Something for Everyone: Memories of Lauerman Brothers Department Store

By Michael Leannah

In 1890, the Lauerman brothers opened a general store in the lumber-boom town of Marinette, Wisconsin. The business prospered, and soon the brothers abandoned their small quarters on Main Street for a magnificent department store on Dunlap Square in the heart of Marinette. Thanks to the Lauermans’ devotion to offering diverse merchandise, superior customer service, and employee loyalty, the store would remain a lively, vital part of the Marinette fabric for nearly one hundred years. And with later stores and businesses in Wisconsin, Michigan, and Iowa, the company’s influence would reach far beyond northeastern Wisconsin.

Something for Everyone traces the history of the Lauerman enterprise and its importance to the community of Marinette and dozens of counties in northern Wisconsin and the UP. A Marinette native and onetime Lauermans employee himself, author Michael Leannah draws on his extensive research and interviews with former staff and customers to create a unique tapestry of family, business, and community history. He takes readers on a nostalgic tour of the store’s most memorable and delightful features, from the plethora of merchandise offered to the record-listening booths to the famous "frosted malt” ice cream cones.

As it brings to life the people who worked and shopped at Lauermans, Something for Everyone tells the larger story of the golden age of department stores in the United States and transports readers back to their own favorite shopping destinations.