Sydney Zacks

Sydney Zacks, along with his brother Bernard, founded Zayre Corp in 1956, building a regional discount department chain that peaked at over 300 locations before the off-price model emerged as the company’s savior.

Sydney Zacks and his brother Bernard Zacks founded the first Zayre store in Chelsea, Massachusetts, in 1956, operating on a simple premise: offer high-quality goods at discount prices in a self-service format. The chain expanded rapidly throughout the Northeast, reaching over 300 locations by the late 1970s. While Sydney focused on real estate and store operations, Bernard handled merchandising and buying. The brothers’ commitment to the discount model laid the groundwork for the company’s later experimentation with off-price retail, leading to the opening of the first T.J. Maxx in 1976. Although the traditional Zayre format ultimately failed to compete with national giants like Walmart, the Zacks family’s initial vision of discount retail created the corporate structure and capital base that allowed Bernard Cammarata to execute the 1987 spin-off that created The TJX Companies.