Filene's Basement Coupons

The Birth of a Legend: Our Story Filene’s Basement was founded in Boston in 1909 by Edward A. Filene as a way to sell off excess merchandise from his father’s department store upstairs. Before long, other retailers and manufacturers were bringing their unsold goods to him to sell, and the concept of the “off price” store was born. Filene developed a revolutionary way to price merchandise called the “Automatic Mark Down System.” The price tag on each item was marked with the date it hit the selling floor. The longer an item remained unsold, the more the price would automatically be reduced, first 25%, then 50% and finally 75%. What was not sold was given to charity. For Edward A. Filene,...