Americanas

History

The company was founded in 1929 by Americans John Lee, Glen Matson, James Marshall and Batson Borger. They left the United States and went to Buenos Aires with the objective of opening a Five and Dime store. The idea was to launch a store that featured low prices, modelled after stores in the United States and Europe that became popular at the beginning of the 20th century. While on their trip to South America, they met Brazilians Aquino Sales and Max Landesman, who convinced them to change their plans and head to Rio de Janeiro.

After spending time in Rio de Janeiro, the Americans saw that there were many public employees and military personnel with stable but modest salaries. The majority of the stores in the city were not financially accessible to the general public. The existing stores were expensive and sold specialized merchandise. Consumers had to go to several different establishments to do their shopping. As a result, the Americans decided that Rio de Janeiro was the perfect city in which to launch their new concept store. They built a store that had low prices—to attend to the "forgotten" consumer populations—and sold the widest variety of products possible.

In 1929 they inaugurated the first Lojas Americanas store in Niterói. The store slogan was "Nothing over $2". During the first hour the store was open, no one came. Failure appeared imminent. However, one girl, after spending a few minutes looking at the window display, entered and bought a doll. And just like that, Lojas Americanas had completed its first of many sales. At the end of the first year, they had already opened four stores—three in Rio de Janeiro and one in São Paulo. By 1940, Lojas Americanas had become a corporation.

In 1982, the board members of the Grupo Garantia came on board with Lojas Americanas as shareholders. By the first quarter of 1994, they solidified the formation of a joint venture company under the name Walmart Brasil S/A with Lojas Americanas as a 40% stakeholder and Walmart as a 60% stakeholder. In 1997, by the decision of the administrative council of the company, approval was given for sale of 40% of the company to Walmart, Inc. The council approved the participation of Lojas Americanas in a deal in 1998 which detailed their actionary control of 23 stores with the French supermarket company Comptoirs Modernes, connected to Grupo Carrefour). Lojas Americanas later decided to end the association and focus on their primary business of discount stores.

In 1999, the company began selling merchandise over the internet, through the site Americanas.com. By 2000, Americanas.com and a new partnership with Chase Capital, The Flatiron Fund, Next International. Global Bridge Ventures, Mercosul Internet S/A, and AIG had significantly augmented their capital. All together, these ventures translated into an additional US$40 million and the sale of 33% of the company. The early 2000s were characterized by the company's rapid expansion. The goal was to open new stores across the Southeast and South of Brazil to increase the presence of the brand and to reformulate some existing stores to improve customer service. It was also during this period that Lojas Americanas acquired a television station called Shoptime, a joint venture with Banco Itaú that created the Financeira Americanas Itaú (FAI), or Americanas Taií.