Defunct 1978 Founded 1956 | Website None Ceased operations 1978 | |
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Products Clothing, footwear, bedding, furniture, jewelry, beauty products, electronics, toys and housewares. Headquarters Framingham, Massachusetts, United States | ||
Mammoth Mart was a discount department store chain, located in the northeastern United States, primarily in the New England area. The chain was founded by Max Coffman in Framingham, Massachusetts in 1956, and was something of a prototype for the large, downscale department store, selling housewares, hardware and clothing in stark, unfussy buildings, usually in suburban shopping center locations. Other discount department store retailers like K-Mart, Zayre, and Bradlees would subsequently expand on this concept.
Their advertising mascot was Marty the elephant, a smiling, blazer-wearing mammoth.
By 1969 the chain had 35 stores, though they filed for bankruptcy protection under Chapter XI of the Bankruptcy Act of 1898—one of the precursors (along with Chapter X of the 1898 Bankruptcy Act) of today's Chapter 11—in 1974. The chain was acquired by now-defunct King's Department Stores in 1978.