Denver department stores

In the mid twentieth century, Denver had four local department stores: Daniels and Fisher, May Company, the Denver Dry Goods and Joslins. None remain under those names.

Daniels and Fisher, founded in 1864, was bought by May (founded in 1877 in Leadville to outfit miners) in 1958. The new company was called May D&F. This logo has a western/cowboy feel, appropriate for a city where the main attraction in January is National Western Stock Show. a tradition since 1906.


All that remains of Daniels and Fisher is the iconic clock tower downtown.

                                                        

The Denver Dry Goods, founded in 1879, joined the Associated Dry Goods chain in 1966. Commonly known as "the Denver", the store was a little higher end than May D&F.



Joslin's was founded in 1873. It was purchased by Mercantile Stores, which in turn was acquired by Dillard's, the current nameplate of the stores in Denver.

                                

May Company had grown into a large chain by acquiring department stores in other cities. In 1986, it acquired Associated Dry Goods and merged the Denver with the May Co.

                                       

Several more mergers later, the old Daniels and Fisher, May, and Denver Dry Goods stores are all Macy's and Nordstrom is the newcomer in town.

AT&T and the end of the bell logo

American Telephone and Telegraph was founded by Alexander Graham Bell in 1885. The iconic bell logo was simplified over the years, but remained essentially the same. For a hundred years, the bell was synonomous with telephone service.

In 1982, AT&T lost the anti-trust suit the Federal government had filed against it, and the monopoly was broken up. The company was splintered into seven "Regional Bell Operating Companies" and the new AT&T which included Bell Labs. The RBOCs were frequently referred to as the Baby Bells.


The new companies were:
                       
 

To see how these eight companies (plus several later spin offs) fared in the stock market, I suggest this article by Birinyi Associates.   http://tickersense.typepad.com/ticker_sense/2006/01/1983_att_breaku.html

In the mid 1990s, the Baby Bells, apparently feeling a loss of family togetherness, started merging with each other. NYNEX was the first, bought by Bell Atlantic in 1996. Below is the logo Bell Atlantic used from 1997 until 2000, the last use of the the bell symbol.

The next year Pacific Telesis became part of SBC (the name that Southwestern Bell had taken in 1995). This is a transitional logo to get people accustomed to the name change. Eventually the words were dropped and the initials remained.
              
                                       

SBC bought Ameritech in 1999 and the old AT&T Corp. in 2005, changing its name to AT&T Inc. The new logo tweaked the AT&T globe and changed the initials to lower case. Finally, AT&T acquired Bell South in 2006.

 

In the meanwhile, Bell Atlantic bought GTE in 2000 and changed the combined companies' name to Verizon.

US West was acquired by Qwest in 2000. CenturyLink bought Qwest in 2011.
                                                   
                                                 

Riddle

Question: When is "pi" a letter in English?
Answer: When it is in a logo for a company with a name ending in "tt". Apparently.

                       

Canada Dry

Canada Dry Ginger Ale was first introduced in the US in 1923, but it had been sold in Canada for almost twenty years before that. This is the logo from 1921 which has a very clear map.

Source: Symbols of America by Hal Morgan, 1986.

In later years, the map got more indistinct.


And sometimes even showed all of North America....

... or just mountains.

     
        
                               
                                  

Dove soap / chocolate

Even if you would never confuse soap with chocolate, these logos are too similar!

  

Safeway

The exterior design of the stores has had more dramatic changes than the logos.

  1946-1981

1981-2006

2006 to present. Note that the red and white have flipped places from the prior logo.

Now that you know the logo sequence, you can track the approximate age of the store in the photo by the logo.




  This style was first used in 1959. It was named "Marina" after its first location in San Francisco.

United Continental Holdings

In May 2010, UAL (the holding company for United Airlines) and Continental Airlines agreed to merge.



The compromise was that the new airline would keep the United name, the Continental logo, and the United headquarters.

                                         

One more change for the traveling public to get used to.

Goldwater's Department Store

 

Goldwater's was a Phoenix, Arizona based department store. Founded in 1860, it became part of Associated Dry Goods in 1963. Currently, the stores are under the Macy's nameplate.

I think this is an excellent logo, showing a very strong sense of place.  Very unlike some generic looking logos that tell you nothing about what the company does or where they are located.

Most Improved Logo

Johnson Controls makes products ranging from HVAC (heating, ventilation and air conditioning) to batteries and automotive seats. Previously called Johnson Service Co., the early logo reminds me of a cattle brand. Bar S, Lazy J, JSC...



In 1974 the company name was changed and a new logo appeared.



This one makes me dizzy. What's wrong with my eyes? I'm seeing double, triple. O-O-O-O



Ahh, so much better!

Nostalgic For Cheap Gas

If you remember when filling up your tank cost less than a dollar a gallon, you'll recognize some of these gas station signs.

    

 (Mobil logo)              (older version)                                (Amoco no longer using the old Standard Oil derivative logo)