The J.W. Knapp Company, more commonly known as "Knapp's", was a chain of department stores based in Lansing, Michigan, United States. The original store opened in the early 1900's on Washington Avenue in downtown Lansing; by 1937, this store was re-located to a new location. Overall, the chain comprised four stores: three in Lansing, and a fourth in Jackson, Michigan. The last stores were closed in 1980.

History
The first J. W. Knapp store opened on Washington Avenue in downtown Lansing and featured a pneumatic cash transportation tube system. In 1937, it was moved to a new, five story store built in the Art Deco style. This store was expanded to comprise a full city block by the 1940s.

In the 1950's, the company was sold to the Mott Foundation, which owned a collection of department stores in mid-Michigan, including Smith-Bridgman in Flint; D.M. Christian Company in Owosso, and Robinson's in Battle Creek. Knapp's opened a smaller branch in East Lansing in the early 1960's; this store was later closed, and a newer Knapp's was built as one of the anchor stores of Meridian Mall in Okemos when it opened in 1969. Two additional mall-based locations, at Lansing Mall in Lansing, and at Westwood Mall in Jackson, were acquired in 1973 from Grand Rapids-based Wurzburg's.

Decline
By the early 1970's, the L.S. Good Co. of Wheeling, West Virginia bought all of the Mott Foundation divisions; L.S. Good Co. declared bankruptcy in 1980, and all of the Mott Foundation nameplates were shuttered. The three mall-based locations were all sold to JCPenney, while the downtown Lansing location was shuttered. A local developer later bought the property and converted most of its selling floors to state government offices, renaming it the "Knapp's Center"; the offices moved out in the 1990s, however, and the building is currently vacant.

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A shoehorn (sometimes called a shoespooner) is a tool that lets the user put on a shoe more easily. It does so by keeping the shoe open and by providing a smooth surface for the foot and the heel to move, without crushing the shoe's counter (the vertical portion of the shoe that wraps around the back of the foot), in this way acting as a first class lever. Originally, shoehorns were made from animal hoofs, and some made from bulls' hoofs are still available for purchase. Today plastic, metal and wood are most often used. They were also made of glass and even paper. Expensive shoehorns were made from ivory, silver, shell, animal horn or bone.
 
Shoehorns have been used for advertising and many people, including comedian Jerry Seinfeld, collect them.
 
There are various models of shoehorns. Long handled shoe horns, for example, are used to reduce bending and straining by persons lacking joint mobility (e.g., older persons), while shoe horns with sturdy handles are useful for putting on boots or heavy iron shoes. More recently, expensive shoe horns have found their way to market. For example, designer Ralph Lauren currently offers a shoe horn retailing at $2500.
 
Turn of phrase
"Shoehorning" has come to mean the act of coercing or pressuring an individual into a situation which does not leave enough room, either literally or figuratively. Shoehorning in a conversational context means to force someone to take one of a limited number of positions, neither of which may adequately express what the individual wants to say (a "For me or against me"-scenario). Shoehorning in a more literal sense can express itself as pushing a number of individuals into an overfilled enclosure of space, such as a theater or a bus ("the usher shoehorned us into the back of the crowded theater").
 
Shoehorning can also refer to an unnatural-seeming inclusion of something for reasons which may range anywhere from demographic-pleasing or political correctness (for example, a token character in a television show or film).
 
It can also refer to fitting something where it does not easily fit. The shortened expression honking (as in honking around town) derives from this term, referring to inserting one's self into a place or situation where one does not easily fit or is not welcome.