Payless ShoeSource history

The company went public in 1961 and was renamed as Volume Shoe Corp.

In 1962 Volume Distributors went public to raise capital for further growth.

In order to cope with the increased inventory, in 1966 Volume Distributors adopted a new computerized inventory system that used stock-keeping units (SKUs) to keep track of the large number of shoe styles and sizes that were stocked in the company's 50 stores.

In 1967 "Volume Distributors" was renamed "Volume Shoe Corporation" in order to identify it more closely with the footwear industry.

The S&P 500 had its worst first half of a year since 1970, and it is down nearly 19 percent since January.

The prosperity of the company during the inflation-plagued early 70s actually led to a conflict with the Nixon administration in 1971 when Volume Shoe raised its dividend in spite of a government imposed wage-price freeze.

Starting in 1972, Volume Shoe began to consolidate stores in proximity and convert others to the "Payless" brand.

By 1975 Volume Shoe was operating 486 retail units in 31 states with total net sales of almost $75 million, making it the largest chain of family shoe stores in the United States.

1978: The Payless ShoeSource name is adopted for the bulk of the company's retail outlets.

In 1979 Volume Shoe, with its 739 Payless ShoeSource stores generating annual sales of $191 million, was acquired by May Department Stores in a $160 million stock swap.

May's capital allowed the Payless chain to expand at an accelerated pace and by 1981 there were 1,089 Payless outlets in 34 states.

In 1983 Payless's presence in California was further strengthened by the acquisition of 66 Koby Shoe Stores, a California-based chain formerly owned by Kobacker Co.

With almost all of these stores now known under the Payless name, in 1991 the corporate name was also changed from Volume Shoe to Payless ShoeSource.

Payless bought Picway Shoes from the Kobacker department store chain in 1994.

Earnings as a percentage of sales had been about 15 percent when May purchased Volume Shoe, but flat sales in the discount shoe sector saw this figure fall to about 11 percent in the late 80s and then tumble again to less than 8 percent in 1995.

May spun it out to shareholders in 1996.

In 1997 the company went up-market by acquiring Parade of Shoes from J. Baker, Inc.

Appelhanz, Christie, "Payless Strides into New Territories," Topeka (Kans.) Capital- Journal, May 29, 1999

For the fiscal year ending in January 2000, Payless posted strong results: $136.5 million in net income on revenues of $2.73 billion.

Next, a similar joint venture was created in November 2001 to pursue the South American market.

After the company experienced it is first lost in 2003, the company worked hard to turn things around.

Having already committed to closing or relocating 230 Payless stores during 2004, the company announced a major overhaul in August of that year.

The third strategy developed in 2005 was to enhance the customer experience by hiring friendly, helpful employees to improve customer service.

On June 27, 2006, Payless announced that it was launching a new logo created to represent a more stylish, upscale and contemporary company.

Rubel — who won the 2007 FN Achievement Award for Person of the Year — focused on global expansion in addition to trends, pushing the company into new markets in the Middle East and Latin America.

In the 2009 annual report, it was stated that Payless opened a significant amount of stores in Columbia within the year.

Payless ShoeSource: Definition. (n.d.). Retrieved November 23, 2010, from Answers.com: http://www.answers.com/topic/payless-shoesource-inc

In 2012, private equity firms and hedge funds set their sights on the troubled retailing sector, and one set of investors made the pilgrimage to Topeka, where they acquired Payless.

In 2015, longshoremen at major West Coast ports went on a slowdown at the worst possible time for Payless: just as ships from Asia containing millions of pairs of discount shoes were steaming across the Pacific ahead of the crucial spring sales season.

Their imprint on the economy is enormous: Companies owned by private equity firms accounted for 8.8 million jobs in the United States in 2018, and 5 percent of G.D.P.

Investments in start-ups have declined to their lowest level since 2019, dropping 23 percent over the last three months, to $62.3 billion.