AS ROBINSONS-MAY FADES AWAY, WE RECALL OTHER LONG-ESTABLISHED STORES THAT WENT OUT OF BUSINESS FOREVER.Byline: Evan Pondel Staff Writer Buffums, Alpha Beta
Alpha Beta was a chain of Californian supermarkets started by Albert and Hugh Gerrard. , Fedco, Kinney Shoes Kinney Shoes is a now defunct chain of full-service shoe stores. They carried a full line of shoes, dress and casual, for men, women and children. Stores were typically located inside of a shopping mall. Their slogan was "The Great American Shoe Store". - these are iconic retail names that once dotted the San Fernando Valley San Fernando Valley Valley, southern California, U.S. Northwest of central Los Angeles, the valley is bounded by the San Gabriel, Santa Susana, and Santa Monica mountains and the Simi Hills. and elsewhere in Los Angeles Los Angeles (lôs ăn`jələs, lŏs, ăn`jəlēz'), city (1990 pop. 3,485,398), seat of Los Angeles co., S Calif.; inc. 1850. but eventually met their demise. Their varied business models staved off competition. Their specialties attracted shoppers from far and wide. But the retail industry's revolving door swallowed each of these icons, one by one. And the cycle is once again repeating itself as Cincinnati-based Federated Connected and treated as one. See federated database and federated directories. Department Stores This is a list of department stores. In the case of department store groups the location of the flagship store is given. This list does not include large specialist stores, which sometimes resemble department stores. Inc. plans to convert 330 Robinsons-May stores to its Macy's nameplate next year as part of a broader consolidation plan. ``There's an evolution to everything, including retail,'' said Aubie Goldenberg, a partner with Ernst & Young's retail and consumer products group in Los Angeles. ``Names typically disappear with each acquisition and every failure of a company.'' But the names still live on for Isabel Griffin, a buyer for Bullocks department stores in the 1970s. She remembers a time when shopping was sophisticated, when the front door to a department store greeted the customer with class, not a surge of perfume. ``You felt good when you walked in and the business gave us a lot of pride in ourselves,'' said Griffin, 77, who returns to the art deco Bullocks Wilshire building for occasional tours. ``We are still young in our heads from those days in the business. We don't look like old ladies.'' But the formula has changed. The retailers of yesteryear yes·ter·year n. 1. The year before the present year. 2. Time past; yore. yes didn't offer the options that consumers encounter today. Specialized music stores such as Licorice licorice (lĭk`ərĭs, –rĭsh), name for a European plant (Glycyrrhiza glabra) of the family Leguminosae (pulse family) and for the sweet substance obtained from the root. Pizza wouldn't be able to compete with the price breaks offered by a big-box competitor. Whole generations who recognize the brands live among whole other generations that don't know Don't know (DK, DKed) "Don't know the trade." A Street expression used whenever one party lacks knowledge of a trade or receives conflicting instructions from the other party. what a Fotomat booth was. ``Many stores ignored the fact that the world was moving on and they were being left behind,'' said Kurt Barnard, president of Barnard's Retail Forecasting in Nutley, N.J. ``They did not keep pace with the changes in society, with the changes in people's lifestyles, with the changes in the way people shop.'' And yet some didn't want to change at all. Denice Doumitt, 39, craves Pup 'n' Taco Pup 'N' Taco (also spelled with a lower case 'n') was a privately-owned chain of fast-food restaurants in Southern California, with its headquarters based in Long Beach, California. The business was begun by Russell Wendell in 1956. to this day. ``I miss their grape slushies,'' said the Woodland Hills resident. ``It's sad to say goodbye to places that we once valued.'' Former employees of Gemco No. 803 in Northridge will host a 25th anniversary get-together for their beloved store this fall. (More details are available at www.gemco803.com.) And with fresh changes afoot early next year, devotees of Robinsons-May, and its predecessors, Robinson's and The May Co., are bracing for another goodbye. ``I'm really upset about this, so I clipped all of the Robinsons-May coupons in the newspaper this morning to soothe my injured heart,'' said Sue Clark, 49, who had just arrived at the department store in Canoga Park. Of course, some industry watchers are less sentimental about the demise of iconic retail names. And most consumers are more concerned about value, not ambience. ``People don't have the time to walk through an entire mall,'' said Malachy Kavanagh, a spokesman for the International Council of Shopping Centers The International Council of Shopping Centers (ICSC) is an international trade association of the shopping center industry. The organization, founded in 1957, has 65,000 members worldwide, which include shopping center owners, developers and managers, as well as other individuals, in New York New York, state, United States New York, Middle Atlantic state of the United States. It is bordered by Vermont, Massachusetts, Connecticut, and the Atlantic Ocean (E), New Jersey and Pennsylvania (S), Lakes Erie and Ontario and the Canadian province of . ``And economies of scale are squeezing vendors and making it difficult for them to operate under so many different names.'' That's how Lucky disappeared in an acquisition by Albertsons and how Naugles folded into Del Taco. Companies are constantly buying out competitors, and names will change as long as acquirerers keep acquiring. ``As public companies continue to seek growth, they'll likely want to eliminate redundancies, so one flagship name is obviously easier than several,'' Kavanagh said. Evan Pondel, (818) 713-3662 evan.pondel(at)dailynews.com MEMORY LANE Robinsons-May's disappearance next year from the retail landscape is the latest loss of an iconic brand name. (They were actually a merger of two other icons, Robinson's and The May Co.) In the course of just a couple of hours, we came up with a few other names that have disappeared over the years. If you remember some others, let us know by writing the business desk at P.O. Box 4200, Woodland Hills, CA 91365 or e-mailing dnbiz(at)dailynews.com. Be sure to include your name and a daytime telephone number. We may include your memories in a future story. The Broadway Buffums Bullocks I. Magnin Joseph Magnin Miller's Outpost Mode-o-Day Montgomery Ward Orbach's The Akron BEST Fedco Gemco J.J. Newberry Pic 'N' Save Pic 'N' Save was, at one time, the second-largest closeout retail chain in the United States. Financial troubles caused the chain to close many of the markets in the late-1990s and early-2000s. Price Club Sprouse-Rietz TG&Y Thriftimart White Front Woolworth's Zodys Federated Silo silo, watertight and airtight structure for making and storing silage. Silos vary in form from a covered pit, such as was used by the early Romans, to the modern storage tower, dating from the 19th cent. Strouds Fotomat Kinney Shoe Thom McCann Licorice Pizza Music+Plus Builder's Emporium Ole's RB Furniture First Interstate Bank Great Western Savings Thrifty's Alpha Beta Food Giant Hughes Market Lucky Stores Market Basket Mrs. Gooch's Hungry Tiger Naugles Pup 'n' Taco The Red Onion Swensen's Tiny Naylor's Van de Kamp's Bakery restaurants Velvet Turtle - Daily News CAPTION(S): 2 photos, box Photo: (1 -- color) (photo collage of department stores) (2) The rapid, inevitable growth of retail outlets led them to swallow up smaller businesses, such as Licorice Pizza. Roger W. Vargo/Staff Photographer Box: MEMORY LANE (see text) |
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