Max’s Miscellaneous

Max Poliakoff (1908-1990) grew up working in his parent’s pawn shop in Anderson, South Carolina alongside his seven younger siblings. After his father, Samuel Poliakoff (b. 1875), died in 1925, Max joined his mother in operating New York Pawn Shop and then co-founded Poliakoff Department Store in Anderson. In the 1940s, Max, his wife Estelle Levkoff Poliakoff(1914-2005), and their daughter, Sheila, moved to Greenville where Max opened Max’s Miscellaneous on Washington Street with his brother-in-law, Carl Coleman Proser (1914-2007). After a short time in business, Carl opened Helen’s Cancellation Shoe Mart in Greenville, while Max ran an office furniture shop in Charleston.