Venture Stores - History

History

The chain was founded in 1968 when Target founder John F. Geisse went to work for May Department Stores. Under an antitrust settlement reached with the Department of Justice, May was unable to acquire any more retail chains at the time, and the department store company needed a way to compete against the emerging discount store chains. When May's Executive Vice President Dave Babcock learned that Geisse had resigned from Target Stores, he spoke with Geisse about starting a new discount retailer, resulting in the founding of Venture.

The first Venture store opened in 1970 in the St. Louis suburb of Overland (after Venture closed, the location became a Kmart, which later closed & was demolished for the current Home Depot). In 1976, Geisse retired and left Venture Stores, which had by that time expanded to 20 units.

In 1978, Venture Stores purchased 23 Turn Style locations in the Chicago area from Jewel food stores, and expanded to over 40 locations in the Chicago market area, with many city locations. They were the largest discount chain in Chicago with inner city locations other than Zayre/Ames. In 1990 Venture separated from May and became a private corporation.

Venture's advertising slogan during the 1980s was "Save With Style." or "SWS" In the 1990s, Venture would employ two other slogans; the first, tied to a companywide remodeling initiative aimed at making the stores more like Kohl's, was "See What's New For You!". At the time of Venture's closing, the slogan was "See What A Little Money Can Buy."

The Venture at Northgate Mall in Decatur, IL could only be accessed from the outside.