The Boston Store - Los Angeles - 1910
J.W. ROBINSON & CO – Los Angeles
James Winchester Robinson opened his first store in 1881 under the banner of The Boston Store. The original store was located at Spring and Temple Streets. In 1914, the name was changed to J.W. Robinson & Company and it moved to a new location at 7th and Grand in a building designed by Noonan and Richards. In 1934 the building was modernized by Edward L. Mayberry. The downtown store had six floors of selling space. On the seventh floor were the restaurants, the beauty salon, and customer service. The women’s rest area and lavatory were reputed to be exquisite.
Robinson’s catered to the carriage trade as did Bullock’s and Coulter’s. The store presented better fashions and offered excellent customer service. For years the store competed well with Bullock’s in the downtown market because it was located west on 7th street in an area attractive to the upper-end customers.
In 1957, the company was acquired by Associated Dry Goods and became their fashion headquarters for the West.
In 1952, the company opened its first branch store in the Beverly Hills market. Robinson’s needed that store to capture the carriage trade: customers that were now shopping at Bullock’s, I. Magnin’s, and Sak’s stores located out on Wilshire and at the specialty shops on Rodeo Drive. Even Coulter’s had closed its downtown store and moved to Wilshire. Later, Robinson’s opened a winter-only store in Palm Springs to serve the customers who wintered there. Other suburban stores opened in Panorama City, Anaheim, Santa Barbara, Glendale, Pasadena, Newport Beach, Cerritos, Woodland Hills and the City of Industry.
In 1986, Associated Dry Goods was acquired by The May Department Stores Company (St. Louis). In 1993, the Robinson’s division of Associated Goods was merged with the May Company Southern California division to form Robinson’s May. This was a difficult marriage as May Company was targeting the moderated market and Robinson’s catered to the carriage trade. In 2005, after the acquisition of The May Company Department Stores by Federated Department Stores, the stores were either renamed Macy’s, Bloomingdale’s or were sold.
What happened???? Although Robinson’s had relatively good positioning in Los Angeles, it relied too long on its one store downtown. It did not have the clout with vendors to develop exclusive relationships. As the customers moved west to Beverly Hills and south to Orange County and when the downtown retail market declined, Robinson’s was slow to expand and gave up market share to Bullock’s, I. Magnin’s, Sak’s, and other retailers. Robinson’s started to rebound when Michael Gould became the CEO, but he did not get full support from the parent, Associated Dry Goods. When it merged with May Company, the company quickly lost the carriage trade customer.
I knew Robinson’s well as a competitor when I worked at Bullock’s. The downtown LA and the Beverly Hills stores were well-maintained and operated at high customer service levels. The management was not known as sophisticated. The management development program was not strong so the company was never able to develop talented merchants. I remember when the Attorney General for California looked into price fixing amongst the Southern California department stores. They found a folder amongst the corporate office files at Robinson’s entitled “Price Fixing Agreements”.
I wish there were postcards showing the interior of this wonderful store. I have only one which shows the women’s restroom. As soon as I locate it I will post it.
New Downtown LA J.W. Robinson Store Drawing
J. W.Robinson & Company - Los Angeles - 1917
J. W. Robinson & Company - Los Angeles - 1920's
J. W. Robinson & Company - Los Angeles - 1920's
J. W. Robinson & Company - Los Angeles - 1940 - After 'Remuddling'
Utopia Yarn/ J.W.Robinson & Co - 1940
Rogers Peet Suits/J.W. Robinson & Co. - 1941
J.W. Robinson & Co. - Beverly Hills Store
J. W. Robinson & Company - Newport
Tags: Allied Stores, apparel retail, Associated Dry Goods, big box retail, big box retailers, Boston Store, BULLOCK'S, Bullock's Wilshire, catalog, department store, Department Store History, department stores, direct marketing, Downtown Los Angeles Retail, Dowtown Los Angeles History, ecommerce, executive search, executive search firms, fashion, fashion careers, Fashion Institute, fast food, FEDERATED DEPARTMENT STORES, FIT, food service, J.W. Robinson & Co, J.W. Robinsons, john plummer, la times, LOS ANGELES RETAIL, LOS ANGELES RETAILERS, Los Angeles Times, macy's, may company, May Company Southern California, May Robinson, MBA, modesto, national retail federation, New york Times, nrf, NYT, plummer & associates, plummer and associates, Plummersearch, plummersearch.com, private companies, retail, retail careers, retail executive recruiters, retail executive search, retail executive search firms, retail recruiters, retailers, retailexecutivesearch.com, retailexecutivesearchfirms.com, retailing, Robinson May, Robinson's, shop TV, skywalker, Southern California History, SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA RETAIL, SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA RETAILERS, Specialty retail, stores, Supply Chain, susan gill, USC, wholesale
Robinson’s actually began in 1883, as The Boston Dry Goods in honor of Joseph Winchster Robinson’s Boston roots, and was renamed J. W. Robinson just after his death in 1891. Wikipedia incorrectly states the year as 1957 when Associated Dry Goods bought Robinson’s, which was actually two years earlier. I do believe you mean “Santa Barbara” rather than “Santa Rosa” which is in Northern California.
Also, like Bullock’s (in the San Franciso area), Robinson’s and their parent company started an off-shoot namesake chain in the early 1970′s. It was called “Robinson’s of Florida”, headquartered in St. Petersburg. May Dept. Stores sold them to Maison Blanche, which in turn sold them to Dillard’s.
Great post. Thank You
I apologize for the typo of Santa Rosa instead of Santa Barbara. I know the store in Santa Barbara as I visited it several times.
I will keep researching the founding date. I will also research the date the name was changed from Boston Store to J.W. Robinson. As you can see, the first postcard shows the Boston Store. It is a very rare card. But, because of its design, it was certainly produced after 1891.
If you have more information, please let me know.
Between 1880 and 1900, numerous retailers across the nation were called The Boston Store. This was because much of apparel manufacturing was done in New England at the time and because Boston had cache.
Thanks for your comments.
Thanks for posting this. My great Grandfather was FW Dohrmann and my Grandfather ABC Dohrmann and though I never had the pleasure of knowing either gentleman I do so love reading of their exploits in SF Business and in the Yosemite Park Company.
Again…thank you
Your heart must pitter pat every time you think about your heritage and what your family accomplished. The Yosemite Park Company was also a wonderful thing in addition to the great retail businesses.
I will add more as I get more postcards. I hope you will follow the development of this story.
John Plummer
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Oct. 1st 2012 … Worked at JWR for six years downtown – Director of Branch Renovations.
Donley, Harcus – Mr Frank. … Great group. Slayden was the last ‘old school’ President. Then Mr. Kelley came out from the East to try to resuscitate the decline and finally Mr Largay of Goldwaters Arizona.
He let whole departments go – ours included.
Frankly glad. Became a curator for the city.
I was under the impression that JWR valley became the Broadway – then Walmart. All the same building. Did work there on the main floor when JWR and most other stores -planning – case moves, special programs etc.
Somebody might do an L.A.Plan check – or phone book/address check.
JWR valley was BIG – as the drawing indicates – three stories with a restaurant on the top floor – Broadway retained that for awhile I believe. There was a Van Nuys Blvd entrance so I don;t see how it could have been over by Food For Less .. .which is not next to V.N.Blvd. I thought the mall was added later. Another site says otherwise.
JC