The company was founded by three Polish immigrant brothers who opened a general store in Keokuk, Iowa, in 1856. In 1900 the Younker brothers opened a department store in downtown Des Moines, Iowa, that is still operating today. The company started growing in the 1920s by acquiring other department stores throughout Iowa.
Younkers was operated by Equitable of Iowa, an insurance company, from 1979 to 1992. Under Equitable's ownership, Younkers acquired the Omaha, Nebraska-based Brandeis department store chain in 1987. Later in 1992, Younkers purchased the Wisconsin-based H.C. Prange chain. Proffitt's -- which later became Saks Incorporated -- purchased Younkers in 1996. In 2002, Saks closed Younkers' headquarters in Des Moines and merged its operations with those of Carson Pirie Scott, another Saks-operated department store chain, in Milwaukee, Wisconsin.
The original Younkersstore was destroyed by a fire that broke out on the morning of November 5, 1978.
YounkersStore for Homes closed in 1992, and a year later Kohl's took over its space.
Younkers moved into the former Famous-Barr space on July 18, 2004, and the old Younkers was demolished shortly afterwards to make room for a new Targetstore that opened on July 20, 2005.
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