Bullock's was a chain of full-line

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 ...

s from 1907 through 1995, headquartered in

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 ...

, growing to operate across California, Arizona and Nevada. Bullock's also operated as many as seven more upscale Bullocks Wilshire specialty department stores across Southern California. Many former Bullock's locations continue to operate as

Macy's Macy's (originally R. H. Macy & Co.) is an American chain of high-end department stores founded in 1858 by Rowland Hussey Macy. It became a division of the Cincinnati-based Federated Department Stores in 1994, through which it is affiliated wi ...

History

Bullock's was founded in 1907 at Seventh and Broadway in downtown Los Angeles by John G. Bullock, with the support of The Broadway Department Store owner

Arthur Letts Arthur Letts Sr. (June 17, 1862 – May 18, 1923) was an immigrant from England who made his fortune in Los Angeles, California, in the early years of the 20th century. He built his wealth by transforming a small, bankrupt dry goods store in Down ...

. 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 Wilshire Boulevard is a prominent boulevard in the Los Angeles area of Southern California, extending from Ocean Avenue in the city of Santa Monica east to Grand Avenue in the Financial District of downtown Los Angeles. One of the principal ...

, referred to at the time as Bullock's Wilshire (the apostrophe would later be removed). In 1944 Bullock's acquired I. Magnin & Co., a venerable

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 ...

-based upscale specialty chain. Starting in 1958, Bullock's built a series of four shopping centers initially called Bullock's Fashion Square, small, elegant, and open-air, with large Bullock's stores dominating, surrounded by only around 20 or 30 much smaller specialty stores, such as I. Magnin, Desmond's, Mandel's and Silverwoods. The total gross buildable area of Bullock's Santa Ana, for example was , versus only for all the other retailers combined. Bullock's Fashion Square in Santa Ana opened in 1958, followed by a Fashion Square for the San Fernando Valley (later "

Sherman Oaks Fashion Square Sherman most commonly refers to: *Sherman (name), a surname and given name (and list of persons with the name) ** William Tecumseh Sherman (1820–1891), American Civil War General *M4 Sherman, a tank Sherman may also refer to: Places United St ...

") in 1962, a Fashion Square in Torrance (later called "Del Amo Fashion Square") in September 1966 and Fashion Square in La Habra (which uniquely included a

Buffum's Buffums, originally written as Buffums' with an apostrophe, was a chain of upscale department stores, headquartered in Long Beach, California. The Buffums chain began in 1904, when two brothers from Illinois, Charles A. and Edwin E. Buffum, ...

branch from the beginning) in April 1968. in 1964 the then public-owned Bullock's/I. Magnin organization was acquired by

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 ...

, 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, and became Bullocks Wilshire, and began its own expansion. In February 1970, Federated Department Stores replaced its Bullock's Realty Corporation, which owned and managed the Fashion Square malls, with an organization called Transwest Management; Transwest sold the Torrance (future "Del Amo") Fashion Square in March of that year to new co-owners Great Lakes and

Guilford Glazer Guilford Glazer (July 17, 1921 – December 23, 2014) was an American real estate developer and philanthropist. Early life Glazer was born to a Jewish immigrant family Draper and Kramer Draper was originally a term for a retailer or wholesaler of cloth that was mainly for clothing. A draper may additionally operate as a cloth merchant or a haberdasher. History Drapers were an important trade guild during the medieval period, ...

for $16.3 million. 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

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and

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metropolitan areas and Bullock's opening stores in

Phoenix Phoenix most often refers to: * Phoenix (mythology), a legendary bird from ancient Greek folklore * Phoenix, Arizona, a city in the United States Phoenix may also refer to: Mythology Greek mythological figures * Phoenix (son of Amyntor), a ...

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Las Vegas Las Vegas (; Spanish for "The Meadows"), often known simply as Vegas, is the 25th-most populous city in the United States, the most populous city in the state of Nevada, and the county seat of Clark County. The city anchors the Las Vegas ...

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. and Northern California.Alternate Link
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. In 1983 however, Federated shuttered the Bullock's North divisionAlternate Link
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. and sold most of its locations to

Seattle Seattle ( ) is a seaport city on the West Coast of the United States. It is the seat of King County, Washington. With a 2020 population of 737,015, it is the largest city in both the state of Washington and the Pacific Northwest regio ...

, Washington retailer

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 1988, after an ugly takeover battle between Robert Campeau and

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, sending what had been Federated's most profitable division into a precipitous decline and alienating 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. Underperforming I. Magnin and Bullock's locations were closed, and I. Magnin itself was dissolved in January 1995 once

reappeared on the scene and acquired

. 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 were deemed the most exclusive, the full-line Bullock's stores offered upscale designers such as Giorgio Armani,

Jean-Paul Gaultier Jean Paul Gaultier (; born 24 April 1952) is a French haute couture and prêt-à-porter fashion designer. He is described as an " enfant terrible" of the fashion industry and is known for his unconventional designs with motifs including corset ...

