Merchants Move to Bloomington’s East Side

Grace B. Smith (1907-1990) was a Brown’s Business School graduate with an eye for fashion when she got her first job in the millinery (hat making) department at Roland’s department store in 1927. Grace loved her sales job.

Grace didn’t stay in the job long, but after working in department stores in Little Rock, Arkansas and New Orleans, Louisiana, she returned to Roland’s in 1929 to start a serious career.

“They had beautiful hats and the job was a challenge.”

— Grace Smith

By the mid-1930s Grace was a buyer, and in 1953 she became a part-owner of the store.

As an owner she was involved in all big decisions, including the decision to modernize and expand the downtown Bloomington store in 1961.

In 1965 Grace and other owners decided to open a branch store at Eastland Mall. They believed the mall would attract more shoppers to the Bloomington area, and that having a store there would not affect downtown business.

She continued to manage the lingerie department in the downtown store, becoming a vice president at Roland’s in 1975.

Traffic at the Eastland store continued to increase, but traffic at the downtown store slowly declined. Grace retired in 1979 when the downtown store closed. She had worked for Roland’s for 50 years.

Alan P. James

Construction of the Beltline Road (Veterans Parkway) in 1941 and Interstate 55 in the 1960s, meant area merchants found their business traffic rerouted around their communities, rather than through their central business districts. New stores were soon being built along these roadways.

In 1962, Alan P. James became the first manager at Bloomington's new Kmart store. Alan was responsible for hiring, training, and managing 150 employees who worked in 40 different departments selling groceries, hardware, sporting goods, clothing, housewares, furnishings, and more, including Kmart's lunch counter.

The store was self-serve and offered discount pricing. Its large parking lot could hold 1,000 cars and was conveniently located (especially for out of town shoppers) at the intersection of Route 9 and Beltline Road.

The new Kmart was owned by the S.S. Kresge Corporation. Despite the new store's presence, Bloomington's downtown Kresge's store remained open. But business soon began to wane. The downtown store closed four years later, in 1966.

Lloyd Ringler

Lloyd Ringer had a long career with JC Penny's before he arrived in Bloomington in 1957. With 22 years of experience under his belt, he was brought in to manage the downtown Bloomington store and to find the business a new and bigger location.

When plans for the development of Eastland Mall on the east side of Bloomington began to take shape, Lloyd and his bosses decided Penny's should be part of that development.

Ten years after he arrived in Bloomington, on November 10, 1966, Lloyd opened the doors of the new JC Penny's store at Eastland Mall. The downtown store closed its doors for good the day before.

Soon after the store opened, Lloyd was also managing catalog sales at the store —  a test to see how the company would do. Within a few years, catalog sales alone exceeded total store sales and year at the downtown store. 

Lloyd retired in 1972, not because he was ready, but because Penny's had a mandatory retirement age of 60 for executives.