Department Stored

L.A. department stores The Broadway, Bullock's and I. Magnin long ago faded away -- as well as J.W. Robinson's and the May Co. as separate entities.

Now, today's big acquisition of St. Louis-based May by Federated (owner of Macy's and Bloomingdales) likely signals the end of the last local department store brand, Robinsons-May.

Writes the L.A. Times: The effects would be particularly significant in Southern California, where 28 malls are anchored by stores owned by both Federated and May and where vendors sew clothes for both chains.

"I think there's going to be a lot of closures," said Gregory Stoffel, owner of Gregory Stoffel & Associates, a shopping center consulting firm in Irvine.

Some of the Southland's largest malls have overlapping anchors, including Glendale Galleria, Lakewood Center, Del Amo Fashion Center and Northridge Fashion Center. South Coast Plaza in Costa Mesa boasts a Macy's, a Macy's Men's Store, a Macy's Home Furniture store and a Robinsons-May.

Some analysts said the Federated-May combination would spell the demise of the Robinsons-May brand, one of the best known in Southern California retailing.

"I'd be really surprised if Robinsons-May stayed as a name," Stoffel said.

May Co. first entered the Los Angeles market in 1923, when the St. Louis-based company acquired the A. Hamburger & Sons department store. It then bought Associated Dry Goods Corp., the owner of L.A.'s J.W. Robinson's, in 1986; May Co. and J.W. Robinson's were merged into the present-day Robinsons-May in 1993.