Zayre Corporation - 1976 dated $10,000 Bond - Chain Store that Merged into Ames and TJ Maxx

$10,000 5 3/4% Bond printed by Security-Columbian Banknote Company. Zayre was a chain of discount stores that operated in the eastern United States from 1956 until 1990, with its headquarters in Framingham, Massachusetts. In October 1988, the parent company, Zayre Corp., sold its stores to Ames Department Stores, Inc., a competitor. In June 1989, Zayre Corp. merged with one of its subsidiaries, The TJX Companies, the parent company of T.J. Maxx, which continues to operate today. Some stores kept the Zayre name until 1990, when they were either closed or converted into Ames stores.

Zayre's origins trace back to 1919 when brothers Max and Morris Feldberg, Jewish immigrants who fled Russia to escape conscription in the Czar's army, founded the New England Trading Company in Boston, Massachusetts. Initially an underwear and hosiery wholesaler supplying department stores and specialty shops, the company expanded into retail ten years later, opening their first store under the name Bell Hosiery Shops, later shortened to "Bell Shops."