Wow, what a definite sign of the times :(

I remember when Brocks Department store was bought out by Gottschalks years and years ago, I never thought they would go under to. What a sad time. One has to wonder what will go into their places at the Plaza and East Hills, if anything at all?

Sign of the times~ there was a advertisement for the Dollar Store in Sundays paper. That should tell one something.

Mervyns...Circuit City...Gottschalks...at this rate we'll all be Christmas shopping at Walmart and Dollar Store. Only stores left.

Let's buy up some more undeveloped farm land and put a few more commercial strip malls there. 

: ) Great idea, adam. 10,000 more homes would also be good.

That's right, catpaw! And with all those added to the 7,000 empty run down properties all throughout town we can really see home values sky rocket through the porcelin commode into the sewer lines. I know the Supes and City Council will all approve!

I don't Christmas shop at places like Gottchalks anyway since I NEVER buy clothes for anyone but I hate to see the big department stores go under.  I only shopped their sale racks as their regular prices are a bit above my budget.  I think we're gong to see more and more of this at the economy worsens.

When you have thrift stores saying donations are really down, you know people are hanging on to things a lot longer.  Or having yard sales instead of donating.

I was told that the book donations to the library for the Friends book sale is really down.  What are people doing with them if not donating them?  Trading?  Swapping 2 for 1? 

Of all the closed and closing stores, the one that affected me the most was Mervyns.  Most of my tennies came from there.  Jeans and tops came from there.  Jewelry at a reasonable price.  It's a great loss to me.

So sad.  And you are right, catpaw.  Looks like many of us will be doing our Christmas shopping at Walmart and the Dollar store.  Ugh.  Just breaks my hearts.  I remember when there was a  time I thought many of these stores, especially Circuit City and Mervyns, were invincible. 

A View Of the Passing Of Gottschalks From the Pacific Northwest.

Having lived in the San Joaquin Valley for the better part of fifteen years before returning to the Seattle area I was thrilled to see Gottschalks expanding up here.

But looking back I think Gottschalks made some mistakes in its expansion to the Northwest. I don't recall much if any television advertising during the expansion. The stores just sort of appeared. The merchandise selection at the northwest stores wasn't quite the same or as nice as the selection at the Fresno and Bakersfield stores.

Kohl's on the other hand advertised heavily in the Seattle market a good two years ahead of opening its first store in Marysville, a town about forty-five miles north of Seattle. Kohl's marketing strategy was great, especially for people who had never heard of or shopped at Kohl's - a Midwestern based chain.

So by the time the first Kohl's opened in the fall of 2006 their marketing strategy had piqued the customers' curiosity and when the doors opened the customers poured in.

Gottschalks fell somewhere between Kohl's and JC Penney in terms of brands and quality. Kohl's out competed Gottschalks in the mid-range market. Not quite WalMart or Target and not quite JC Penney; Gottschalk's lost their market to Kohl's.  For the residents of  the Northeast part of Bakersfield, a good quality department store a bit above WalMart and Target is now sorely needed.  The beleaguered East Hills Mall will soon have three anchor sized spaces to choose from.  The mall, now with the impending closure of Gottschalks will surely die without an anchor.

It's sad, but I remember the "grand closing" of Frederick and Nelson the year I returned to the Northwest. I felt like a vulture picking over the clearance merchandise and mourned the Seattle institution. F&N was unable to compete and folded. Looks like the same thing has happened to Gottschalks.