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The Department Store Blues

6/10/2017

32 Comments

 
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I’ve seen it coming for a while now, but I’m still sad about it.
 
Yup, just like wearing a wrist watch to see what time it is; learning cursive writing in third grade, and snapping
photos using a stand-alone camera, another take-it-for-granted experience of years past is ready to join the
Soon to Be Extinct file.
 
It’s something I couldn’t have imagined even a few decades ago, but it appears that shopping at a department store—a cherished memory from childhood—is about to bite the dust.
 
Once upon a time, this sort of leisurely activity was a necessary component to growing up, especially for those of the female gender. 
 
When I was very young, my mother and I would don dresses and white gloves, and head off to Buffums’, the fancy pants department store in our town, where the very air itself seemed rarified, smelling like new money and clean carpets.  It might have even been where I was fitted for my first brassiere, and it was definitely the place to get our pictures taken every Christmas with Santa Claus.
 
A short walk away was Walker’s, a lower rent affair, but also several stories tall.  Here, its sewing department—imagine, a section just for seamstresses!—sported not only aisles of fabric, but embroidery thread in every color of the
rainbow; pillow cases with stamped patterns, and the metal hoops needed for what became one of my most consuming high school hobbies.
 
A big outdoor shopping mall was one city over, and we’d go there, too, spending most of our money at its anchor store, The May Company.  I distinctly remember buying a neon orange mini skirt with matching belt, size three, for seventh grade there.  And, this was probably the same store where my mother found my first bell bottoms—black and white, boasting a zebra themed pattern. (Looking back, my clothing choices back then were a definite predecessor to my clowning career a few years later.)
 
But department stores are now slogging through what most of us know: the only real constant in life is change.
 
To that end, millions of people—and I’m one of them—no longer leave their front doors to go shopping.  Purchasing the
​e-commerce way absolutely doesn’t have the panache that browsing through The May Company once had.  But let’s face facts: it’s way easier to buy stuff sitting at a home computer.  Plus, you can eat dinner at the same time; never get out of your pajamas, and not wonder where the bathroom is.   
 
The latest statistics on the demise of the department store aren’t favorable.
 
According to a roundup article in the March 20 issue of The Week magazine, Macy’s quarterly profits fell by nearly 40 percent, with other major stores, including Nordstrom, Kohl’s and J.C. Penney also reporting strong declines in same-store sales.  In addition, an astounding 3,300 retail stores have closed just this year; employment at department stores has also fallen nearly 50 percent in the last 15 years.  In other awful news, analysists predict that by 2022, up to 25
percent of all shopping malls in the U.S. will permanently shutter their doors.
 
But here’s the good news.
 
First, retail sales in our country have actually been steadily climbing every year since the last decade.  So while shopping malls are seeing more empty parking spaces, it doesn’t mean that we’re shopping less.   We’re just making our purchases in a different way.
 
Plus, I don’t think brick and mortar stores will ever completely vanish.
 
Like millions, I’ve bought food and socks and sheets and books online, all with limited success. But the results have been disastrous when I’ve purchased dresses, shirts and pants the same way.  When these items get to me, the material is inevitably way thinner and shoddier than the web site pictures imply; also, the apparel just doesn’t fit properly.  Equally crazy making is that many online businesses charge for returning their stuff.  It’s like paying a department store fitting room attendant money for every garment that isn’t bought.    
 
Even Amazon—after Walmart and CVS, now the third largest retailer in the world—gets it.
 
Last month, the online giant opened its seventh you-can-walk-in-and-buy-something store, this time in New York City.  
The first store opened in Seattle only two years ago, with the company planning 13 physical stores by end of this year.  
 
And while Amazon executives admit that these locations represent a marginal part of its business, they also acknowledge that a physical store has benefits.  Besides the novelty experience of shopping in person, there’s a personal engagement with sales staff, along with the fact that consumers here can “test drive” Amazon’s tech products such as the
Kindle e-reader.
 
Yup, our love affair with department stores is fading fast.  
 
But I’m convinced that other ways of shopping will continue to evolve and take up the slack—which will ultimately give consumers more choices when it comes to the shopping experience.  When the dust does finally settle, this can only be
A Very Good Thing for consumers.
 
What are your memories of going to a department store?  I look forward to your stories and comments!   
 
