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
The Popular (department store) The Popular (department store) The Popular Dry Goods Company (known as The Popular and by its large Spanish-speaking clientele as La Popular) was a local chain of department stores in El Paso, Texas. It carried national brands of clothing, footwear, bedding, furniture, jewelry, beauty products, electronics, and housewares. At the time of its closing in 1995, there were four locations in El Paso at Downtown, Bassett Center, Northpark Mall and Sunland Park Mall. For much of its existence, The Popular was El Paso's largest locally owned department store. The Popular Dry Goods Company was founded in 1902 by Adolf Schwartz,