Broadway Stores, Inc., was an American retailer based in
Southern California
Southern California (commonly shortened to SoCal) is a geographic and cultural region that generally comprises the southern portion of the U.S. state of California. It includes the Los Angeles metropolitan area, the second most populous urban a ...
. Known through its history as Carter Hawley Hale Stores and Broadway Hale Stores over time, it acquired other retail store chains in regions outside its California home base and became in certain retail sectors a regional and national retailer in the 1970s and 1980s. The company was able to survive takeover attempts in 1984 and 1986, and also a
Chapter 11 bankruptcy filing in 1991 by selling off most of its assets until August 1995 when its banks refused to advance enough additional credit in order for the company to be able to pay off suppliers. At that point, the company sold itself to
Federated Department Stores
Macy's, Inc. (originally Federated Department Stores, Inc.) is an American conglomerate holding company. Upon its establishment, Federated held ownership of the regional department store chains Abraham & Straus, Lazarus, Filene's, and Shillito ...
for $1.6 billion with the acquisition being completed on October 12, 1995.
History
Early history
In 1950, as
Los Angeles
Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the List of municipalities in California, largest city in the U.S. state, state of California and the List of United States cities by population, sec ...
began to grow in population very rapidly and assumed dominance within the state, the fast-growing
The Broadway
The Broadway was a mid-level department store chain headquartered in Los Angeles, California. Founded in 1896 by English-born Arthur Letts Sr., and named after what was once the city's main shopping street, the Broadway became a dominant reta ...
Department Stores (founded in 1896) based there negotiated an all-stock merger with
Hale Bros. Stores, Inc. Edward W. Carter
Edward W. Carter (June 29, 1911 – April 1996) was an American businessman, philanthropist and art collector. He served as the president of Broadway Stores and chair of the University of California Board of Regents, and was the owner of the ...
, president of The Broadway, became the president of Broadway-Hale Stores.
The newly enlarged company began to grow aggressively with its Broadway stores expanding south to
San Diego
San Diego ( , ; ) is a city on the Pacific Ocean coast of Southern California located immediately adjacent to the Mexico–United States border. With a 2020 population of 1,386,932, it is the eighth most populous city in the United State ...
in 1961 and east to
Phoenix, Arizona
Phoenix ( ; nv, Hoozdo; es, Fénix or , yuf-x-wal, Banyà:nyuwá) is the capital and most populous city of the U.S. state of Arizona, with 1,608,139 residents as of 2020. It is the fifth-most populous city in the United States, and the on ...
, in 1968. A mail order firm named the ''Sunset House''
was also acquired in 1968.
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. In 1970, the company acquired Emporium-Capwell Co.,
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. itself the holding company for
Emporium in San Francisco (and suburbs) and Capwell's (H.C. Capwell Co.) in Oakland (and suburbs) and keeping their respective names on the stores in the San Francisco Bay Area.
Also in 1969, Broadway-Hale acquired the then 3-unit
Neiman Marcus
Neiman Marcus Group, Inc. is an American integrated luxury retailer headquartered in Dallas, Texas, which owns Neiman Marcus, Bergdorf Goodman, Horchow, and Last Call. Since September 2021, NMG has been owned by a group of investment compani ...
specialty department store, based in Dallas, Texas,
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. and the
Walden Book Co. (known more commonly as Waldenbooks)
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. and began to actively grow those businesses, nationwide.
1970s–1980s
In 1972, Prentis Hale retired as chairman, Edward Carter assumed the chairmanship and Philip M. Hawley (who started as a women's sportswear buyer in 1958) became company president. In 1974, in a news release it states, CHH stated that to reflect the executives' contributions, the corporate parent was adopting the name Carter Hawley Hale Stores, Inc.
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. The new name was a major tongue twister, and stock analysts sometimes called it "Ego, Inc." ''
The Wall Street Journal
''The Wall Street Journal'' is an American business-focused, international daily newspaper based in New York City, with international editions also available in Chinese and Japanese. The ''Journal'', along with its Asian editions, is published ...
'' reported in 1984 that some critics accused Carter and Hawley on being on an "ego trip".
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. In 1977, Carter retired. Hawley was appointed CEO.
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.
The company continued to be an active acquirer, in 1972 acquiring
Bergdorf Goodman
Bergdorf Goodman Inc. is a luxury department store based on Fifth Avenue in Midtown Manhattan, New York. The company was founded in 1899 by Herman Bergdorf and was later owned and managed by Edwin Goodman, and later his son, Andrew Goodman.
