Weinstock Lubin & Co. Sacramento 1908 New Store After Fire
In 1875, David Lubin, a Polish émigré via New York opened Lubin’s One Price Store in downtown Sacramento. This first store was 16 by 24 feet. A year or two later, his half-brother, Harris Weinstock, and his sister, Jeanette Levy, joined the business as it expanded from just a store to a major mail order house and the company name changed to Weinstock Lubin. Soon after, the store was expanded to 80,000 square feet with four stories. In 1875, the company was the largest mail order house on the Pacific Coast. The company grew and soon opened buying offices in New York and San Francisco. In 1888, the company was incorporated and renamed Weinstock Lubin & Co. A store in San Francisco was opened in 1897. In January, 1903, the downtown Sacramento store was destroyed by fire. A fireman was killed. Not to be stopped, the company quickly proceeded to build a new store, a building which became the biggest in Sacramento. The company targeted the value driven customer. As time continued, the retail business took over and became the majority of the business.
The company developed a culture which allowed employees to have a stake in the business. The company started a profit sharing plan which shared profits by employee level. The company also hired teachers to provide younger employees with skills in writing and mathematics.
David Lubin was impatient and wanted to do more than just run the family department store and mail order house. He let Harris Weinstock become the CEO while he engaged in agriculture. He started orchards in the Sacramento area and brought European farming methods. His knowledge of agriculture assisted him when he helped found the California Fruit Growers’ Union. He then helped settle Eastern European Jewish refugees who worked on various farms in the area and, in 1891, he became the director of the International Society for the Colonization of Russian Jews. He then began to campaign for subsidies and protection for farmers, initially in California but eventually on an international scale. His son, Simon, helped him develop a proposal for an international chamber of agriculture; in 1896, David Lubin moved to Europe to implement the proposal. In May, 1908, with the sponsorship of Italy’s King Victor Emmanuel III, the International Institute of Agriculture (the IIA) opened, in Rome. The Institute’s goals were to help farmers share knowledge, produce systematically, establish a cooperative system of rural credit, and have control over the marketing of their products. In 1906, David was permanently appointed as the U.S. delegate to IIA. (Note: The IIA was folded in 1945 and merged into the United Nations.
In 1949, Weinstock Lubin & Company was acquired by its arch rival, Hale Bros. In 1979, the new parent company Carter Hawley Hale Stores expanded Weinstock Lubin & Company (now just called Weinstock’s) into Reno, Nevada, and Salt Lake City, Utah.
In 1991, Weinstock’s was combined with the Emporium division which took over all operations including merchandising.
The downtown store in Sacramento is now an office building.
What happened??? Weinstock Lubin & Company was once a powerful retailer in Central California. It unfortunately became a part of Hale Bros which later merged with Broadway Stores and became Broadway Hale and later merged with Emporium Capwell to become Carter Hawley Hale Stores. Wall Street jokingly called the company EGO, Inc. The parent company immersed itself with debt as it went on a drive to acquire other retail chains in an effort to become the biggest retail chain in the U.S. The impact of this debt reduced the amount of capital available to maintain the stores. Macy’s became a better competitor in California and Nordstrom also entered the market along with a host of specialty retailers and big box retailers. The department store divisions of Carter Hawley Hale no longer were relevant to the customers. After Carter Hawley Hale Stores were sold to an investor group, Zell/Chilmark, the new management team made key marketing mistakes which finished off the parent company and resulted in the 1995 sale to Federated Department Stores. With the sale, all divisions, including Weinstock’s were either converted to Macy’s or sold.
I visited Weinstock Lubin & Company when I was young as I only lived 80 miles south in Modesto. Although Weinstock Lubin had an enjoyable lunch bar for kids, it was not as magnificent as the stores in San Francisco. Weinstock Lubin was a major participant in the holiday festivities and always had wonderful window displays.
Weinstock Lubin & Co. Sacramento 1906
Weinstock Lubin & Co. Sacramento 1924
Weinstock Lubin & Co. Sacramento 1927
I encourage you to leave your memories of this store and department store chain in the comments section below.
