S.H. Kress

American retail entrepreneur who built the S.H. Kress chain of five-and-dime stores — which at its peak had 264 stores nationwide — and who used his fortune to amass a major collection of Italian Renaissance paintings, much of which he donated to American museums.

Demonstrates the five-and-dime retail model — low margin, high volume, standardized stores — that preceded Walmart and Target, and the Gilded Age practice of using retail fortunes to acquire European art for American museums.