Zayre, a once-popular discount department store chain that operated along the East Coast from 1956 until 1990, holds a unique place in Montgomery County’s retail history. Though long gone, two former MoCo locations help tell the story of a brand that eventually helped give rise to today’s TJX Companies, the parent company of TJ Maxx, Marshalls, and HomeGoods.
In 1961, before Zayre arrived in Montgomery County, a different discount chain, Towers Mart, opened stores at 12211 Veirs Mill Road and 10121 New Hampshire Avenue in Hillandale. Just two years later, in 1963, Zayre leased both sites and replaced Towers Mart with its own branding. According to local accounts, the company even reused the “E” and “R” from the original signs to create the first Zayre signage at those locations.
Both stores became well-known budget shopping destinations through the 1960s, 70s, and 80s. The former Zayre on Veirs Mill Road is now home to Unique Thrift Store, while the Hillandale site on New Hampshire Avenue remains part of the Value Village family of thrift stores.
Zayre’s parent company, Zayre Corp., sold its discount store division to Ames Department Stores in 1988 while reorganizing its remaining assets into what became the TJX Companies, transforming the brand’s legacy into something still very familiar today. Ames converted Zayre stores across the region but struggled financially, filing for bankruptcy in 1990. The company reemerged in 1992 before filing for bankruptcy again in 2001 and announcing the closure of all remaining stores in 2002.
While the Zayre name has faded from storefronts, its footprint lives on in MoCo’s retail landscape, and in the thrift stores that continue to occupy the sites where MoCo shoppers once browsed the aisles of a bygone discount giant.
