Caldor was a chain of discount department stores based in the northeastern United States. The first store was opened by Cal and Dorothy Bennett in Port Chester, New York in 1951. The name was taken from parts of the couple's first names. Caldor had expanded to several locations by the mid-1960s, and by the 1980s, had locations across the East Coast, stretching from New Hampshire to Maryland. As of late 1998, Caldor had 145 stores in nine states.[1]

Caldor stores were located entirely in heavily urban or suburban neighborhoods.

The Bennetts sold the company to American Dry Goods Corporation (ADG) in 1981. ADG would merge with May Department Stores in 1986.

As national chains such as Wal-Mart and Target moved into many of the areas with Caldor stores in the mid-1990s, the chain found itself unable to compete with the lower prices and wider selection of such stores and ended up filing for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in 1995. Caldor closed for good in early 1999.

Caldor's corporate headquarters were in Norwalk, Connecticut.

External links

• Caldor official site (mirror)
• Article from findarticles.com about the last days of Caldor