...
in New York,
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. and
Holt Renfrew
Holt, Renfrew & Co., Limited (doing business as Holt Renfrew and known colloquially as Holt's) is a Canadian luxury department store chain founded in 1837 by William S. Henderson. It has been owned by the Weston family since 1986, and was previo ...
of Montreal, Canada.
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. After attempting an ill-fated, unsuccessful hostile takeover of
Marshall Field
Marshall Field (August 18, 1834January 16, 1906) was an American entrepreneur and the founder of Marshall Field and Company, the Chicago-based department stores. His business was renowned for its then-exceptional level of quality and customer ...
in 1977,
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.[Alternate Link]
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. the company acquired the venerable but tattered
John Wanamaker's of Philadelphia for $60 million (cash) in April 1978.
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. That was followed by a stock swap for
Thalhimers
Thalhimers was a department store in the Southern United States. Based in Richmond, Virginia, the venerable chain at its peak operated dozens of stores in Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, and one store in Memphis, Tennessee. Thalhimer's ...
of
Richmond, Virginia in August 1978.
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. Contempo Casuals was a May 1979, takeover.
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. Emporium and Capwell's were merged to form a unified San Francisco Bay-area presence as Emporium-Capwell in 1980,
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. Weinstock's moved into Utah and
Reno, Nevada
Reno ( ) is a city in the northwest section of the U.S. state of Nevada, along the Nevada-California border, about north from Lake Tahoe, known as "The Biggest Little City in the World". Known for its casino and tourism industry, Reno is the ...
, and The Broadway stores were split into separate Los Angeles and Phoenix-based divisions as the chain expanded into Colorado, New Mexico and Nevada. Sales increased, but profits did not. The saying on
Wall Street was "God gave them Southern California, and they blew it", which ''The Wall Street Journal'' had attributed to Monroe H. Greenstein, a retailing analyst at
Bear Stearns
The Bear Stearns Companies, Inc. was a New York-based global investment bank, securities trading and brokerage firm that failed in 2008 as part of the global financial crisis and recession, and was subsequently sold to JPMorgan Chase. The comp ...
.
In 1980, CHH decided to get rid of units which catered to the lower economic markets. The first to go was the Sunset House mail order unit which also operated novelty shops in shopping malls.
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. CHH found a buyer that only wanted the mail order unit and the mall stores were closed in 1981.
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.
Faced with continuing poor results, and two hostile
takeover
In business, a takeover is the purchase of one company (the ''target'') by another (the ''acquirer'' or ''bidder''). In the UK, the term refers to the acquisition of a public company whose shares are listed on a stock exchange, in contrast to ...
attempts by
The Limited
The Limited was an American clothing retailer that operated retail stores between the early 1960s and the late 2010s. After 2007, it became a brand, originally owned by the private equity firm Sun Capital Partners, now owned by another private equ ...
in 1984
and 1986,
the company, still led by Phillip M. Hawley, reacted by first selling Waldenbooks to
Kmart
Kmart Corporation ( , doing business as Kmart and stylized as kmart) is an American retail company that owns a chain of big box department stores. The company is headquartered in Hoffman Estates, Illinois, United States.
The company was inc ...
in 1985,
Holt Renfrew to the Weston Family in April 1986,
Wanamaker's to
A. Alfred Taubman's
Woodward & Lothrop
Woodward & Lothrop was a department store chain headquartered in Washington, D.C. that began as the capital's first department store in 1887. Woodies, as it was often nicknamed, maintained stores in the Mid-Atlantic United States. Its flagship ...
in January 1987
and then splitting off the desirable specialty store business as Neiman-Marcus Group, Inc. (encompassing the Neiman-Marcus, Bergdorf Goodman and Contempo Casuals stores). The company that had rescued Carter Hawley Hale from The Limited takeover-attempts, theater owner/soft-drink bottler-cum-investment company
General Cinema
General Cinema Corporation, also known as General Cinema, GCC, or General Cinema Theatres, was a chain of movie theaters in the United States. At its peak, the company operated about 1,500 screens, some of which were among the first cinemas certi ...
(later renamed
Harcourt General
Harcourt () was an American publishing firm with a long history of publishing fiction and nonfiction for adults and children. The company was last based in San Diego, California, with editorial/sales/marketing/rights offices in New York City an ...
) assumed majority ownership of Neiman-Marcus Group as its reward.
Thalhimer's was sold to
May Department Stores
The May Department Stores Company was an American department store holding company, formerly headquartered in downtown St. Louis, Missouri. It was founded in Leadville, Colorado, by David May in 1877, moving to St. Louis in 1905. After many c ...
in December 1990.
