industry apparel retail founded 1932 founder philip rounick and aaron weiner defunct march 30 2015 headquarters philadelphia pennsylvania usa products clothing accessories number of employees 2 600 website www.debshops.com deb shops is a catalog and online retailer formerly a specialty retail chain store in the united states that sold women s clothing and accessories under its own private labels as well as other labels . the company was based in philadelphia pennsylvania and principally served junior and plus sized women in their early teens through their late twenties . at its peak deb shops operated 337 stores across 42 states . history edit the company was founded by philip rounick and aaron weiner who opened their first store under the name joy hosiery in philadelphia pennsylvania in 1932 . joy hosiery initially sold reasonably priced hosiery lingerie and foundations in a wide variety of styles . in 1939 it added nylon stockings to its inventory when those became available . 1 deb shop westland michigan the company expanded in the philadelphia area in the 1950s . company co founder philip rounick s son marvin rounick became more involved in the management of the company joining in 1961 . co founder aaron weiner s son warren weiner followed suit in 1965 . during this time the company observed the new phenomenon of suburban growth and construction of shopping malls . they responded by opening stores in several locations making them larger and offering more merchandise . 1 in the 1970s marvin rounick and warren weiner closed most of the neighborhood stores and focused on opening larger stores in shopping malls . the chain was also renamed deb shops and re focused on women s and girls clothing . 1 the company was listed on the nasdaq exchange under the ticker symbol debs . however it was removed from the exchange after being acquired in 2007 by the investment firm of lee equity partners for 395 million or 28.45 per share . 2 the company parent dsi holdings filed for bankruptcy on june 27 2011 . 3 the company filed for bankruptcy again on december 4 2014 . 4 on january 7 2015 they announced that they will close all 295 stores . 5 the final sales occurred on march 30 2015 . as of september 2015 the company returned as an online only retailer selling plus size clothing . references edit a b c deb shops inc. history . fundinguniverse . retrieved 2014 12 13 . deb shops checks out of nasdaq . retrieved 2008 11 24 . baxter brian june 28 2011 . the bankruptcy files dodgers to tap jpmorgan hedge fund loan . the am law daily . retrieved august 23 2016 . hals tom december 4 2014 . cerberus owned deb shops files for bankruptcy . reuters . retrieved august 23 2016 . northrup laura january 7 2015 . next teen clothing retailer deb to liquidate close 295 stores . consumerist . retrieved august 23 2016 . external links edit official website retrieved from https en.wikipedia.org w index.php title deb shops & oldid 743597350 categories clothing retailers of the united statesclothing companies of the united statescompanies based in philadelphiaretail companies established in 1932retail companies disestablished in 20152015 disestablishments in pennsylvaniadefunct retail companies of the united statesre established companies 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 hererelated changesupload filespecial pagespermanent linkpage informationwikidata itemcite this page print export create a bookdownload as pdfprintable version languages add links this page was last modified on 10 october 2016 at 09 58 . text is available under the creative commons attribution sharealike license ; additional terms may apply . by using this site you agree to the terms of use and privacy policy . wikipedia is a registered trademark of the wikimedia foundation inc. a non profit organization . privacy policy about wikipedia disclaimers contact wikipedia developers cookie statement mobile view