First it was Garfinckel's, retailer to the city's rich and powerful, with cashmere sweaters on the shelves and crystal chandeliers dangling from the ceiling.
Bankrupt and closed in 1990.
In 1955, Hecht's department store in downtown Washington got its Christmas season into full swing with the lighting of a towering display of 4,000 bulbs.
(Henry Rohland -- The Washington Post)
|
_____Live Discussion_____
•
Transcript: Washington Post reporter Michael Barbaro was online to discuss how Federated's acquisition of May Department Stores may affect two of the Washington region's most prominent retail outlets -- Hecht's and Lord & Taylor.
|
| |
_____Graphic_____
•
New Owner for a Hometown Store Hecht's, a fixture in Washington retailing for more than a century, is owned by May Department Stores Co., which agreed Sunday to merge with Federated Department Stores.
|
| |
_____On the Web_____
•
Press Release Federated and May Announce Merger
|
| |
|
Then it was Woodward & Lothrop, slightly less pricey but full of southern charm, with veteran employees who addressed shoppers as Mr. or Mrs.
Bankrupt and sold in 1995.
Hecht's, which had been acquired by the May Department Store Co. in 1959, survived for another decade as the last of the Washington area's homegrown department store brands. In the end, however, the chain's strategy of selling modestly priced fashions to middle-income shoppers may not be able to protect it from the national and international forces that have undermined the place of the traditional department store.
Hecht's struggling parent, May Department Store Co., yesterday agreed to be acquired by Federated Department Stores Inc., owner of Macy's and Bloomingdale's, sources said. The deal that could jeopardize the future of the 148-year-old Hecht's name and put hundreds of local jobs at risk, according to retail analysts.
While Hecht's may survive inside the combined company, the deal demonstrates the chain's failure, along with all of its corporate siblings within May, to find a niche at a time when its competitors were becoming steadily more precise at identifying and selling to specific groups of customers. As a result, once-loyal department store shoppers defected to specialty stores like Gap Inc., with more casual fashions; discounters such as Target Corp., with cheaper products; and high-end store's like Neiman Marcus Group, with stronger service.
Lois Huff, senior vice president at the consulting firm Retail Forward said chains like Hecht's "lack a role in the consumer's mind today. When you hear the name Target, you think something specific. When you hear the name Wal-Mart, you think something else very specific. But when you hear the names of these big department store chains, you just think, same-old."
Federated has not escaped these troubles altogether, but its marquee chains, Macy's and Bloomingdale's, have captured a sizable chunk of the fast-growing upscale apparel and home furnishings market.
Federated also has developed popular in-house brands and spruced up its stores with customer-friendly seating areas, self-service scanners and prominent direction signs, changes that May is still in the process of adopting.
