This purple stock certificate from Spartans Industries Incorporated, issued in 1967, features a vignette of a man and a woman with the company logo and is registered in New York. The certificate includes cancellation holes, stamps, and handwritten annotations, indicating its authenticity and historical use.

Spartans Industries, Inc. was the parent company of Charles Bassine's two discount retailers—Spartans and Atlantic Mills—and a Tennessee-based private label clothing manufacturer. Originally known as the Sparta Manufacturing Company, Spartans Industries expanded into various business sectors. While the discount stores struggled, the clothing manufacturing arm thrived, supplying shirts to major retailers like Sears, Montgomery Ward, and J.C. Penney.

In the mid-1960s, Spartans Industries merged with Korvettes, a New York-based discount chain. Despite Spartans being half the size of Korvettes, it became the surviving corporate entity, although Korvettes retained its name for its stores. The merger, however, did little to remedy Korvettes' developing issues, including slowed sales growth, the disposal of certain business entities, and challenges in establishing a consistent consumer identity.

By 1968, Eugene Ferkauf, the founder known as the “Duke of Discounting,” resigned, marking a significant change in the company. Subsequent management changes and failed merchandising strategies plagued Korvettes, leading to reduced new store growth and scrapped expansion plans. In 1971, Bassine controversially sold control of the company to Arlen Realty and Development, managed by his son-in-law Arthur Cohen, further marking a tumultuous period in the company's history.