Clas Ohlson company was founded in 1918 by the technically minded Clas Ohlson (1895–1979), as a mail order business based in the Swedish village of Insjön, Dalarna. Initially, only manuals and technical literature were sold, thus allowing people who lived in rural communities to obtain literature that would otherwise be unavailable. He opened his first shop in Insjön in 1926, but it was not until 1989, when the company opened a store in a shopping centre in central Stockholm, that it expanded into the retail business. The first store outside Sweden was opened 1991 in Oslo in Norway and in 1999, the
Emporium (department store chain) square feet (2,800–3,700 m) at that time, following early 1980s remodeling of some stores. In 1986, Emporium acquired the then-40-year-old, eight-store Quisenberry's chain, which had five stores in Eastern Oregon and three in Idaho. Over the next two years Troutman's Emporium opened 5 stores, including a store in Chico, California. In 1988, Emporium acquired a J.C. Penney store in Nampa, Idaho, at the Karcher Mall. In 1999, Emporium was in merger talks with Lamonts, but it fell through. In 2000, Ron Schiff was hired as the new president and CEO of Troutman's Emporium. Ron Schiff added six new stores in