Bullock's

History

Bullock's was founded in 1907 at Seventh & Broadway in downtown Los Angeles by John G. Bullock, with the support of The Broadway Department Store owner Arthur Letts. In 1923, Bullock and business partner P.G. Winnett bought out Letts' interest after his death and the companies became completely separated. In 1929 Bullock & Winnett opened a luxury branch on Wilshire Boulevard, named Bullock's Wilshire.

In 1944 Bullock's acquired I. Magnin & Co., a venerable, San Francisco-based upscale specialty chain. This was followed by the acquisition of the then public-owned Bullock's/I. Magnin organization in 1964 by Federated Department Stores, much to the dismay of surviving founder P.G. Winnett, who publicly lambasted the deal (which was initiated by his own son-in-law, Bullock's President Walter W. Candy Jr.). In the 1970s, to differentiate itself from the full-line Bullock's stores, the very exclusive Wilshire location dropped its apostrophe, became Bullocks Wilshire, and began its own expansion.

Bullock's, Bullocks Wilshire, and I. Magnin retained their autonomy under Federated, as well as their carriage-trade niche, with I. Magnin expanding into the Chicago and Washington, D.C. metropolitan areas and Bullock's opening stores in Phoenix, Las Vegas and Northern California. In 1983 however, Federated shuttered the Bullock's North division and sold most of its locations to Seattle, Washington retailer Nordstrom. In 1988, after an ugly takeover battle between Robert Campeau and Macy's for Federated, Bullock's and I. Magnin were sold by Campeau to Macy's as a consolation prize for one billion dollars, which plunged Macy's into debt. The new owners responded by dismantling Bullock's Los Angeles corporate offices, merging Bullocks Wilshire into I. Magnin, and Bullock's into its Macy's South division, thus sending what had been Federated's most profitable division into a precipitous decline and alienating the local customers.

The end came quickly for Bullock's after Macy's filed for bankruptcy protection in 1992, with the Bullocks Wilshire stores being renamed I. Magnin two years before. I. Magnin and Bullock's were pruned of their underperforming branches, and I. Magnin itself was dissolved in January 1995 once Federated Department Stores reappeared on the scene and acquired Macy's. In 1996—following the acquisition of Broadway Stores, Inc.—Federated consolidated all its traditional department-store business in California under the Macy's nameplate, ending 89 years of Bullock's.

Luxury market

Although the Bullocks Wilshire stores was deemed the most exclusive, the full-line Bullock's stores offered upscale designers such as Giorgio Armani, Jean-Paul Gaultier, Missoni, Krizia, Valentino, Salvatore Ferragamo, Byblos, Hugo Boss, Gieves & Hawkes, and Robert Graham (fashion brand). Under Federated, the 22 Bullock's stores offered consistent assortments in each location, a key to the company's profit and success (exceptions were the Lakewood, West Covina, Carlsbad and Grossmont, CA locations.) Under the corporate oversight of Macy's South in Atlanta, the 22 Bullock's stores were divided into 3 competing regions: merchant offices with extremely limited control were established in Santa Ana, Sherman Oaks and the existing 800 S. Hope Street building. Macy's, now under tremendous debt, national economic issues and having alienated customers with swift and usually reactive changes to the Bullock's brand, focused and relied on South Coast Plaza, Sherman Oaks and Beverly Center to retain an upscale clientele.

Bullocks Wilshire

Bullocks Wilshire was one of the more important divisions of Bullock's, Inc. until it was consolidated into I. Magnin by Macy's in 1989. The division could be traced to the opening of a single luxury branch store of Bullock's in 1929. In 1968, The Bullock's store in Palm Springs (built in 1947) was transferred to the control of Bullock's Wilshire to be its first branch store. Four years later, in 1972, Bullock's Wilshire store was separated from Bullock's as a separate division with its own, president, chairman, buyers and staff with Walter Bergquist, former president of Bullock's, assigned as the division's first president.

I. Magnin

I. Magnin was acquired in 1944 and stores in this division were kept separate from those of Bullock's and the other divisions. There were times in which I. Magnin stores were in close proximity to Bullock's stores and may have been in competition with those stores in those areas. The division lasted until 1994 when Macy's liquidated the brand and convert some of the stores to other brands while closing the rest.

Bullock's North

In the early 1970s, Federated wanted to moved into the San Francisco Bay Area, an area of the country in which they never had any stores and was dominated by stores owned by Macy's and Broadway-Hale. Federated decided to open a new division that reported directly to Federated, but chose a name, Bullock's North, that had some name recognition in Northern California, but was distinct enough from its sister division to the south.

The first store in the division opened at the Stanford Shopping Center in Palo Alto in March 1972. It had 150,000 square feet on two floors. Two years later, a second store was opened in downtown Walnut Creek in 1974, followed by a third store that was opened in the following year at the Vallco Fashion Park in Cupertino.

A store was originally scheduled to open in Marin County the following year. Federated obtained property and even received clearance from the Corte Madera City Council to start construction, but resistance by local residents was so strong that they were able to obtain a recall election and were able the eject city council member that had voted in favor for the new store off the council and thus killing the project. A fourth store opened in 1977 at the Stonestown shopping center in San Francisco and was followed by the opening of a fifth store in 1978 at the Oakridge Mall in San Jose. In 1982, Bullock's North opened it sixth and final store in the ill-fated Fashion Island Mall in San Mateo. This particular store was unusual because the store was covered by a tent instead of a conventional roof. The unusual roof was probably one of the reasons why Federated was unable to sell this particular store and closed the store as soon as the lease had expired.

A year later, Federated closed the division and sold five of the stores and quietly closed the San Mateo store. Nordstrom purchased three stores while Emporium-Capwell and Mervyn's purchased a single store each.

Bullock's Woman

In the late 1980s, Federated recognized that many of their young affluent women customers were unable to find youthful designer clothing in plus sizes and that very few stores were catering to that market, with the exception of Lane Bryant, Federated decided to test the idea that the plus-sized market young adult market was under-served by opening a stand-alone shop called Bullock's Woman in an upscale Las Vegas mall that already held a full-line Bullock's department store in March 1987. After operating the store for a few months, Federated determined that the venture was profitable enough to expand the concept to other malls containing Bullock's and/or Bullocks Wilshire by opening a second and third stores in Palm Desert and in Woodland Hills in September 1987.

By 1992, other units were opened in Burbank, Century City and Santa Ana. When the Bullock's and Broadway nameplates were replaced with that of Macy's in 1996, a situation was created in which Macy's inherited excess floor space in the same malls that held the stand-alone Bullock's Woman stores so these were eventually integrated into the nearest Macy's store as the Macy's Woman department which specialized in the plus-sized designer clothing market.