Weinstock's:: Sacramento's Finest Department Store

by Annette Kassis

Overview

In 1874, David Lubin hung a provocative sign over a ten by twelve-foot space on the corner of Fourth and K Streets in Sacramento, California: D. Lubin: One Price." Thus began the dry goods store that would evolve into Weinstock, Lubin, and Co., one of Sacramento's landmark businesses and eventually a regional giant. While many Sacramentans will remember Weinstock's spectacular Christmas displays, the signature children's milk bar and the gala openings of suburban stores at Country Club Plaza and Sunrise Mall, historian Annette Kassis goes beyond the storefront to uncover the philosophy that placed Weinstock's at the forefront of business innovation. More than a retail establishment, Weinstock's one-hundred-year legacy brought high fashion, progressive politics and the leading edge of modernization to California's Capital City."

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781609494445
Publisher:	Arcadia Publishing SC
Publication date:	08/07/2012
Series:	Landmarks
Pages:	144
Product dimensions:	6.12(w) x 8.82(h) x 0.36(d)

About the Author

Annette Kassis studied history at California State University, Sacramento and UCSB. She is a historian and researcher specializing in media, advertising, mass consumption and consumerism, and popular culture, and her past work experience includes almost twenty years as co-owner of Sacramento-based advertising agency, K&H Marketing, LLC.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgements 9

Introduction 11

I D. Lubin, One Price, 1874-1891 13

The Shtetl-Born Cowboy 14

Heading West, the First Time 15

Return to California 17

From One Price to the Mechanics' Store 20

Weinstock, Lubin & Co. 23

Department Stores: A New Kind of Store 26

II The Big White Store, 1891-1904 30

Differing Personalities 33

A Broken-Hearted Man 36

David Lubin's Changing Role 38

"The Loss Seemed Appalling": Disaster Strikes the Big White Store 40

The Big White Store Rises Again 46

III A New Generation and a World at War, 1904-1919 48

Family Expectations 51

The Fashion Center of Sacramento 52

Changes in Leadership and Store Policy 54

A World at War 55

Weinstock, Lubin and the War Effort 57

"This Was as David Lubin Would Have Wished It" 61

A Return to Normalcy 62

IV "Paris" Comes to Sacramento, 1920-1945 64

"One of the Most Horrible Pictures We Have Ever Seen in Any Newspaper" 66

The Youth Market and Department Stores 68

A Little Bit of Paris on K Street 69

The Most Modern Department Store Structure in America 75

Downturn, Changes and Recovery 81

Weinstock's and the War 85

V Suburbia, Sprawl and a Woman at the Helm, 1946-1973 90

Marion Armstrong Takes the Reins 96

Urban Redevelopment and Suburban Expansion 102

The West's Biggest Chain 105

Approaching the First One Hundred Years 107

VI From Centennial Celebration to Takeover Target, 1974-1995 109

Just a Little Consolidation Amid Expansion 110

"A Consumer Is a Statistical Abstract. A Customer Is a Person." 115

A "Feisty Situation" 116

More Takeover Attempts, Restructuring and Layoffs 120

The Last of the Old-Line Merchants 122

Conclusion. "Goodbye, Weinstock's" 125

Notes 129

About the Author 143