The Bon Marché, whose name means "the good deal" or "the good market", was a
department store chain launched in
Seattle, Washington,
United States, in 1890 by Edward Nordhoff. The name was influenced by
Le Bon Marché, the noted
Parisian retailer. In 1929, The Bon Marché was acquired by Hahn Department Stores and reorganized as
Allied Stores, a few years later. A solid middle-range store, The Bon served largely working-class Seattle; branches were added in several Northwestern cities. Among them were
Spokane,
Tacoma,
Yakima,
Kennewick,
Longview,
Walla Walla,
Olympia, and
Bellingham, Washington,
Missoula, Montana, and
Boise, Idaho. Commonly known to customers as
The Bon, the company dropped the Marché from their name in the late 1970s before returning it in the mid-1980s.