Filene's was an American department store chain founded in 1881 by William Filene. The historic Filene's Department Store in the Downtown Crossing district of Boston, Massachusetts housed the flagship store and headquarters, while branch stores operated throughout New England and New York. Filene's was a founding member of the Federated Department Stores holding company in 1929. It was acquired by The May Department Stores Company in 1988, and expanded with the mergers of G. Fox & Co. in 1992 and Steiger's in 1994. Filene's and Kaufmann's were merged into a single division in 2002, although they maintained their individual brands.

May was acquired by Federated in 2005, which dissolved Filene's and converted stores to Macy's in 2006. The former flagship store was divested after Federated retained the adjacent, existing Macy's that was converted from Jordan Marsh in 1996, however, the building was designated a Boston Landmark in 2006. As of 2025^[update], current tenants include advertising agencies Arnold Worldwide and Havas Media, and fast fashion retailer Primark.

Filene's Basement was established in the basement of the Filene's Department Store in 1908, and evolved into a distinct off-price store chain. It was spun-off by Federated in 1988, and experienced several ownership changes before filing for bankruptcy and liquidating in 2011.

The precursor of the main company was a store opened in 1881 by William Filene. Filene was a German Jewish immigrant from Posen, Prussia (now Poznań in Poland). He immigrated to Boston in 1848. Although William Filene is credited with creating Filene's, it was his sons, Edward Filene and Abraham Lincoln Filene, who expanded the business greatly. Edward and Lincoln were two of the best known businessmen in America and were responsible for converting their father's clothing store into one of the largest department stores in the country. The two sons assumed management of the store in 1891 and inherited the store upon their father's death in 1901; by that the company was known as William Filene's Sons & Company.

In 1908, Edward Filene opened the automatic bargain annex or Filene's Basement as a way to sell excess merchandise from the upstairs department store. He also developed an automatic mark-down schedule to reduce the price of merchandise, used thereafter for decades. Edward's influence gave Filene's an early reputation as a customer oriented store with slogans like “money back if not satisfied.”

A new main store, Filene's Department Store, was completed in 1912 in Boston on the corner of Washington and Summer streets, by Chicago architect Daniel Burnham as his last major project. By 1929 Filene's expanded the main building, converting the block around Washington, Summer, Hawley and Franklin streets into one department store.

Filene's is also a founding member of the International Association of department stores in 1928, which is still active as of today.

Also during 1929, Filene's joined Abraham & Straus and Lazarus as the founding members of Federated Department Stores. From the 1930s through 1990s Filene's continued expanding beyond New England with the country growing and adapting to new shopping malls. Filene's main rival company during this period was Jordan Marsh, whose main store, like Filene's, was located in Downtown Crossing in Boston, and was also making the transition, expanding into shopping malls. In 1947, the Filene's Basement trade-name was first applied to an annual bridal gown sale. Lines extending around the store made it famous.