history

Montgomery Ward & Co was founded by Aaron Montgomery Ward in August 1872. It began as a mail-order business with headquarters in Cedar Rapids, Iowa. Ward would buy large quantities of merchandise wholesale and then sell it directly to rural farmers. This allowed the transaction to happen without the help of retail intermediaries and would still allow Ward to yield acceptable profits. During the panic of 1873, Ward’s two partners withdrew so he brought in his brother-in-law. Ward experienced good sales until Sears, Roebuck, and Company began to outdo them in every area. In 1926, Ward opened its first retail store and by 1926, there were 556 stores across the country. Montgomery Ward merged with Container Corporation of America and they became Marcor Inc. In 1976, Marcor merged into the new Mobil Corporation. In 1985, after 113 years in the mail-order catalog business, Montgomery Ward became solely focused on its retail operations and suspended all catalog sales. Montgomery Ward was sold in 1988 and was purchased by a subsidiary of General Electric. Montgomery Ward filed for bankruptcy in 1997 due to stiff competition from retailers like Target and Walmart. They announced they were going out of business in 2000 and by 2001 closed all remaining stores. They were acquired by a catalog marketer in 2004 and relaunched as an online company.