Seen In A Mall in Budapest
My last day in Budapest, walking through this Mall, I was taken aback to see J. Press.
It now sells athletic wear. Having heard they recently closed their York Street store, I wondered what happened to them. Was this store in Hungary related to “our” J. Press?
Well, with Wikipedia to the rescue, I learned:
- J. Press was started “on Yale’s campus” by a Latvian immigrant, Jacobi Press. That probably refers to the York Street location we knew, formerly the home of Cornelius Pierpont, a wealthy New Haven merchant. BTW, the building was seriously damaged by Winter Storm Nemo in 2015, and needed to be completely rebuilt.
- It expanded with additional stores — in New York (“appropriately equidistant from the Yale and Harvard Clubs”). Joined by stores in Cambridge (MA) and Washington (DC), the midtown NYC store is still going strong in 2018. Sales from their e-commerce site, https://jpressonline.com/, account for about 25% of all sales.
- In 1986, J. Press was acquired by the Japanese apparel company Onward Kashiyama, part of the Onward Group (Onward Holdings, Ltd.)
My guess is that this Japanese group is responsible for the store in Budapest, but I can’t be sure.
Gee. I hope that’s not Yale’s Lux et Veritas seal over the store’s portico.
H