R H Macy Co Inc

It is a pregnant woman's worst nightmare. Linda Bell Freytes, a clerk at a Macy's department store in San Francisco, felt sharp abdominal pain after a morning coffee break. The nurse at Macy's attributed the pain to indigestion; in fact, Freytes, seven months pregnant, had a ruptured uterus. Ignoring Freytes' pleas for medical help, the nurse waited 50 minutes to call for an ambulance. Freytes' son was born with severe brain damage, resulting from the delay. He died at age 2.

The gasoline pump at the entrance says this isn't just any mall store. So does a video monitor embedded in the floor, showing the film "Top Gun." Then there's the big propeller biplane dangling over the cash registers--and the two parachuting mannequins crashing through the corrugated metal ceiling. All over the dark wooden floors, oil drums and shipping crates double as displays for the merchandise--not aviator garb, as one might expect, but moderately priced weekend wear for men and women.

R.H. Macy & Co. will open a temporary Bullock's department store clearance outlet Oct. 11 at the troubled Anaheim Plaza, mall managers said Tuesday. The outlet--at the former site of a Robinson's department store--is only scheduled to stay open for about five weeks. But mall officials hope the drawing power of the Bullock's Close Out center will draw shoppers to the mall's smaller stores.

In a stunning blow to two strategically important but struggling Los Angeles commercial centers, Macy's department store chain greeted shoppers and employees at its Baldwin Hills and Westwood Village branches Saturday with the announcement that they were being closed. The abrupt closure of the two stores caught many by surprise, including Los Angeles City Councilman Mark Ridley-Thomas, whose district includes Baldwin Hills Crenshaw Plaza, where one of the outlets was located.

R.H. Macy & Co.'s Monday filing for bankruptcy protection from its creditors didn't come a moment too soon for Francine Browner, a $100-million-a-year apparel maker in the City of Commerce. Browner was sitting on nearly $200,000 worth of spring fashion orders from Macy's, wondering if she should deliver them and risk not being paid, or refuse to ship and incur the wrath of one of her most important clients. It's a decision Browner no longer has to make.

The I. Magnin department store on Wilshire Boulevard, which in its heyday as Bullocks Wilshire represented the pinnacle of fashion in Los Angeles, will close at the end of the month because of the lingering Southland recession and the troubles of its parent company. R. H. Macy & Co. said Monday it will close the historic, Art Deco-style store along with seven other I.

Macy's Inc. plans to open two new stores in California this year in former Gottschalks locations. The stores are in the Central Valley: River Park in Fresno and Visalia Mall in Visalia, the company said Thursday. Both are expected to open in the fall before the holiday shopping season begins. Each store will offer apparel and accessories as well as a limited assortment of home merchandise. The two stores will employ about 250 people in all.

Christmas is back. A few weeks ago, banners outside every Lowe's store in the nation announced a sale on "Holiday Trees." Hundreds of Christians called to complain that the home-improvement chain was shunning Christmas. The banners came down. Now the fake firs and pines are clearly labeled "Christmas Trees." Target, too, started the season with a generic marketing theme. It pushed holiday plates, holiday leggings, holiday ornaments, holiday trees -- with nary a mention of Christmas.

Another venerable name in Southern California retailing--Bullock's--will soon disappear from the scene. Federated Department Stores confirmed Thursday that it will convert its 21-store Bullock's chain into Macy's stores to place its statewide merchandising operations under one retailing roof.

Wrapped in the music, lights and relentlessly red decor of Christmas at Macy's, Kathleen Kwiatkowski opened her wallet with a little pull from holidays past. Like millions of other Americans, Kwiatkowski says she shops at the department store for its selection, ample coupons and easy return policy. But in part it's simply tradition. "Macy's is Christmas," said the West Hollywood resident, 56, examining a stack of knit tops at the Beverly Center store. "My mother used to take me to the New York store when I was a little girl."