Gottschalks

Infobox_Company
company_name = Gottschalks, Inc.
company_
company_type = Public (nyse|GOT)
foundation = 1904
location = Fresno, California
industry = Retail
products = Clothing, footwear, bedding, furniture, jewelry, beauty products, and housewares
homepage = http://www.gottschalks.com/

Gottschalks NYSE|GOT is a middle-tier American department store chain, currently operating 58 department stores and three specialty apparel stores in six western states (California (38), Washington (7), Alaska (5), Idaho (2), Oregon (4), and Nevada (2), most run as Harris-Gottschalks stores.) It is the largest independently-owned, publicly-traded department store chain in the United States.

History

Beginnings

Gottschalks was founded by German Jewish immigrant Emil Gottschalk in 1904 in Fresno, California. The company opened its first branch store in 1961. It was around this time that grand-nephew Irving Levy, whose father had helped found the company, took control. In an effort to win over teenage baby-boomers, Gottschalks launched Bobbie West, a chain of junior apparel stores, in the late 1960s. Village East shops, which offered large-sized women's clothing, were launched in 1970.

Irving Levy served as president until his death in 1980 at age 86, guiding Gottschalks' growth into a chain of six department stores and over a dozen specialty boutiques with over $80 million in annual sales.

Becoming successful

Gottschalks gained success by locating only in smaller cities that couldn't support full-size national department stores. This tactic kept Gottschalks' overhead low by allowing it to build smaller (80,000- to 110,000-square-foot), single-level stores with lower real-estate costs and cheaper labor. More often than not, it also made Gottschalks "the only game in town", with virtually no competition from other department stores. Some stores run by the Harris-Gottschalks name.

Gottschalks was Fresno's premier retailer to install an air conditioner, and was among the first retailers in the area to accept bank credit cards. According to a 1977 "Chain Store Age Executive" article, in 1976 Gottschalks became America's first department store to totally automate sales transactions. The company installed electronic point-of-sale (POS) "wands" that read bar codes and store credit cards. This technology helped increase efficiency, reduce errors, and keep inventory and customer billing up to date.

Expansion

The number of Gottschalks units doubled from nine in 1985 to 18 in 1988 and annual revenues increased from $112 million to $196 million in the process. Part of this growth came via the acquisition of two small family-run department store chains in 1987 and 1988. Totaling $11 million, the purchases of the privately-held Malcolm Brock and Samuel Leask & Sons chains added five stores. The chain also refined its specialty store offerings, converting its Bobbie West juniors stores into Petites West boutiques mid-decade in order to attract smaller-sized Asian and Latin women.

The company started trading stocks in 1986. In 1995 the company went online. In 1998 The company had to close its only money-losing location, ironically the flagship store in downtown Fresno. The company grew in Southern California with the 1998 acquisition of Harris Department Stores. In 2000 the Seattle based department store Lamonts was acquired.

Since then, most of the former Lamonts stores converted into Gottschalks have been closed due to poor sales. The exception is the Alaska market, where sales have been strong and only one store, Wasilla, has been closed. Closures included the locations at the Northgate Mall in Seattle, WA, in September 2006, and in Tacoma Highlands on September 22, 2007, a free-standing location unlike the typical mall setting. The Northgate Mall location marked the closing of the last Gottschalks in Seattle, and the one remaining Gottschalks in Tacoma is at Lakewood Towne Center. In Washington state, the remaining Gottschalks locations have succeeded in rural and suburban areas with less competition from other department stores. Currently, Jim Famalette is the Chief Executive Officer and Mike Schmidt is the Senior Vice President of the company as well as the director of stores.

External links

* [http://www.gottschalks.com/ Official Site]