Parisian was a U.S. chain of upscale department stores founded and headquartered in Birmingham, Alabama. Competing mainly in the established Southeastern US market through the 1980s against Nordstrom, Neiman Marcus and Gus Mayer, Parisian underwent a series of restructurings and mergers during its 130-year history, and was taken over by Saks Incorporated in 1998. In September 2006, Belk purchased the Parisian department store properties from Saks for $285 million, although that sale did not include the Parisian nameplate. Belk quickly resold five Parisian store locations in Michigan, Indiana and Ohio to Bon-Ton Stores, and closed a handful of additional stores nationwide. The remaining Parisian locations were rebranded as Belk in September 2007.
Famous quotes containing the word parisian:
“French rhetorical models are too narrow for the English tradition. Most pernicious of French imports is the notion that there is no person behind a text. Is there anything more affected, aggressive, and relentlessly concrete than a Parisan intellectual behind his/her turgid text? The Parisian is a provincial when he pretends to speak for the universe.”
—Camille Paglia (b. 1947)