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Younkers is a department store chain in the Midwestern United States. The chain concentrates on the upscale segment of the market.
The company was founded by three Polish immigrant brothers who opened a general store in Keokuk, Iowa, in 1856. In 1900 the Younker brothers opened a department store in downtown Des Moines, Iowa, that is still operating today. The company started growing in the 1920s by acquiring other department stores throughout Iowa.
Younkers was operated by Equitable of Iowa, an insurance company, from 1979 to 1992. Under Equitable's ownership, Younkers acquired the Omaha, Nebraska-based Brandeis department store chain in 1987. Later in 1992, Younkers purchased the Wisconsin-based H.C. Prange chain. Proffitt's -- which later became Saks Incorporated -- purchased Younkers in 1996. In 2002, Saks closed Younkers' headquarters in Des Moines and merged its operations with those of Carson Pirie Scott, another Saks-operated department store chain, in Milwaukee, Wisconsin.
As of December 2004, Saks operates 50 Younkers stores in Iowa, Illinois, Michigan, Minnesota, Nebraska, South Dakota, and Wisconsin. Most of its stores are anchors of shopping malls.
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