1990s and the end
From its heights in 1984 as the sixth-largest
department store
A department store is a retail establishment offering a wide range of consumer goods in different areas of the store, each area ("department") specializing in a product category. In modern major cities, the department store made a dramatic app ...
chain firm in the United States, CHH fell into Chapter 11 bankruptcy in 1991.
Besides the financial problems of surviving the 1980s era of hostile takeovers, the main California department store business had faltered because of increasing competition from
Nordstrom
Nordstrom, Inc. () is an American luxury department store chain headquartered in Seattle, Washington, and founded by John W. Nordstrom and Carl F. Wallin in 1901. The original Wallin & Nordstrom store operated exclusively as a shoe store, a ...
.
In 1992, after one and one-half years of bankruptcy negotiations, financier
Sam Zell
Samuel Zell (born Shmuel Zielonka, September 28, 1941) is an American billionaire businessman and philanthropist. A former lawyer, Zell is the founder and chairman of Equity Group Investments, a private investment firm, founded in 1968. He ha ...
and his Zell/Chilmark Fund completed the reorganization of the newly renamed Broadway Stores, Inc., taking a 75 percent stake.
The company finally emerged from bankruptcy in October 1992 and Hawley promptly announced his retirement.
In early 1993, the three Utah-based Weinstock's stores were closed and the store leases were sold to
Mervyns
Mervyn's was an American middle-scale department store chain based in Hayward, California, and founded by Mervin G. Morris (1920–2021). It carried national brands of clothing, footwear, bedding, furniture, jewelry, beauty products, electronics, ...
,
Dillard's,
and
ZCMI
Zion's Co-operative Mercantile Institution (typically referred to as ZCMI) was an American department store chain. It was founded in Salt Lake City, Utah, on October 9, 1868 by Brigham Young. For many years it used the slogan, "America's First De ...
.
After the takeover by Zell, Hawley was replaced as CEO by David Dworkin.
Dworkin tried to slow the outward flow of cash from the company by remodeling stores and streamlining operations.
In June 1994, the shareholders of ''Carter Hawley Hale Stores, Inc.'' voted to change the name of the company to Broadway Stores, Inc.
to symbolize a change in the ailing company, but it was too late to make a difference.
The final blow came on August 8, 1995, when the firm's lenders announced they would not advance the company any additional funds - which were needed to pay suppliers for new, as well as existing inventory.
A week later, the firm announced its sale to
Federated Department Stores
Macy's, Inc. (originally Federated Department Stores, Inc.) is an American conglomerate holding company. Upon its establishment, Federated held ownership of the regional department store chains Abraham & Straus, Lazarus, Filene's, and Shillito ...
which effectively marked the beginning of the end to the remnant nameplates that the stores had operated under.
The newly streamlined company was short-lived, however. In August 1995, Federated Department Stores agreed to acquire Broadway Stores. The acquisition was completed on October 12. The chain was dissolved in 1996 as Federated consolidated the former Broadway, Emporium and Weinstock's stores, along with its own Macy's California and
Bullock's
Bullock's was a chain of full-line department stores from 1907 through 1995, headquartered in Los Angeles, growing to operate across California, Arizona and Nevada. Bullock's also operated as many as seven more upscale Bullocks Wilshire specialty ...
chains (acquired in 1994),
to form
Macy's West
Macy's West is a longtime division of Macy's, Inc. (formerly Federated Department Stores), representing one of the New York-based department store chain's earliest notable acquisitions and westward expansions. Headquartered in San Francisco, Ca ...
.
Several duplicative units were sold to
Sears
Sears, Roebuck and Co. ( ), commonly known as Sears, is an American chain of department stores founded in 1892 by Richard Warren Sears and Alvah Curtis Roebuck and reincorporated in 1906 by Richard Sears and Julius Rosenwald, with what began a ...
or shuttered, while Federated also used the real estate of five stores (Emporium-Capwell
Stanford Shopping Center
Stanford Shopping Center is an upscale open air shopping mall located on Route 82 ( El Camino Real) at Sand Hill Road in Palo Alto, California. It is on the campus of Stanford University although the university only owns the land and not the ac ...
, Broadway Sherman Oaks Fashion Square, Broadway Century City Shopping Center, Broadway Beverly Center, and Broadway Fashion Island Newport Beach) to finally bring its
Bloomingdale's
Bloomingdale's Inc. is an American luxury department store chain; it was founded in New York City by Joseph B. and Lyman G. Bloomingdale in 1861. A third brother, Emanuel Watson Bloomingdale, was also involved in the business. It became a div ...
chain to the West Coast.
