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Gottschalks

Posted: 08 Jan 2009 19:24
by Dean
Front page article in San Bernardino CA newspaper The Sun, states that Gottschalks is on the brink of bankruptcy.

http://www.sbsun.com/sanbernardino/ci_11399344

Discusses stores in the area that could be closing.

San Bernardino CA
Had been May Company. When Gottschalks acquired the local Harris chain, the San Bernardino Harris was combined with the Gottshalks.

Victorville, Redlands, and Riverside CA
All originally Harris sites.

Moreno Valley CA
Originally Harris. Gottschalks closed the site last year.

58 sites within the chain in the western US.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gottschalks

Re: Gottschalks

Posted: 08 Jan 2009 20:15
by Brian Lutz
All of the Gottschalks in the Seattle area (acquired from the Lamonts bankruptcy in 2000) closed down several years ago, but I think there are still a couple of scattered locations in the outlying area (I know of one in Marysville, not sure about others.) . Some have found new tenants (the former Crossroads Mall store is now a Jo-Ann Fabrics superstore,) some have been subdivided (the Factoria Mall location got turned into two medium sized stores with no interior mall entrance) and some are still vacant (like the Totem Lake Mall store, which will probably be demolished at some point when the redevelopment of that mostly dead mall begins.)

Also of note is the former Alderwood Mall Lamonts store, which did not get acquired by Gottschalks. It was later demolished, and a new Nordstrom store (that replaced an older one at Alderwood) was built on its former site. The old Nordstrom store was then demolished, and the space was used to build an outdoor expansion to the mall of about 30 shops. There used to be a comprehensive list of former Lamonts locations on its Wikipedia article, but some moderator deleted it for being non-notable info (quite frankly, it was just about the only useful info in the article.) You can still find it if you look in the edit history.

Re: Gottschalks

Posted: 08 Jan 2009 22:33
by Jeff
The San Bernardino Gottschalks is one of a few that is actually three levels.

first floor is the main level with Mens / Womens / Jewelry / Perfumes
second floor is Childrens / Home

The basement level is a bargain basement. It only takes up part less than 1/2 of the original basement level, which makes me curious as to what is behind the walls =)

Re: Gottschalks

Posted: 08 Jan 2009 23:03
by Daniel
I bet the store in Fresno's Manchester Center will be gone... It opened in 1976, but was pretty much dead along with the rest of the mall by 1988. When I was last there, the entire upper level was a clearance center, they had closed off all mall access to the upper level and had drywalled off parts of the lower level. Not indicators of a healthy store.

Gottschalk's has been rumored to be a takeover target for some time now.

Re: Gottschalks

Posted: 09 Jan 2009 00:14
by lvkewlkid
Brian Lutz wrote:All of the Gottschalks in the Seattle area (acquired from the Lamonts bankruptcy in 2000) closed down several years ago, but I think there are still a couple of scattered locations in the outlying area (I know of one in Marysville, not sure about others.) . Some have found new tenants (the former Crossroads Mall store is now a Jo-Ann Fabrics superstore,) some have been subdivided (the Factoria Mall location got turned into two medium sized stores with no interior mall entrance) and some are still vacant (like the Totem Lake Mall store, which will probably be demolished at some point when the redevelopment of that mostly dead mall begins.)

Also of note is the former Alderwood Mall Lamonts store, which did not get acquired by Gottschalks. It was later demolished, and a new Nordstrom store (that replaced an older one at Alderwood) was built on its former site. The old Nordstrom store was then demolished, and the space was used to build an outdoor expansion to the mall of about 30 shops. There used to be a comprehensive list of former Lamonts locations on its Wikipedia article, but some moderator deleted it for being non-notable info (quite frankly, it was just about the only useful info in the article.) You can still find it if you look in the edit history.
it seems to be like that in most of the retail wikipedia articles lately, which is upsetting because i liked to see when stores closed in different regions and the ways the buildings were recycled over time...Macy's used to have a lengthy list, as well as The Bon-Ton...

Re: Gottschalks

Posted: 09 Jan 2009 01:22
by jamcool
Gottschalk's has been rumored to be a takeover target for some time now.

Maybe Dillard's?

Re: Gottschalks

Posted: 09 Jan 2009 15:25
by Daniel
The rumor going around when I lived in California was that Penney's was interested in them. Dillard's might be another choice, since Gottschalk's is in a lot of areas where Dillard's doesn't currently do business.

As far as Wikipedia, I've never been terribly impressed with it due to glaring factual errors that go unchecked while useful, factual bits are edited out because they don't fit with the "guidelines". It's a good idea in theory but it's useless if you need reliable information.

Re: Gottschalks

Posted: 09 Jan 2009 16:09
by rich
Dillard's also is discussed as a chain in trouble. They haven't made acquisitions in a long time. They've been shedding stores and slowly fixing up stores that should have been remodeled a decade ago--not good signs. They haven't done well in Northern markets in the Midwest and I suspect that they'd do likewise in Southern California. They tend to do lowest common denominator retailing, with minimal local tailoring, which probably worked better in the medium sized Sunbelt markets where they built their strength.. That used to be considered their strength because of their early adoption of centralized purchasing, but it means that the merchandising (and merchandise) suck. If they're weak now, it probably means that they're losing customers in places where they once did well.