P.S.  The Department Store Museum is a terrific online walk down memory lane.  Check it out here, at www.thedepartmentstoremuseum.org. 
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32 Comments
Jerry Lazar
6/10/2017 01:56:57 pm

Who remembers Amazon's original slogan, "Earth's Biggest Bookstore" ? ... Who'd have thunk that they'd take over EVERY commodity, exploding into the planet's biggest online vendor of just about every "department" you can imagine... Personally not a big shopper, so while I appreciate the romantic nostalgia, I have trouble lamenting the demise of dept. store giants -- my heart goes out to those little mom & pop shops, tho I can't say I patronize 'em much, since, well, Amazon is just so darned convenient!... Actually, I got a kick out of the concept of a museum of department stores -- who knew? ...What's next -- a museum of museums? (I'm afraid to even Google the possibility that such a thing already exists!) ...

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Hilary Grant
6/10/2017 02:07:58 pm

I *do* remember that original slogan--and back then, I can't imagine that Amazon knew what would happen re: selling EVERYTHING. As you know, Amazon contracts with smaller booksellers, so at least they can theoretically get a piece of the e-commerce pie as well. Today's version of the Mom and Pop store, I think, is Etsy. I found my turquoise Sunbeam mixer there, and a few other cool items. I also got a handmade quilt from Ebay, very well made, I believe from Kentucky or Tennessee. As I got older, I liked shopping less and less; I'm realizing now that these shopping excursions were more a way to bond with my mom/to have the experience itself, rather than simply a day for buying stuff.

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Glenn Young
6/17/2017 06:00:58 am

I guess people know by now that Amazon has bought Whole Foods Market (where I currently work). Will be intetesting to see how this goes. Books made with "organic materials" to be sold at WF stores later this year?

Glenn Young
6/17/2017 06:15:53 am

Years ago, when Tower Records was the dominant music seller in NYC, I went to its Upper West Side location to buy a CD. I approached a couple of young salespeople and asked where I could find music from a then-popular artist. One of the salespeople snickered at my question, which caused me to walk out of the store (sans purchase) and to never return. All of my music from that moment on was purchased online from Amazon. Tower Records eventually closed because of the stiff competition from online sales.

Hilary Grant
6/17/2017 10:51:30 am

For Glenn... Oh yes, I remember Tower Records. It was a HUGE presence on the corner of Sunset Blvd and Doheny in West Hollywood. Here's a trailer to the 2015 documentary about it: www.youtube.com/watch?v=JCPYCIzSw_o. We use both Amazon and our wonderful small independent bookstore in Los Osos... because we want them both! Re: Whole Foods, I think that Amazon purchased these locations as new distribution centers, maybe just for food? Because I'm a foodie and love to cook, the idea of someone else picking out my ingredients--so I don't see them until they arrive at my door--is troubling. I do know that many of those we-deliver-food-to-you businesses of a decade ago are now out of business. But, perhaps there's more a willingness now, from the public, to try it again with Amazon behind the wheel.

Loree
6/10/2017 01:58:45 pm

Our upscale shopping experience was Riley's. Like your memories, it too had the very smell of the elites shopping and spending their crisp new money. It was the place to shop for wedding gifts, quality name brand clothing and shoes. The gift wrapping department made packages look like works of art, I was inspired to be as good. The most memorable part of the store was their cashiering. They had vacuum tubes at every service desk. They would hand write receipts and put your payment with it. Both would be placed in a tube and off it would go to a mystery person at the end of the maze of overhead twists and turns. The whooshing sound when it was sucked up and the"thomp" when it returned were something I can still hear when I think about it. Your purchases are folded neatly and wrapped in tissue before being placed in the bag. It never ceased to amaze me how the purchase was bagged and ready to go at the same instant you heard the "thomp" of your receipt and change being returned.

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Hilary
6/10/2017 02:11:06 pm

Wow, I just had to look up Riley's; because I moved here in '02, I never even knew that once upon a time, SLO even had its own independent , locally owned by family, department store. That is so cool. And, the vacuum tubes must have been very Tomorrowland like! If I had watched them as a child, I would have been as fascinated by them as you were. :)

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Debby Cardinali
6/10/2017 02:52:46 pm

Hilary, like you I grew up in LB and remember those girlie shopping trips to Buffums, Bullocks and May Co. wearing those silly gloves and dining on crustless sandwiches in their restaurants. My sisters loved it, me not so much! BTW Rileys also had a store in Morro Bay and one in Los Osos on 9th St. in front of where Select Electric is now.

Hilary
6/10/2017 02:13:21 pm

http://sloblogs.thetribunenews.com/slovault/2008/11/313/

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Susan Koppel Kayden
6/10/2017 02:06:18 pm

I'm always nostalgic for the Mother of all department stores: Bullocks Wilshire. An architectural icon, it was the most elegant, sophisticated, and expensive of all. Don't even get me started on their Tea Room! Great memories.

