Casual Corner - wikipedia Casual Corner Casual Corner Defunct 2005 Headquarters West Hartford, Connecticut Number of locations 500 + at peak Area served U.S. Products Clothing Casual Corner was an American retail clothing chain founded in 1950. It operated stores under the names Casual Corner, Petite Sophisticate and August Max Woman brands among others. Casual Corner operated more than 525 stores at its peak. History Charles E. Carples and Stanley W. Vogel co-founded Casual Corner in 1950 in West Hartford, Connecticut. It was sold to United States Shoe Corporation in 1970 when the chain included 20 stores. A year later, the chain opened its twenty - fifth store and continued to grow rapidly after that. The chain 's target demographic was originally sports - themed wear for women, but by the 1990s it had been redesigned to target working - class women. Casual Corner became the foundation of a larger holding company entitled Women 's Specialty Retailing Group, which in addition to Casual Corner owned and operated several other brands including August Max, Sophisticated Woman ( these two entities were later combined and renamed August Max Woman ), Petite Sophisticate, Ups & Downs, J. Riggings, Caren Charles and Casual Corner Annex. At its peak, US Specialty Retailing included over 1,300 stores nationwide. In 1995, United States Shoe was sold to the Del Vecchio family which took the Women 's Specialty Retailing Group private again, after incorporating LensCrafters into their Luxottica business unit and selling the shoe division to Nine West. With 525 stores in business, Casual Corner closed its remaining locations in late 2005 after selling them to a liquidator. The stores were closed due to increased competition. References Jump up ^ `` Stanley W. Vogel ; co-founder of Casual Corner chain ''. The Providence Journal. 26 September 1989. pp. E -- 04. Retrieved 29 January 2011. Jump up ^ `` Casual Corner Group closing includes 7 Triad locations Read more : Casual Corner Group closing includes 7 Triad locations ''. The Business Journal. 2 December 2005. Retrieved 29 January 2011. Jump up ^ `` Casual Corner Sale Planned ''. The Milwaukee Sentinel. 30 October 1969. Retrieved 29 January 2011. Jump up ^ `` Casual Corner Plans To Open 25th Store ''. The Hartford Courant. 18 April 1971. p. 14B. Retrieved 29 January 2011. Jump up ^ Hagerty, Thomas J. ( 1 August 1972 ). `` Small stores look to majors for traffic ''. The Milwaukee Journal. Retrieved 29 January 2011. Jump up ^ Martin, Ellen Rooney ( 10 January 1999 ). `` FRESHING UP SOME SURPRISES ARE IN STORE AMONG THE CLASSICS ON THESE RACKS ''. The Chicago Tribune. Retrieved 29 January 2011. ^ Jump up to : `` Casual Corner closing all 525 stores ''. USA Today. 23 October 2005. Retrieved 29 January 2011. Jump up ^ `` Petite Sophisticate, Casual Corner in retail limbo ''. Chicago Sun - Times. 8 August 2005. Retrieved 29 January 2011. Jump up ^ Hajewski, Doris ( November 24, 2005 ). `` Women 's apparel chain shuts down ''. The Milwaukee Journal - Sentinel. Retrieved 25 July 2011. Retrieved from `` https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Casual_Corner&oldid=797157765 '' Categories : 1950 establishments in Connecticut Defunct retail companies of the United States Defunct companies based in Connecticut Retail companies established in 1950 Companies disestablished in 2005 2005 disestablishments in Connecticut Hidden categories : All articles with dead external links Articles with dead external links from October 2016 Talk About Wikipedia Add links This page was last edited on 25 August 2017, at 08 : 19. About Wikipedia

Question: when did petite sophisticate go out of business
Answer: late 2005