DEPARTMENT STORES (SIC 531)

Retail stores normally having 50 employees or more, having sales of
apparel and soft goods combined amounting to 20 percent or more of
total sales, and selling each of the following groups of
merchandise:  Household linens, dry goods, furniture,
homefurnishings, appliances, and radio and TV sets; A general line
of apparel for the family.

The employment and lines of merchandise sold in leased departments
are both taken into account when classifying a department store.

To qualify as a department store, sales of each of the lines listed
above must be less than 80 percent of total store sales. An
establishment with total sales of $10 million or more is classified
as a department store even if sales of one of the merchandise lines
listed above exceed the maximum percent of total sales, provided
that the sales of the other group is $1 million or more. Relatively
few stores are included in this classification as a result of this
special rule and most of those which are would otherwise have been
classified in the apparel group (SIC major group 56).

Due to the relatively high level of leased department activity in
department stores, department store sales have been separately
presented for the following classifications:  Department stores
(including leased depts.); Department stores (excluding leased
depts.).