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Hilary Grant
6/10/2017 02:17:39 pm

Oh YES! Check out this Wikipedia article about this awesome place--the building itself is on the list of National Register of Historic Places. And the celebrities who used to shop there as well, too! It was also right down the street from the Brown Derby. : ) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bullocks_Wilshire

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Larry Grant
6/10/2017 02:27:59 pm

Magical childhood memories. Higbee's and Halle's in Cleveland with Nama, my grandmother. Polsky's and O'Neil's in Akron with mom, dad and my little brother being enthralled by the Christmas window displays. Truly a different time and seemingly a whole different world now.

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Hilary Grant
6/10/2017 02:44:29 pm

Yes, indeed. We thought it was a more innocent world, but it really wasn't. We just didn't know. Glad I was a kid then! :) xo

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Kari
6/10/2017 03:10:43 pm

Montgomery Ward, the only store that would give credit to 18 year olds, where both my husband and I started building our credit. Of course, their demise was years a go. Sad for me realizing the end of this era.

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Hilary Grant
6/10/2017 04:59:24 pm

I have a fond place in my heart for Montgomery Ward, because its marketing department came up with the idea, in 1939, for Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer. My aunt, who taught me to sew, not so much. She called it "Monkey Wards" and thought most of the merchandise was shoddy... my thoughts about Forever 21! But in many areas of the country, it was the only department store around.

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Bozoette Mary link
6/12/2017 10:31:36 am

My mom turned up her nose at Wards, because she preferred Woodward and Lothrop. They were the two anchor stores at our first outdoor mall, Wheaton Plaza. She always called the slightly shabby merchandise "Wardsy" -- as in "I'd never buy that couch; it's too Wardsy."

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Hilary
6/12/2017 11:46:27 am

Yup, Ward's stuff *was* generally cheaply made. My aunt lived a frugal life style, but even she wouldn't touch the stuff. :) You've also brought up the fact that the bigger shopping centers did have two anchor stores--one on each end, with the smaller businesses in-between them.

Greg
6/11/2017 01:35:18 pm

Yes I remember shopping downtown and walking past the Woolworthstore around Christmas with my mom. Santa was there and we were going to get our pictures taken, remember looking at the sidewalk and it was sparkling and everything was fresh and smelt new and it was like being in another world. It's sad because those days are long gone. And now we buy everything online. And if we have to it's more convenient to Photoshop Santa in later…

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Hilary
6/11/2017 04:15:06 pm

I remember the sparkly sidewalks downtown as well! Luckily, little ones can still get their photos taken with Santa Claus. Where I live now--near San Luis Obispo--the Chamber of Commerce sets up a little Christmas display in its downtown plaza, and Santa is there for photo ops. I know that lots of other cities do this, too. So, the venue has changed, but glad this tradition is still around!

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leslie spoon
6/11/2017 03:17:16 pm

Hilary Some of my earliest memories are of those old department stores in downtown LA. Around 1960 I remember my mom taking us to the Bullocks Wilshire. I remember the Tea Room there also. I was about 6yrs old. We lived in the San Fernando Valley so you had to drive to LA for shopping. When I was a teenager my friends and I had fun in the malls. When I lived in San Pedro I use to enjoy The Del Amo Mall in Torrance on my lunch hour from work. At the time I thought that the food courts were good too.

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Hilary
6/11/2017 04:17:35 pm

OH! You're lucky to have experienced Bullocks Wilshire: it's considered THE Mother Ship of department stores in Southern California. I used to love going to Macy's Herald Square when I lived in New York City, but when I visited a few years back, I was surprised at how shoddy the store seemed inside. The Del Amo Mall was (is?) huge. Wonder how it's doing now in these times of online shopping?

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Hilary
6/11/2017 07:35:13 pm

Look what I found... all about the tea room at Bullocks Wilshire, complete w/ a link to its famous coconut cream pie. :) https://www.kcet.org/food/the-grandeur-of-bullocks-wilshire-tea-room

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Bozoette Mary link
6/12/2017 10:25:43 am

In DC, the big, fancy department store was Woodward and Lothrop's. The flagship store was downtown. Mom would take my sister and me there for special occasions, because there was a tea room on the seventh floor. I remember getting the clown sundae, which was a scoop of vanilla ice cream with a sugar cone on top of it, like a hat. It had chocolate chip eyes and a maraschino cherry nose! Perhaps that was my start toward the clown biz! :) We took our son there when he was small, for a Breakfast with Santa event and a Circus Breakfast event with RBBB.