Re: Gottschalks

Posted: 09 Jan 2009 21:03
by Groceteria
As always, let's please keep this focused primarily on issues of history rather than current operational aspects/speculation.

Thanks,
David

Re: Gottschalks

Posted: 09 Jan 2009 22:03
by runchadrun
Jeff wrote:The San Bernardino Gottschalks is one of a few that is actually three levels.
That's a former May Company. May Co had boarded up the entire lower level for many years and I seem to remember that Sportmart took over part of the space with an entrance out to the parking lot on the south side.

The old Harris store in downtown San Bernardino had a great old-time department store look to it, probably because it was an old-time department store.

Re: Gottschalks

Posted: 10 Jan 2009 14:21
by Dean
runchadrun wrote:
Jeff wrote:The San Bernardino Gottschalks is one of a few that is actually three levels.
That's a former May Company. May Co had boarded up the entire lower level for many years and I seem to remember that Sportmart took over part of the space with an entrance out to the parking lot on the south side.

The old Harris store in downtown San Bernardino had a great old-time department store look to it, probably because it was an old-time department store.
Yes, a sporting goods store was NEXT to the lower entrance of May Co/Gottschalks building. Yet, a different building.

Re: Gottschalks

Posted: 10 Jan 2009 16:56
by tkaye
Brian Lutz wrote:All of the Gottschalks in the Seattle area (acquired from the Lamonts bankruptcy in 2000) closed down several years ago, but I think there are still a couple of scattered locations in the outlying area (I know of one in Marysville, not sure about others.)
There are three Gottschalks stores left in Western Washington. The Marysville location is interesting in that it appears to be fronted by a tiny "mall" (more like a lobby!) with a few spaces that have no exterior access. Since this center was built in 1988, Lamonts was obviously the original tenant.

In Port Angeles, Gottschalks operates a traditional downtown department store, built in 1946. Prior to it being a Lamonts, it was a branch of the Tacoma-based Peoples Store, which folded in 1983. The Port Angeles Gottschalks and the J.C. Penney in Sequim are the only department stores on the Olympic Peninsula.

The third location is in Lakewood, which was the only Gottschalks in Washington for several years following the store's acquisition from the bankrupt Frederick & Nelson in 1992. It was the final new store built (1989) by F&N and is the only anchor remaining from the failed Lakewood Mall, which was de-malled and became the Lakewood Towne Center in 2002. Its lineage actually goes back to the beginning of the Lakewood Mall's predecessor, Villa Plaza, in 1957. Rhodes of Tacoma was the centerpiece of Villa Plaza until they were purchased in 1969 by Honolulu-based Amfac, Inc., and the nameplate changed to Liberty House. F&N picked up the Villa Plaza and Tacoma Mall Liberty House stores in 1979. Basil Vyzis, an eccentric self-made developer who had immigrated from Greece, bought Villa Plaza in the mid-'80s with plans to build an indoor mall on the eastern portion of the 100-acre site. He also became one of the Seattle-area investors who bought F&N from BATUS in 1988, so it was only natural that F&N would have a prominent spot in his new mall. Initially, F&N operated the old Villa Plaza store as a "Red Tag" clearance outlet for a short while after the mall opened.

Re: Gottschalks

Posted: 10 Jan 2009 20:27
by Jeff
Dean wrote:
runchadrun wrote:
Jeff wrote:The San Bernardino Gottschalks is one of a few that is actually three levels.
That's a former May Company. May Co had boarded up the entire lower level for many years and I seem to remember that Sportmart took over part of the space with an entrance out to the parking lot on the south side.

The old Harris store in downtown San Bernardino had a great old-time department store look to it, probably because it was an old-time department store.
Yes, a sporting goods store was NEXT to the lower entrance of May Co/Gottschalks building. Yet, a different building.
This was the basement level of the mall, which at one point was a Newberrys I beleive, and also had an arcade and several other stores. In 2006 or 07, this basement was sealed off from the rest of the mall (a child's play area is above the old stairs and elevator down). For years, this used to be where the Halloween store was located, until it moved in the vacant Macys store for 06 and 07.

Re: Gottschalks

Posted: 10 Jan 2009 20:30
by Jeff
Holy Crud.

Looking at the MACERICH floor plans for Inland Center, I didn't realize that the Inland Center Gottschalk was 204,000 sq feet. This must be the largest in the chain.

Re: Gottschalks

Posted: 11 Jan 2009 01:30
by luckysaver
As part of the complete renovation of Riverside Plaza (Riverside, CA), the owners left Gottschalks (especially the exterior) the way it looked 40-50 years ago, making it the oldest building left standing at RP (and in its original location). It did get a fresh coat of paint on the outside. I haven't gone inside yet but they probably remodeled the interior as well. The way the building looked reminded me of the old Broadway stores.

luckysaver