McCrory Stores his last name so he would not have to pay for extra letters on his store signs. McCrory died in 1923 having built McCrory Stores Corporation into a success. However, in 1933 the company declared bankruptcy and was dissolved, but it was eventually re-established as McCrory Stores and resumed operations. One of the early investors was Sebastian Spering Kresge, who later founded the S.S. Kresge chain, which became Kmart. In 1899, Kresge traded his interest in the McCrory's Memphis, Tennessee store for McCrory's interest in the Detroit, Michigan, store, giving him control there. In 1987, the Kmart Corporation sold its
Blem (brand) US market by the 1970s, but were retained by the Buenos Aires subsidiary. Blem is now the local name for Pledge furniture polisher and related products in Argentina. Blem (brand) Blem was a S. C. Johnson & Son brand of wax furniture refinishing compound introduced in 1955. The original Blem product came in a red toothpaste-type tube with BLEM in white lettering. The product was launched in a give-away special offer with a free tube of Blem packed with a can of Pride polish. The red tube was later switched to yellow toothpaste-tube type packaging with BLEM in dark brown