Has anyone ever heard of "The Daylin Corporation"?

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Floyd

Has anyone ever heard of "The Daylin Corporation"?

Post by Floyd »

I was going through some old Stockton Record Microfilm and noticed ads for two stores :"Disco Wonderworld Discount Store" and "Angel's Do It Yourself Center" that were both owned by "Daylin Corporation". Does anyone know anything about the history of Daylin? In Stockton, The last Disco Wonderland Store closed in 1974 and Angel's Do It Yourself Center closed in 1981. Did Daylin own any other businesses?
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runchadrun
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Post by runchadrun »

Daylin was a retailing congolmerate. They filed for Chapter 11 protection in 1975 and emerged in July 1978 under Sanford Sigoloff, later of Wickes and Builders Emporium (I remember the "We got the message, Mr. Sigoloff" commercials.) They were purchased by WR Grace in 1979.

At the time of the BK filing, they owned 59 discount department stores, 100 leased departments in other stores, 95 drug stores, 72 pharmacies in hospitals, a medical distribution company, 240 apparel specialty shops, and more.

They bought a five-store Norcal chain called Mac Disco in 1965 so that could have become Disco Wonderworld.

These are some of the store names that I saw referenced in the articles. It didn't sound like large numbers of their stores were under a unified banner.

Angels
Handy Dan
Thrifty Builders
Diana stores
MDX stores
Disco Wonderworld
Alec Discount Department Stores
King Clothing (of NY)
H.C. Enterprises (sporting goods and automotive accessories retailer)
Miller-Gulfmart and Shoppers World (closed in 1975)
London Stored Ltd (Canadian drug store chain sold to Pay Less in 1975)
Great Eastern (closed in 1975)
Stripe Discount Health and Beauty Aid (closed 1975)
Elliot's Drug Stores (12 closed, 11 more stores bought by Revco in 1975)
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Daniel
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Post by Daniel »

When I moved to Fresno in 1985 there was an abandoned building with scars on the front where an "Angels" sign once was. I always wondered what sort of store that was, I had assumed it was a sort of craft store but I guess I was wrong!

(That building sat abandoned until 1988 or 1989 when H&H Craft & Floral moved in. They got bought out by Michaels who operated there until the late 90's. The whole center was demolished and there's now a FoodsCo on the site.)
Floyd

Post by Floyd »

Thanks for the info runchadrun! You are right, Disco Wonderworld was MAC DISCO. In Stockton, MAC DISCO opened a store at 1015 West Hammer Lane in North Stockton. They opened a second location in 1964 in East Stockton at 110 Noth Filbert Street. This second location also had a supermarket inside but was not operated by MAC DISCO but by local grocer, Gaines Market who ran it until August 18, 1970. Sacramento based "FARMERS MARKET" replaced Gaines but not until a year later on March 31, 1971.Sometime in the late 1960's, a discount store by the name of "Villa Faire" in South Stockton, a similar discount store to MAC DISCO. Around 1969, MAC DISCO took over Villa Faire and renamed it "Disco Wonderworld" for that and all stores. That South Stockton closed and became an indoor flea market sometime in latter part of 1970. Daylin closed the North Stockton Disco location(Hammer Lane) on April 13, 1971 and Daylin opened Angel's on June 25, 1971. As for that last Disco store in East Stockton, They closed their doors in December 0f 1974. As for Angel's that location was sold to Orchard Supply Hardware in 1981 which opened the following year in 1982. For people unfamiliar with Angel's, they were essentially a smaller version of Home Depot or Lowes. The Stockton Angels was 40,000 Square Feet. As for Daniel, that Fresno Angels also opened in 1971 but in August. I don't know when they closed up but apparently Orchard Supply did not buy that location. I assumed that Orchard Supply bought all Angels but was wrong.
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Post by javelin »

Did Handy Dan have anything to do with the Handyman hardware stores? MAC DISCO reminds me of the shoe distributor to K Mart, MELDISCO.

And "Disco Wonderworld" reminds me of "Boogie Wonderland".
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Post by runchadrun »

WR Grace, who bought Daylin, owned OSH so it would make sense that Angels would become OSH. They also owned Builders Emporium for about 6 months in 1977. They bought it from Vornado, which owned Smiths Food King at one point, but sold it to Wickes which was later run by Daylin's former CEO, Sanford Sigoloff.

