 At its peak Channel operated stores in nine states, and did business in the Philadelphia and New York metropolitan areas.In August 1994 Channel was bought by venture capital firm Eos Partners L.P. and merged with competitor Rickel, ceasing to exist.A 1975 "New York Times" profile traced the company's origins to a lumber business started in Newark in 1922 by two Russian Jewish Americans, Abraham Levy and Morris Charin (1887–1963).