On September 28, 2006, Emporium-Capwell's Market Street flagship was redeveloped to house another Bloomingdale's location as well as an expansion of the adjoining shopping center
Westfield San Francisco Centre
The Westfield San Francisco Centre is an upscale shopping mall located in San Francisco, California, managed by the Westfield Group and co-owned by Westfield and Brookfield Asset Management. It is anchored by Nordstrom and Bloomingdale's, and inc ...
.
In addition, the one-time CHH Corporate Offices in the former
Superior Oil Company Building
The Superior Oil Company Building, currently The Standard Downtown LA and previously the Bank of California Building, at 550 South Flower Street in Los Angeles, right next door to
The California Club (of which Carter and Hawley were members), were converted into a three-star boutique hotel called "
The Standard."
Selected divisions
Broadway
The Broadway division was the largest department store division within the company. The division could trace its roots to the Broadway Department Store that was founded in Los Angeles by Arthur Letts, Sr. in 1896. By 1992, the division expanded throughout Southern California and started expanded outside of California. In 1979, the division was split into the Phoenix-based Broadway Southwest to handle the out-of-state stores and the Los Angeles-based Broadway Southern California to handle the stores within California. The two separate divisions were consolidated in 1992 after many of the non-Californian stores were closed. At the time of its parent acquisition by Federated, Broadway had 52 stores.
Hale's
The chain's beginnings date from The Criterion store founded in
Sacramento, California
)
, image_map = Sacramento County California Incorporated and Unincorporated areas Sacramento Highlighted.svg
, mapsize = 250x200px
, map_caption = Location within Sacramento ...
, in 1880 by the Hale Brothers, Prentis Cobb Hale I and Marshal Hale and adopted their name later the same year. By 1936, scion
Prentis Cobb Hale worked as a stock clerk in the family store after he graduated from
Stanford University. The company had expanded throughout Northern California, including a location at 989 Market Street in
San Francisco
San Francisco (; Spanish for " Saint Francis"), officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the commercial, financial, and cultural center of Northern California. The city proper is the fourth most populous in California and 17th ...
by 1902 (replaced in 1912 by a location at 901 Market Street). By 1949, the company had acquired its Sacramento-based rival
Weinstock, Lubin & Co. Weinstock's was kept as a separate brand. Paradoxically, the Hale brand was later absorbed by the Weinstock's brand in Northern California.
Emporium-Capwell
Emporium-Capwell was created by the 1927 merger of the San Francisco-based Emporium Company and the Oakland-based H.C. Capwell Company.
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. This company kept the two brands separate and had opened many Emporium and Capwell stores respectively throughout the San Francisco Bay Area prior to its acquisition by Broadway-Hale in 1970. Under Carter Hawley Hale, there were 12 Emporiums and six Capwell stores when the two brands were merged to form the single Emporium-Capwell brand in 1980. There were 22 Emporium-Capwell stores left at the time of its parent's acquisition by Federated.
Weinstock's
Weinstock's could trace its origins to the Sacramento-based Weinstock, Lubin & Co. There were 8 Weinstock's store left at the time of its parent's acquisition by Federated.
ERISA case
Carter Hawley Hale also is known as a famous case study regarding its retirement plans. Because it offered its employees a profit-sharing plan, and not a retirement fund, under the Federal
Employee Retirement Income Security Act
The Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974 (ERISA) (, codified in part at ) is a U.S. federal tax and labor law that establishes minimum standards for pension plans in private industry. It contains rules on the federal income tax e ...
(ERISA)
pension plan law, the trustee was under no obligation to diversify the fund. Because of the nondiversification and continued purchase of Carter Hawley Hale stock, the employee fund soon was stuck with a precipitous loss in value. Its employees’ low morale contributed to its problems.
Advertising
The longtime print and television-radio media advertising slogans during the 1970s until The Broadway closed for good were "It's at the Broadway" (radio and television only) and "The Broadway
''is'' Southern California" (all media). A baritone male voice-over announcer provided the verbalized slogan.
See also
*
List of defunct department stores of the United States
This is a list of defunct department stores of the United States, from small-town one-unit stores to mega-chains, which have disappeared over the past 100 years. Many closed, while others were sold or merged with other department stores.
De ...
References
{{reflist, 24em
Defunct department stores based in Greater Los Angeles
History of Los Angeles
Retail companies established in 1880
Retail companies disestablished in 1996
Companies that filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in 1991
1880 establishments in California
1996 disestablishments in California
Defunct companies based in Greater Los Angeles
Macy's, Inc.