It acquired United Stores, which owned a significant share of McCrory Stores and McLellan Stores, in 1959, but sold this in 1960 to B.T.L Corporation (which also owned Ben Franklin Stores). In 1961 McCrory Stores merged with H. L. Green, the combined company taking the McCrory name. The same week this was announced, McCrory took over Lerner Stores. H. L. Green sold its Canadian subsidiary Metropolitan Stores and some other assets at this time, reducing the number of stores in its system from 366 to 147.