J.M. Fields

Ghost Corp Apparel — resurrecting iconic corporate ghosts.

J.M. Fields emerged in Salem, Massachusetts, in 1955, evolving from the older Enterprise Stores business founded by Philip Feldman and Samuel Glass in 1912. Under Joseph M. Feldman, Hy Glass, and George Glass, the chain traded the old mill-store formula for a big, parking-lot-friendly discount department-store concept.

The business expanded rapidly beyond New England. By 1961 it operated about 50 stores, and Food Fair acquired Enterprise-J.M. Fields on August 14, 1961. The home office moved from Boston to Food Fair’s Philadelphia headquarters in 1965, while Salem remained the banner’s historic hometown.

Fields sold the useful, gloriously unspecialized stuff of suburban life: clothing, linens, housewares, sporting goods, electronics, lawn-and-garden goods, and more. Many locations were built directly beside—and connected internally to—Food Fair or Pantry Pride supermarkets. Long before the word “supercenter” became unavoidable, shoppers could move from groceries to general merchandise without stepping into the weather. Civilization, but with fluorescent lighting.

Food Fair filed for bankruptcy in October 1978. J.M. Fields was liquidated in the aftermath, with the remaining stores shuttered by June 1979; former locations passed to operators including Kmart, Caldor, and Jefferson Ward.

Our J.M. Fields collection celebrates the early one-stop-shopping experiment: Salem ambition, Food Fair-scale expansion, and the lost art of buying socks, lawn fertilizer, and a blender under one aggressively practical roof.