, Missoni,

Krizia Krizia is a designer label and manufacturer of ladies' handbags, clothing, footwear and perfumes. The ready-to-wear fashion label was established in 1954 in Milan, Italy, by Mariuccia Mandelli (1925–2015). Her husband Aldo Pinto was chairman ...

, Valentino,

Salvatore Ferragamo Salvatore Ferragamo (5 June 1898 – 7 August 1960) was an Italian shoe designer and the founder of luxury goods high-end retailer Salvatore Ferragamo S.p.A. An innovative shoe designer, Salvatore Ferragamo established a reputation in the 1930s. ...

, Byblos,

Hugo Boss Hugo Boss AG, often styled as BOSS, is a luxury fashion house headquartered in Metzingen, Baden-Württemberg, Germany. The company sells clothing, accessories, footwear, and fragrances. Hugo Boss is one of the largest German clothing companies, ...

, Gieves & Hawkes, and Robert Graham. 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 West or Occident is one of the four cardinal directions or points of the compass. It is the opposite direction from east and is the direction in which the Sun sets on the Earth. Etymology The word "west" is a Germanic word passed into some R ...

, Carlsbad and Grossmont, California, locations.) Under the corporate oversight of Macy's South in Atlanta, the 22 Bullock's stores were divided into three competing regions: merchant offices with extremely limited control were established in Santa Ana, Sherman Oaks and the existing 800 South 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.

Store list

Only full line Bullock's division stores. Note: "Closing" refers to store closing date as Bullock's or Macy's.

Selected divisions

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.Alternate Link
via

. 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.Link
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. 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.Link
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I. Magnin

I. Magnin was acquired in 1944Alternate Link
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. and stores in this division were kept separate from those of Bullock's and the other divisions. Many I. Magnin stores were near the first Bullock's branches and complemented them in such as fashion that Bullock's purposely placed I. Magnin branches in three of the four Fashion Square malls that it built (in addition to inviting Desmond's, Silverwoods and other Fashion businesses not owned by Bullock's). The division lasted until 1994 when Macy's liquidated the brand and converted some of the stores to Macy's stores, selling some to Saks Fifth Avenue, and closing the rest.

Bullock's North

In the early 1970s, Federated wanted to move into the

San Francisco Bay Area The San Francisco Bay Area, often referred to as simply the Bay Area, is a populous region surrounding the San Francisco, San Pablo, and Suisun Bay estuaries in Northern California. The Bay Area is defined by the Association of Bay Area Go ...

, an area of the country in which they never had any stores and was dominated by stores owned by Macy's and Broadway-Hale.Alternate Link
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.Link
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. 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 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 ...

Palo Alto Palo Alto (; Spanish for "tall stick") is a charter city in the northwestern corner of Santa Clara County, California, United States, in the San Francisco Bay Area, named after a coastal redwood tree known as El Palo Alto. The city was es ...

in March 1972. It had 150,000 square feet on two floors.Link
via

. Two years later, a second store was opened in downtown

Walnut Creek A walnut is the edible seed of a drupe of any tree of the genus ''Juglans'' (family Juglandaceae), particularly the Persian or English walnut, ''Juglans regia''. Although culinarily considered a "nut" and used as such, it is not a true bo ...

in 1974,Link
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. followed by a third store that was opened in the following year at the Vallco Fashion Park in Cupertino.Link
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. 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 A recall election (also called a recall referendum, recall petition or representative recall) is a procedure by which, in certain polities, voters can remove an elected official from office through a referendum before that official's term of of ...

and were able to eject the city council members that had voted in favor for the new store off the council and thus killing the project.Link
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. A fourth store opened in 1977 at the

Stonestown shopping center Stonestown Galleria is a shopping mall in San Francisco, California. It is located immediately north of San Francisco State University and near the former campus of Mercy High School (San Francisco), Mercy High School which closed in 2020 and Low ...

in San FranciscoLink
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. 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 its sixth and final store in the ill-fated Fashion Island Mall in San Mateo.Link
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. This particular store was unusual because the store was covered by a tent instead of a conventional roof.Link
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. 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 The Emporium, from 1980 to 1995 Emporium-Capwell, was a mid-line department store chain headquartered in San Francisco, California, which operated for 100 years—from 1896 to 1996. The flagship location on San Francisco's Market Street was a de ...

and Mervyn's each purchased a single store.

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 Lane Bryant Inc. is an American women's apparel and intimates specialty retailer focusing on plus-size clothing. The company began in 1904 with maternity designs created by Lena Himmelstein, Lena Himmelstein Bryant Malsin. Lane Bryant, Inc., i ...

, 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.Link
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. 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 second and third stores in Palm Desert and in Woodland Hills in September 1987.Link
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. 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.