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Having just been looking forinformative websites for the research project I’ve been working on when I happened to stumble upon yours. Thanks for this helpful content! — Jesse Mccullom
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In 1902, Harris Weinstock provided the University of California with a fund to endow the Barbara Weinstock Memorial Lecture on the Morals of Trade. Lectures have been held at UC Berkeley 45 times since 2004. On March 16, 2011 the speaker was Robert B. Reich, Chancellor’s Professor of Public Policy, Goldmn School of Public Policy.
Amazing article, cheers, I will visit again now.
Thank you for this interesting article. I will be sure to get the word out about this on my site
Outstanding! Can’t wait to read next article.
The layout is what really caught my eye, then the I looked at the writing and I think you did a very nice job. Good work
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I don’t have a website. I just realized I have one of the original gift boxes from Weinstock Lubin & Co. which contains a spreader with a sterling handle. It was interesting reading the history of this company.
My great grandmother, Elizabeth Osborn Seymour (1831-1909), worked in the educational department of Weinstock’s for many years as a teacher. In 1896 she was asked to accompany David Lubin and his children on a trip to Europe and to act as the children’s teacher during the more than 6 months they would be gone. She left behind a written legacy of this trip in the form of almost daily diary entries which reads as though she were writing letters to her family back in Sacramento (and she wrote those as well). The children received daily lessons from her in the usual schoolhouse subjects, augmented by local historical discussions on the places they visited.
Department stores were the first to employ women and give ‘real’ responsibilities. Those who the owners trusted, were given super responsibilities and rewards. Obviously, the Lubin’s had great respect for your grandmother. John
I attended Brigham Young University and had the opportunity to participate in a retail internship at Weinstock’s in downtown Sacramento during the Fall 1997. I guess I was there at the end of the Weinstock era. I worked as the assistant buyer in the Linen’s Department for the first part of my internship and then ran the Christmas Shop for the rest of my internship.
Whoops – wrong date – I was there Fall of 1981. I was thinking it was the Fall before I got married (but I put the date of my second marriage and it was actually my first marriage).
Good post. I felt your article is highly absorbing. Cheers over again – I will visit again.
EMM … Jeg kan ikke få det ..
Much appreciation for this article. You always write a riveting article. Cheers over again – I will return.
amazing stuff! thanks
Youre so cool! I dont suppose Ive read anything like this before. So nice to find somebody with some original thoughts on this subject. realy thank you for starting this up. this website is something that is needed on the web, someone with a little originality. useful job for bringing something new to the internet!
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I am doing research for a book on David Lubin and was fascinated by the comments of Sue Seymour . Sue, if you see this note, I would be grateful to find out if your great grandmother’s diary is available anywhere, such as a university library for research purposes. My email address is msatin1@verizon.net .
Morton Satin
I hope you two can get in contact. John
Dear John,
I do hope Sue Seymour does get in touch with me and I thank you for this very interesting blog. Just to put you in the loop Lubin was an extraordinary guy. He used the wealth he obtained in the Weinstock-Lubin retail operation (which he actually started in Sacramento) to support a great number of state, national and international public initiatives. He was instrumental in the establishment of the California Fruit Exchange, the Crocker Art Museum and most significantly, through his sheer will, established the International Institute of Agriculture in Rome in 1906. This was the founding organization of the League of Nations which morphed into the United Nations after World War II. Yet, he is an unknown entity to most of us. That is why it is so important to get in touch with Sue Seymour. Any light that her grandmother’s diary could shed on his character would help round out the work I am writing.
So, again, if Sue Seymour, or anyone that might know Sue Seymour raised this, please have her get in touch with me at msatin1@verizon.net
And John, thanks again for this excellent blog!
Morton Satin
One last point of information for John Plummer and Sue Seymour. I just found a passenger manifest of a boat from New York to Southhampton (I have to decifer the date). Among the cabin passengers is listed David Lubin and his five children. Rght under their names is a Mrs E. M. Seymour!
M. Satin
I have a small black box containing two glass(/) candle holders. The inside top of the box says Weinstock’s. Could this be from the department store?
See comment from L. Kelly above. Thanks
I worked at the downtown Sacramento store for over 8 years(1980′s).I made a lot of good friends that I still stay in contact with today with.Too bad the poor management (upper and lower) took that company down.I miss those good times back then.I lost all of my 41 k after they filed for chapter 12 and 13.Thanks big wigs.It was not all sugar and spice people.Get real.