Loehmann's

Loehmann's is an American department store that started in 1921 in New York City, growing to a chain of off-price department stores in the United States.

The chain is best known for its "Back Room", featuring off-price designer goods. In 2014 the chain closed all stores, and became an online retailer before ceasing operations in 2018. Loehmann's was purchased in 2020 by Century 21 department stores and will return in 2026 with pop-up locations.

In 1921, Frieda Loehmann, a former department store buyer, and her son Charles, opened the first Loehmann's store. The store was located in a former automobile showroom on the northwest corner of Bedford Avenue and Sterling Place in Brooklyn, New York City.

They purchased seasonal overstocks from top New York designers and sold them at bargain prices.

Frieda refused to expand into additional stores, but her son opened a second store, also called Loehmann's, on Fordham Road in the Bronx in 1930, using the same sales strategy. Frieda continued to run the original store, buying the building and moving into living quarters above it.

Soon after her death in 1962, the Bedford Avenue store was closed, and the Charles C. Loehmann company went public and began to expand to a wider area.

Loehmann's was acquired by Associated Dry Goods in 1983. In 1986, The May Department Stores Company merged with Associated Dry Goods. Two years later, May Department Stores Company sold the 77-unit chain to an investor group led by a Spanish concern, Sefinco Ltd., and the Sprout Group, a division of Donaldson, Lufkin & Jenrette.

The company was taken public again in May 1996.