I was always curious of this former retailer's history since coming across an abandoned storefront in the old main street of Lowell, Arizona. The red tiles brought me to a mid-century time when people walked main street and shopped for everything they needed – much different than going to big box retailers and malls today.
Robert A. Sprouse founded Sprouse-Reitz five and dime store in 1909. Robert Sprouse started out as s a traveling peddler but being unable to carry all the merchandise his customers wanted, he decided to open up his first store. The company’s headquarters were first in Tacoma, Washington but moved to Portland, Oregon in 1919. There were over 350 stores within twelve western states at its peak. The average size of each store was between 14,000 and 15,000 square feet.
Sprouse-Reitz continued to expand by the 1960s and a store opening in Healdsburg, California, an advertisement promoted, “Two checkout stands for your shopping experience,” in a building that had air conditioning. During the mid to late 1980s, the company began its decline. In 1989, Sprouse-Reitz rebranded by changing its name to just, “SPROUSE!” In the middle of the following year, then CEO, Robert Sprouse II, who owned 80% of the company votes, changed the company’s focus in an attempt to rejuvenate sales.
Before, Sprouse-Reitz had numerous departments including candy, notions, drugs, shoes, tin ware, crockery, plastics, and even pets. In 1990, within 287 stores, Sprouse changed the departments to include only six areas he and others in the company thought that other retailers were lacking. These six departments were housewares, home furnishings, apparel, crafts, toys and paper products (including greeting cards and wrapping paper). Robert Sprouse stated that, “What we’ve had to do is reposition our merchandise mix and work a little harder on our presentation.”
During the early 1990s, some of the stores branched off to become independent while others turned into Ben Franklin stores. The change of direction did not help enough and they continued to struggle. Sprouse-Reitz was sold to SR Partners Incorporated for $22.9 million. Sprouse family members remained advisors after the sale. A couple of years later in December 1993, Sprouse liquidated and closed its last eighty-four stores. By early of 1994, all stores were closed after they were unable to find a buyer in time before filing for chapter 11 bankruptcy.
