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World Market (store)

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
"Cost Plus" redirects here. For other uses, see Cost plus (disambiguation).
World Market, Inc.
World Market
Company typePrivate
IndustryRetail, online shopping
Founded1958; 67 years ago (1958)
Fisherman's Wharf, San Francisco, California, U.S.
Founder
  • William Amthor
  • Lincoln Bartlett
HeadquartersAlameda, California, U.S.
Number of locations
258 (2020)
Area served
United States
Key people
Alex Smith, Executive Chairman
ProductsFurniture and decor, apparel, international foods
RevenueUS$963.83 million (2011)[1]
US$16.5 million (2011)
Number of employees
6,127[1]
ParentBed Bath & Beyond (2012–2021)
Kingswood Capital Management (2021–present)
Websitewww.worldmarket.com
Inside a Cost Plus World Market in Kennesaw, Georgia
Former headquarters of Cost Plus World Market in Oakland, California

World Market, formerly Cost Plus World Market, is an American chain of specialty/import retail stores, selling home furniture, decor, curtains, rugs, gifts, apparel, coffee, wine, craft beer, and international food products. The brand's original name came from the initial concept, since abandoned, of selling items for "cost plus 10%". The company was owned by Bed Bath & Beyond from 2012 to 2021, and is currently headquartered in Alameda, California.[2]

History

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On 23 October 1958,[3] William Amthor and Lincoln Bartlett[4] opened the first Cost Plus Imports store at 2552 Taylor Street on Fisherman's Wharf in San Francisco, California.[5] Amthor and Bartlett worked at Amthor's family's import business in San Francisco, which had imported a surplus of wicker furniture. Unable to offload the pieces via wholesale, they rented 4,000 square feet (370 m2) of warehouse space in the Fisherman's Wharf area.[6] The imported furniture sold quickly, and Amthor began a new business as a retailer. When the first store opened in 1958, it was devoted to wicker and rattan that the company had imported. The store was named Cost Plus after their strategy of pricing the imported goods at cost, plus ten percent. The stores featured an eclectic mix of imported furniture and home furnishings, displayed in the style of a bazaar.[7]

In 1962, with the help of the Tandy Corporation (the owner of Radio Shack), Cost Plus Imports incorporated and opened its first franchise location in San Mateo, California. From 1962 to 1965, Cost Plus opened 15 franchised locations in California and Texas. While Cost Plus owned the brand name and imported the merchandise, the franchise stores themselves were owned by Tandy. In 1965, the management of the franchise operation had decided that the business model of Cost Plus was too oriented toward sales from their large store in San Francisco, which was not in Tandy's view well-suited for smaller franchises. They gave Cost Plus 12 months notice that they would be starting their own operation and in 1966, the franchises were successfully importing their own products and had rebranded as Pier 1 Imports, run as a division of Tandy Corporation.[4][6][8] The two companies would remain competitors for many decades.[9]

Cost Plus was left only with its original San Francisco store, but decided to once again rebuild a chain, opening their first wholly owned branch store, once again in San Mateo, in a large location in Hillsdale Shopping Center.[10][11] In 1968, Cost Plus would open a third location in Mayfield Mall in Mountain View, California.[12] The chain would eventually grow to 258 stores across 39 states and Washington, D.C.[as of?] The Fisherman's Wharf location would have a floor size of 40,000 square feet at its peak and remained Cost Plus's flagship store for many years,[9] but the company would eventually reduce the size of this location, and it closed permanently in 2020.[5]

In 1987, Bechtel Investments (Fremont Group) completed a leveraged buyout.[9] The company's profits declined during the 1980s, but a significant reorganization of the company's stores and product line during the early 1990s turned the company's fortunes around, and it began a round of expansion, expanding to over 100 stores by the end of the decade.[9] During this period, Cost Plus shifted the branding of its stores to either Cost Plus World Market or simply World Market in markets new to the brand (generally in the eastern or southern regions of the United States). In 1996, Cost Plus World Market went public and began trading on the NASDAQ stock exchange.