My mom always said "If you can't get it at Woodies, you don't need it!"

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Hilary
6/12/2017 11:49:37 am

Definitely a different time! But there's a nostalgia about it was well... lots of department store tea room recipes online. Oh, and I have a vintage plastic clown breakfast set... taken apart, it's a cereal bowl and soft boiled egg holder. Wonder who many kids found a love for circus and clowns eating their breakfast off of this?

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Bozoette Mary link
6/12/2017 10:29:06 am

As far as brick and mortar retailing goes, I believe you're right -- it's not going to disappear, especially with the newer forms of online shopping, like ship-from-store and in-store pickup. Basically, retailers are turning their stores into satellite distribution centers, so rather than shipping from a big DC to everywhere, it becomes more efficient and cost effective to ship from a local store. (I work for a software company that develops the systems to make this work.)

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Hilary
6/12/2017 11:54:13 am

Agree! I also think that malls are going to have to do WAY more to bring in customers.. perhaps weekly raffles of big ticket items where the winner must be there (a new car?), or book top entertainment for free concerts, or give away pricey dinners? Or somehow turn them into a place for shoppers, but also a family entertainment center/community center as well?
In-store pickup is A Very Good Thing, but more ideas are needed for survival. IMHO! :)

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andrea peck
6/20/2017 09:59:17 pm

My most vivid memory is seeing the 'Pet Rock' on a table in the center of Broadway. The very existence of such a subversively unconventional and expensive object dramatically changed my perception. This was probably compounded by the fact, that the Broadway had always held a place in my mind as the height of middle class conservatism.

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Hilary
6/20/2017 10:44:18 pm

Well, that present was **everywhere** for a very short period of time! It made its creator a millionaire, and in retrospect, was expensive for what it was. A ROCK. Guess the store buyer was hoping to bring the trend to all of those ladies who lunch! Here's some interesting history... https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pet_Rock

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Susan Jordan
6/23/2017 12:12:25 pm

We had a small children's clothing department store in my neighborhood that was owned and run by an older couple who were also members of my childhood - Gordon's Tots and Teens. They were like a great aunt and great uncle to me, and I think many of my clothes and shoes from early childhood were bought there. I have the fondest memories of "Suds" and Jan.

I also still have the red-and-white muffler/scarf my grandma bought me when we went into J.C. Penney on the old Santa Monica Mall when I was about 7. I had watched "The Homecoming", a Christmas special that led to "The Waltons" tv show, and in it, John-Boy gets a handknit, black-and-white muffler/scarf from his mom (played by Patricia Neal) for Christmas. I loved it, and asked for one for myself. My grandma took me into J.C. Penney to look for one. The only similar one they had was red and white, but the style was similar. Back then, it hung about to my knees! Now...to my waist, lol. I've kept it all these years because it has special meaning to me, since my grandma took me on the bus (she never learned to drive) into downtown just to get me a present I wanted so much.

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Hilary
6/23/2017 03:55:40 pm

I don't have anything from those department store trips, but I do have photos of me, at middle school age and posting in our back yard (in Long Beach), wearing a summery, brown plaid dirndl skirt and a sleeveless, ruffles-in-front white blouse... both purchased by my mom while I was at school and she went to the May Company. I loved them; I remember that I felt so terribly chic in that outfit, with brown loafers. LOL. My grandmother never learned to drive either, by the way: she called cars "the machines." :) Here's a fun site to look at for skirt history... http://vintagedancer.com/1940s/1940s-skirts/

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kerri
7/9/2017 10:20:46 pm

I lived in San Diego when I was in middle school, and I used to take the bus to the mall every chance I got. It was a huge, beautiful outdoor mall (prior to that I lived in Texas, and outdoor malls didn't exist there). That is where we hung- us kids. We would convene at the food court and the movie theater. It was the place to be and be seen. Fun. Good times.

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Hilary Grant
7/9/2017 10:28:31 pm

Yes, The May Company that I wrote about was the anchor store for Lakewood Mall, an outdoor mall in a city right next door to Long Beach, where I grew up. No theatres back then, but years later, on the other end of the property, WAY on the other end, movie theatres were built. It wasn't a place to hang with friends for me; it was me and my mom--and sometimes, Clifton's Cafeteria afterwards. Later, in high school, when I was driving, I did go back to May Company with a friend. I remember us buying bras there... and also hoping to find an anklet. No dice there. Long story on that one!

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    Hilary Roberts Grant

    Journalist, editor, filmmaker, foodie--and a clown! 
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