Apex Stores
Apex including Apexstores.com, the Apex Tire & Service Center, Apex At Home and apex advantage make up the retail division of the Apex Companies based in Pawtucket, Rhode Island. The Apex Companies were founded by Albert Pilavin in 1924. Apex was originally started as a tire retreading, automotive service and manufacturing business. Since 1924 the companies have grown to include retail, online retail, commercial and residential real estate development, real estate management, ad specialty and wholesale and manufacturing businesses, among others.
The retail division of the Apex Companies started with selling, retreading and manufacturing tires and automotive service and eventually grew to sell a wide variety of merchandise. To accommodate the growth, the tire business was separated from the retail store and the manufacturing operations creating the Apex Tire & Service Center . Apex continued to operate the original retail store at 505 Central Avenue in Pawtucket, Rhode Island. Eventually the size of the retail store grew and moved to its current location at the Apex Mall at 100 Main Street, Pawtucket, R.I. After its founding by Albert Pilavin in the 1920s, Apex had expanded its retail division in the early years to a chain of 16 tire and service centers and one retail store. After the hurricane of 1938 which destroyed the Apex buildings in Providence, RI, Pilavin moved the Apex Companies to Pawtucket, Rhode Island and refocused the tire and service center business on its original market. The original Apex Tire & Service Center also then moved from Central Avenue to the new Apex Mall . In the 1960s, the Apex retail division opened an additional department store in Warwick, Rhode Island and then another in Swansea, Massachusetts. In the late 1990s and 2000, Apex decided once again to focus its retail division on returning to its original market, where it is a long-standing tradition. Today, the retail division consists of the original Apex retail store location in Pawtucket, the Apex Online internet retail operations including apexstores , the Apex Tire and Service Center and apex advantage all of which are located and headquartered in Pawtucket, Rhode Island. Apex opened apexstores in 1996 as one of the first online retail stores. Today, apexstores continues to serve customers in the United States and abroad. The Apex Card is a customer loyalty and credit card. The Apex Card was originally started in the 1930s as one of the first customer retail discount card programs in the United States. The Apex Card grew from being a discount card into a credit card and loyalty program. The selection of merchandise offered by the retail division including the online operations continues to be extensive including clothing, household appliances, a vast selection of kitchen items, bed and bath items, automotive, health and fitness, collectibles, and many other categories of merchandise.