In 1986, WR Grace sold its retail division, which included 317 home centers including Handy Dan, Handy City, Channel, Angels, OSH, and Ole's. Wickes bought Handy Dan, OSH, and Ole's. Ole's was merged into Builders Emporium but OSH wasn't. They sold OSH in an LBO in 1989. OSH went public in 1993 and was bought by Sears in 1996. When Builders Emporium shut down in the mid-1990s many of the old stores were turned into OSH stores.
Floyd

Post by Floyd »

I don't know the story on the origin of the name "MAC DISCO", but I know the Disco name was short for "Discount". The last Disco store in Stockton, closed in 1974, before the advent of Disco Music. I found an interesting website dealing with the history of "The Daylin Corporation". Check it out at http://quincy.hbs.edu:8080/lehman/compa ... n%2C%20Inc
Floyd

Post by Floyd »

I also want to add that the last Disco Discount Department Store at 110 N. Filbert Street in Stockton started their Going Out Of Business Sale on November 29, 1974 and closed for good on December 22, 1974. Interestingly enough, a supermarket which shared Disco: "Farmers Market"(which opened on March 31, 1971), continued in business until closing that location was on May 4, 1976. An indoor Flea Market by the name of "Chris's Mini Mall" opened in that Disco location on April 5, 1975. Later in 1976, Del Monte (which had a cannery nearby) bought the property and converted into a warehouse to store Del Monte products. That lasted until (approx.) 1997 when Del Monte closed up in stockton and relocated to Modesto. In 2004, The old Disco property reverted back to retail with a Canned Food Store called "Curry's Crosstown Plaza" which sold dented cans and outdated food product which was still good. That lasted less than a year when the propert owner sold the building to "San Joaquin Regional Transit District" to house the city buses after hours.
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Daniel
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Post by Daniel »

Nothing's coming up for me in that link...
TheQuestioner
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Post by TheQuestioner »

"Disco" standing for "discount" probably seemed like an obvious thing to people back then, while nowadays it's meaning is irreversibly changed. It struck me as odd when I started reading this thread, since I knew that Disco was not a term used for music or nightclubs before the mid 70's. Funny to think, if Disco Wonderland had hung on just a couple of more years, people who were not already familiar with it would have probably thought they were a chain of record stores or some kind of nightclub/roller disco. Maybe they could have repositioned themselves into that direction due to accidental increased notice due to their name! Imagine a chain of discount stores suddenly being gutted and refloored with hardwood and hanging colored lights! The snack counter would become the bar and the shopping carts replaced with roller skates!

Just a random thought...
Floyd

Post by Floyd »

Daniel wrote:Nothing's coming up for me in that link...
Do this Daniel. Click on the site, scroll your cursor up towards "D-F", which is to the right of the words, "company histories" and click the "D-F". Then there will be a list of companies and click "Daylin Inc.
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Post by javelin »

TheQuestioner wrote:Funny to think, if Disco Wonderland had hung on just a couple of more years, people who were not already familiar with it would have probably thought they were a chain of record stores or some kind of nightclub/roller disco. Maybe they could have repositioned themselves into that direction due to accidental increased notice due to their name! Imagine a chain of discount stores suddenly being gutted and refloored with hardwood and hanging colored lights! The snack counter would become the bar and the shopping carts replaced with roller skates!

Just a random thought...
That was my thought...just not that graphic. Disco balls and "strobe light specials".
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Post by dth1971 »

Disco Wonderworld? Was that a short lived chain in the disco era of the late 1970's?
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Post by TheStranger »

dth1971 wrote:Disco Wonderworld? Was that a short lived chain in the disco era of the late 1970's?
Looking at the post before yours, it didn't exist at all during the disco era.
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Post by OldBlueValiant »

That's a funny name but as you said, DISCO used that name before the dance music of the same name became big. Anyway there was a DISCO store in Capitola, CA on Bay Ave. According to the old DISCO ads I copied from the Santa Cruz Sentinel newspaper microfilms, that store closed in October '74. The store opened in September '64 from what I have seen on the microfilm also. The building exterior walls look similar to a White Front but without the arch and colorful paint finish. The building is still there, in facelifted form, housing a Nob Hill supermarket and several other businesses. Nob Hill opened in the very early 80s.
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