Department Stores

Dave Charlton, a J.C. Penney Co. executive based in Buena Park, was driving his Mustang convertible under sunny skies recently when a black cloud formed in his mind. "I was thinking, 'My goodness, I'm not selling any coats today,' " the company's special events manager said. "It's hard to buy a winter coat when it's 85 degrees." Even the weather is causing problems for traditional department stores, which are heading into a difficult holiday shopping season.

Kohl's Inc. was awash in self-confidence when it made its splashy California debut, opening 28 stores in one day. In retail, President Kevin Mansell said at the time, the action was in the middle market, and Kohl's was going after it "with a vengeance." Nine months later, department stores that focus on bargain-hungry middle-income families are stuck in a vise. Competition has intensified on every level, especially in California, the most competitive retail marketplace in the nation.

Despite the apparent sluggish kick-off of the traditional holiday shopping season, several of the nation's largest retailers said Sunday that Thanksgiving weekend business had met their admittedly conservative expectations. "We're not disappointed," said a spokesman for Dayton-Hudson Corp., the operator of Mervyn's, Target stores and two Midwestern department store chains. "But we planned conservatively. We weren't expecting gangbuster business." J. C. Penney Co., Sears, Roebuck & Co.

Directors of Campeau Corp., facing mounting pressure to seek bankruptcy court protection for their big department store divisions, huddled late into the night Monday to try to come up with a way to deal with the company's financial mess. The Campeau board met amid indications that the company may put on a back burner its efforts to sell Bloomingdale's, the crown jewel of its vast retailing empire.

Federated Department Stores Inc. said Sunday that it has bought a share of R.H. Macy & Co. with an eye toward eventually combining the two to become the nation's biggest department store company--a scheme that Macy's chief executive quickly dismissed as "premature." Federated said it closed a deal Friday with Prudential Insurance Co. of America to buy for $449.3 million half of the secured claim Prudential holds in the Chapter 11 reorganization of Macy's, the New York-based retailer.

Sonia Kashuk admits to being part of the "grandparents" generation of super makeup artists that includes Laura Mercier and Francois Nars. Kashuk, now 41, came of age professionally at the time of the supermodels. In fact, she wrote a book with the super-est of models, Cindy Crawford, "Basic Face" (Doubleday, 1997). While Mercier and Nars each went on to launch their own prestige makeup brands, Kashuk is a class rebel.

A multilevel department store in one of the most posh neighborhoods of the South Korean capital collapsed Thursday, killing at least 80, injuring more than 900 and trapping an unknown number of others under tons of mangled steel and concrete. More than 1,000 soldiers, police and rescue workers fought through the rubble amid fires, a cloud of toxic smoke and darkness, as authorities here appealed for and were receiving U.S. military assistance and rescue equipment.

When Hinshaw's opened its doors Friday, the Arcadia retailer promoted its bargains with placards that have become signs of the times for more and more privately owned department stores--"Going Out of Business Sale." Large crowds milled in the aisles hunting for bargains. Long lines stretched from the cash registers. And the store's renowned service was slowed by the crush of shoppers, said Alvira Yates, a Hinshaw's devotee who will miss the local landmark.

Twenty years ago, Ron and Jerry Azarkman sold watches and electronic products door to door in the city's Central American enclaves. Seated in the modest living rooms of customers, the Israeli-born brothers began an intimate study of risk and reliability. "[Now] you call it credit. Then, it was 'Take a watch. You have $5? I'll come and pick up another $5 next Friday,"' said Ron Azarkman, chief executive of what eventually became the La Curacao department store chain.

Regional department store chain Gottschalks Inc. is going out of business after failing to successfully reorganize its operations under Chapter 11, the Fresno company said Tuesday. The 105-year-old chain, which filed for bankruptcy protection in January, sells fashion apparel, cosmetics, shoes, accessories and home merchandise. Most of its locations -- 55 department stores and three specialty apparel stores -- are in California.