In February 2006, Cost Plus World Market reported quarterly earnings of $125 million, with $367 million in revenue for the fourth fiscal quarter of 2006. Annual earnings were $280 million with over $800 million in revenue. By 2008 the company was operating at a loss, and rebuffed an 88.4 million dollar takeover bid by its early spinoff, Pier 1 Imports.[13]

In 2012, Cost Plus was acquired by Bed Bath & Beyond for $495 million.[14]

In 2014, Cost Plus World Market launched an online crowdsourcing-model marketplace, Craft by World Market.[15] The website posts items for one month at a time, and sells only products that attract enough pre-orders to be worthwhile.[16]

In October 2019, Bed Bath and Beyond announced pending closure of 40 Bed Bath and Beyond stores and 20 stores of World Market and other subsidiaries,[17] including the original store at Fisherman's Wharf. The company sold Cost Plus World Market to Kingswood Capital Management in February 2021.[5][18]

References

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  1. ^ a b "Cost Plus, Inc. Company Profile". Yahoo Finance. Archived from the original on July 26, 2013. Retrieved May 8, 2014.
  2. ^ "Cost Plus will move head offices, 400 workers, to Alameda from Oakland". The Mercury News. 2016-01-13. Retrieved 2018-01-13.
  3. ^ "Cost Plus celebrates 50th anniversary". Chain Store Age. October 6, 2008. Retrieved 24 December 2022.
  4. ^ a b Hirschmann, Niloufer. "The world in a paper bag" (PDF). Kroeber Anthropological Society Papers. University of California, Berkeley. Retrieved 24 December 2022.
  5. ^ a b c "Bed Bath & Beyond sells Cost Plus World Market". The North Bay Business Journal. 2021-01-20. Retrieved 2021-10-22.
  6. ^ a b Farman, Irvin (1992). "Luther, I Don't Understand This Business". Tandy's Money Machine: How Charles Tandy Built Radio Shack into the World's Largest Electronics Chain. Mobium Press. p. 101. ISBN 0916371123.
  7. ^ "History". Cost Plus. n.d. Retrieved May 8, 2014.
  8. ^ "Pier 1 Imports: From Hippie to Hip to Hell". Forbes.
  9. ^ a b c d Covell, Jeffrey L (1999). "Cost Plus, Inc.". In Grant, Tina (ed.). International Directory of Company Histories. Vol. 27. Detroit: St James Press. pp. 109–111. ISBN 978-1-55862-386-6. OL 8471626W. Mirrored at: "Cost Plus, Inc". Encyclopedia.com. Retrieved 2025-07-10.
  10. ^ "Cost Plus". San Francisco Chronicle. 1966-09-10. p. 43. – via NewsBank 15120CDB917FB042 "Cost Plus Imports, Fisherman's Wharf, has leased 15,000 square feet of space for its first wholly-owned branch in the Hillsdale Shopping Center."
  11. ^ "Cost Plus outlet opens today in Hillsdale Center". San Francisco Chronicle. 1966-10-13. p. 43. – via NewsBank 151247B40AD80081
  12. ^ "Roundup: Branch for Cost Plus". San Francisco Chronicle. 1968-03-19. p. 49. – via NewsBank 151247B40AD80081
  13. ^ "Pier 1 withdraws bid to acquire Cost Plus". Reuters. June 24, 2008.
  14. ^ Hsu, Tiffany (May 9, 2012). "Bed Bath & Beyond to buy Cost Plus for $495 million". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved July 2, 2025.
  15. ^ "Craft by World Market". Cost Plus World Market.
  16. ^ Somerville, Heather (February 20, 2014). "World Market to launch online boutique to sell handmade goods". San Jose Mercury News.
  17. ^ "Bed Bath and Beyond to close stores after holiday season". WAND TV. October 3, 2019.
  18. ^ Rivas, Teresa. "Bed Bath & Beyond Sells Cost Plus World Market, Buys Back More Stock". www.barrons.com. Retrieved 2020-12-15.
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