Herbert H. Haft, the multimillionaire discount retailer whose drive to sell drugs at cut-rate prices took him to the U.S. Supreme Court, died Wednesday at Sibley Memorial Hospital. He was 84 and had congestive heart disease.
Mr. Haft built Dart Drugs from a single drug store in Washington to a chain of 77 stores over a 30-year period, and then expanded, creating Trak Auto, Crown Books, Shoppers Food Warehouse and Total Beverage. “They were all based on the fact that people prefer to pay $4.99 than $10 — it’s as simple as that,” he said in 1986.
As his businesses grew, Mr. Haft branched out, building a string of 40 area shopping centers under the management of Combined Properties Inc. He also launched a number of hostile takeover attempts in the 1980s, aimed at entities ranging from Federated Department Stores Inc. to Safeway to Stop and Shop. None succeeded, but the Haft family made a quarter of a billion dollars for trying.
His business reputation was as an aggressive retailer who never backed down from a challenge. He fired his eldest son, Robert, who had been president of Dart Group Corp., and tossed his wife of 45 years, Gloria, off the board of directors. His wife sued for divorce, his son sued for wrongful discharge and the whole family feud played out in excruciating detail in court and on the front pages of area newspapers for the better part of the 1990s.
The suits, countersuits, trials, legal proceedings and the bankruptcy reorganization of Combined Properties drained hundreds of millions of dollars from the family’s fortune and Dart’s coffers. In 1997 Mr. Haft accepted about $50 million in exchange for leaving the business, ending his control of the empire he founded.
