Peoples (store)

Peoples is a defunct chain of department stores located in the Puget Sound area. The company was founded in 1888 in Downtown Tacoma, Washington. The flagship store opened in 1895 and expanded in 1957. Peoples expanded mostly south and eastward away from the Seattle market and usually opened both stand-alone and mall stores depending on the city. In 1948 there were twelve stores in the Peoples chain, most of these originally opened as a company owned store called Electric City before later being reopened as a department store. By 1968, the chain consolidated its 12 small stores into seven larger scaled stores. The company was shut down by its parent company, Mercantile Stores, in 1983. The downtown Tacoma store was remodeled and renamed Puget Sound Plaza and currently houses offices.

Former Locations

• Auburn (Opened?, closed?)
• Bremerton (Opened?, closed?)
• Chehalis (Opened 1937 as Electric City, expanded to clothing 1944, closed?)
• Ellensburg (Opened?, closed?)
• Federal Way: Sea-Tac Mall (now The Commons at Federal Way) (Opened 1975, closed 1983, Mervyn's opened 1984, closed 2003, Currently Target)
• Lacey: South Sound Center (Opened 1966, closed 1983, reopened Mervyn's 1984, closed 2006, to be demolished for Kohl's 2007)
• Lakewood (South Tacoma): Lakewood Mall (Opened 1947, closed 1983)
• Olympia (Opened?, closed, about 1983)
• Port Angeles: Downtown (Opened?, closed 1983, reopenend Lamonts 1984, closed?)
• Tacoma: Downtown (Opened 1895, expanded 1957, closed 1983, converted to offices 1984)
• Walla Walla: Downtown (Opened 1927, closed?)
• Wenatchee: Downtown (Opened c. 1965, closed 1983, converted to smaller shops)
• Yakima: Downtown (Opened?, closed 1983)

External links

• Peoples Store building information from Pierce County Building Inventory
• The Peoples Store in Yakima

References