we discount prices not quality type privately held company 1 industry retail founded 1953 1 founder marty chase 1 headquarters 1 ann & hope way cumberland ri 02864 6918 united states number of locations rhode island massachusetts and connecticut key people irwin chase president fred looney ceo owner irwin chase website www.curtainandbathoutlet.com ann & hope is a rhode island based retailer that pioneered practices now common in modern big box stores . 2 named after the ship ann and hope which was lost at sea off block island rhode island in 1806 the store operated from 1953 to 2001 in the northeastern united states . 3 currently the company operates a small chain of home fashion outlets garden outlets and dollar outlets in rhode island massachusetts and connecticut . 4 contents 1 history 1.1 early years 1.2 legacy 1.3 present day 2 references 3 external links history edit early years edit ann & hope was founded by martin chase who was born in 1906 in kiev ukraine and moved with his family to providence rhode island at age six . he was the only one of six sons not to work in his father s automobile repair business . instead when he was 20 he got a job working at a store called fintex . after fintex closed its doors in 1929 chase worked at howard s clothes until 1933 . then he started chase clothing where he undersold other area clothing stores by reducing overhead for example he did not offer alterations and used inexpensive store fixtures . 5 as world war ii approached the clothing market fell into decline and chase began to look for another line of work . in 1946 he purchased the ann & hope mill complex in the village of lonsdale in cumberland rhode island . he split the large empty mill into several small pieces and rented them individually . some time before december 1953 one of the tenants left the mill leaving a large amount of ribbon behind . rather than dispose of it the chases opened the area to the other employees of the mill and sold the ribbon . chase then had the idea to reopen a clothing store in the mill initially on the third floor . by the following spring the operation had become large enough that it was relocated to the ground floor . over time more products were added and by 1969 ann & hope was a 40 million per year operation . legacy edit this article needs additional citations for verification . please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources . unsourced material may be challenged and removed . april 2011 learn how and when to remove this template message ann & hope was one of the first self service department stores in which customers could look at items without sales personnel and also was one of the first to use shopping carts in a department store . citation needed the original mill location also featured a large parking area which was not common at the time as well as a basement level with even more merchandise . a special shopping cart conveyor was operated by staff to move store patrons items from one floor to the other . other now familiar features such as having a central checkout area and a liberal store return policy were also pioneered by ann & hope . ann & hope also had several features now common to big box retail facilities . for example some ann & hope stores had full scale cafeterias . citation needed when originally constructed ann & hope stores also had an area that was rented to a sub tenant with both in store and outside entrances a variation of which is a relatively recent introduction in larger wal mart stores . many ann & hope locations had limited success renting to tenants and before the chain s closing in 2001 many had been converted to store run garden shops . sam walton founder of wal mart visited the ann & hope chain in 1961 and got the idea for wal mart here 6 and harry cunningham visited ann & hope in the process of preparing to launch the first kmart store . 7 present day edit following a slow 1989 90 holiday season the seekonk massachusetts store experienced lay offs most notably in the home wares and rug and blind departments . these layoffs were viewed by some as a portent of the difficulties that the seekonk store as well as her sister a & h stores would experience in a cut throat regional market throughout the 1990s . all of the ann & hope department stores closed in the spring of 2001 except for the two rhode island stores the original location in cumberland and the store in warwick . 8 high value properties that ann & hope owned in massachusetts were sold off . 9 the two locations that remained open were downsized significantly and turned into off price outlet stores . in the years following the closing new ann & hope branded outlet stores such as the ann & hope curtain and bath outlet were opened . several of these new ann & hope outlet stores occupied space near where ann & hope department stores had previously existed . as of 2007 the original cumberland property is home to an ann & hope curtain and bath outlet and an outdoor garden outlet . in august 2007 the owners of ann & hope made public their intention to convert the cumberland mill store to a mixed use development of retail and residential space . as of 2010 ann & hope curtain and bath is still going strong opening stores in vernon and newington connecticut . in april and may 2011 ann & hope opened two new stores in raynham and weymouth massachusetts buying out two curtain factory outlet retailers . this makes a current total of 11 ann & hope outlet stores two in rhode island two in connecticut and seven in massachusetts . in may 2013 ann & hope continues to grow with its newest curtain & bath outlet location opening in westborough ma . references edit a b c 50 discounters belong to over 30 club . discount store news . lebhar friedman . 1992 09 21 . retrieved 2007 11 11 . trager harold 2001 03 19 . how the discount industry was born in rhode island . providence business news . retrieved 2007 11 11 . it s fair to say that wal mart target and all of the other big discount chains around today owe their existence to what the chases and ann & hope created . they innovated and developed the concept and format that all the rest have followed to this day . the operating format just evolved . pioneer discounter exits arena ; refocuses . . mmr . racher press inc. 2001 01 22 . retrieved 2007 11 11 . grimaldi paul 2005 03 19 . in death ann & hope has stayed very healthy . the providence journal . retrieved 2007 11 11 . discounting chronicles of its evolution . discount store news . lebhar friedman . 1991 09 21 . retrieved 2007 11 11 . fridson martin s. 1999 . how to be a billionaire proven strategies from the titans of wealth . john wiley and sons . isbn 0 471 33202 x. p. 84 . marcelo philip 2007 08 19 . a new chapter at ann & hope . the providence journal . retrieved 2007 11 11 . employees customers lament loss of r.i. institution . the providence journal . 2002 01 05 . retrieved 2007 11 11 . ann & hope to close mass . stores . boston business journal . 2001 01 15 . retrieved 2007 11 11 . external links edit ann & hope curtain and bath outlet official website retrieved from https en.wikipedia.org w index.php title ann % 26 hope & oldid 733759587 categories privately held companies based in rhode islanddefunct companies based in rhode islandeconomy of the northeastern united statesdefunct discount stores of the united statescompanies established in 1953hidden categories articles needing additional references from april 2011all articles needing additional referencesall articles with unsourced statementsarticles with unsourced statements from april 2011 navigation menu personal tools not logged intalkcontributionscreate accountlog in namespaces article talk variants views read edit view history more search navigation main pagecontentsfeatured contentcurrent eventsrandom articledonate to wikipediawikipedia store interaction helpabout wikipediacommunity portalrecent changescontact page tools what links 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