ayr-Way store at Thirty-eighth Street and Pendleton Pike in Indianapolis on October 13, 1961.[18][19] This subsidiary was one of the first discount store divisions launched by a traditional department store. The Indianapolis Ayr-Way store opened prior to the first Kmart, which opened in Garden City, Michigan, in March 1962, and the first Target store, which opened in May 1962. Ayres also opened Ayr-Way stores in other cities.
Ayres encountered several challenges in establishing and operating the new discount store concept. First, Ayres needed to define a clear brand identity for the new subsidiary and its relationship to the L. S. Ayres store brand. Second, errors in selection of store locations posed challenges. Ayres built discount stores in areas of economic decline or in locations that were not yet sufficiently developed. Finally, Ayres's efforts to establish supermarkets adjacent to its discount stores proved unsuccessful. In fiscal year 1970, two years after their initial introduction, the Ayr-Way food stores, leased and operated by Scot-Lad Foods of Chicago, caused Ayres an after-tax loss of $320,000 (~$ in ).
