RICH, RICHARD H., 1901-1975.
Richard H. Rich papers > Rich’s Inc. records

Scope and Content Note

This series concerns Rich's, Inc.'s operations, expansions, and relations to other stores and to the Atlanta business community from the 1930's to the 1970's. Correspondence, intra-store memorandums, printed reports, market studies, store publications, advertisements and promotions, and store miscellany are included. The series documents, to a degree, Rich's role in the development of the store as well as the growth of Rich's from a downtown dry goods store to a major department store chain with nine branches and several large discount convenience stores.

The daily functioning of the store, especially in the 1940's and 1950's when Rich was vice-president and president closely overseeing operations, is revealed through memos, charts, and reports of various departments, such as special services (protection), post office, and warehouses. Rich's membership in the Associated Merchandising Corporation is also shown. The AMC was an independently owned and operated corporation with twenty-eight of the nation's leading department stores as affiliates. As a member from 1943 to the mid-1970's, Rich's used the corporation for merchandising, planning, and evaluating their sales, management, personnel, and customer service policies.

A major section of this series concerns the branch store movement which began in 1954 with the opening of Rich's Knoxville and in 1959 with the opening of Atlanta's first major suburban shopping centers at Lenox Square and Belvedere. Market studies, contract negotiations, promotion plans, press packets for grand openings, and correspondence relate to several of the branches Rich's opened from 1954 to 1975. Many of the printed reports are also closely related to the branch store movement. Reports include feasibility and market studies for particular sites and detailed studies of developments in Atlanta which might affect store operations, such as downtown traffic studies, long-range plans of Georgia State College, and plans for the development of MARTA, the rapid transit system.

Other materials in the series include annual reports to stockholders dating from 1944 to 1980, employee magazines, Rich Bits, Little Bits, and News Bits dating from the 1920's to the 1970's, and pamphlets, brochures, handouts, booklets, and newsclippings put out by the store in special sales promotions and public service campaigns promoting the resources and attractions of Georgia and Atlanta. Store miscellany completes the series. This includes printed tributes to three of the store's leaders, Walter Rich, Frank Neely, and "Mr. Dick, Richard Rich. Six phonograph albums are also included as part of the Rich's, Inc. series. Four albums feature the vice-president of S. H. George's and the mayor of Knoxville announcing the merger of George' and Rich's in 1954. The other two albums were recorded at the Tobe Awards ceremony honoring Walter Rich for his leadership in the merchandising field in 1946.

Arrangement Note

Arrangement is as follows: subject files (in alphabetical order), branch expansions, printed reports, annual reports, store publications, advertisements and promotions (in chronological order), and miscellany.