<Tr> <Th> Divisions </Th> <Td> Electric Avenue Wards Kids Montgomery Ward Catalog Montgomery Wards Auto Express </Td> </Tr> <Tr> <Th> Website </Th> <Td> www.wards.com </Td> </Tr> <P> Montgomery Ward is the name of two historically distinct American retail enterprises . It can refer either to the defunct mail order and department store retailer, which operated between 1872 and 2001, or to the current catalog and online retailer also known as Wards . </P> <P> Montgomery Ward was founded by Aaron Montgomery Ward in 1872 . Ward had conceived of the idea of a dry goods mail - order business in Chicago, Illinois, after several years of working as a traveling salesman among rural customers . He observed that rural customers often wanted "city" goods, but their only access to them was through rural retailers who had little competition and did not offer any guarantee of quality . Ward also believed that by eliminating intermediaries, he could cut costs and make a wide variety of goods available to rural customers, who could purchase goods by mail and pick them up at the nearest train station . </P>

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