Modesto misses this department store the most. How it got started — and why it closed

What makes a store great? Is it affordable prices? Friendly staff? A convenient location?

We asked you — our readers — about the Modesto-area stores and restaurants you miss the most, and received more than 130 submissions. We then asked you to vote for your favorite spots.

The results were clear: Modesto misses Gottschalks more than any other spot that has closed in the region.

Modesto Bee reader Cathy DeLaMare said Gottschalks was a “nice place to shop” and “kept the area it was in nice.”

While we can’t bring back either of the popular retail chain’s local department stores, we wanted to recapture the fond memories residents have of shopping and eating there.

We’ve dug through The Modesto and Fresno Bee’s archives to discover more about Gottschalks’ history, including how the retail chain began, how it expanded to Modesto and when and why it left the region.

How did Gottschalks get its start?

Gottschalks planted its roots not far from Modesto, back when horses and buggies were the primary mode of transportation.

Founded by Emil Gottschalk, the first Gottschalks department store opened in Fresno on Sept. 17, 1904, according to The Fresno Morning Republican newspaper, later purchased by The Fresno Bee.

At that time, Fresno had a population of about 14,000 people — roughly 530,000 fewer residents than the number that live in the city today.

After working for Fresno dry goods store Kutner-Goldstein for 10 years, Gottschalk joined forces with five of the department managers, 10 co-workers and his brother-in-law to open Gottschalks in a nearly 30,000-square-foot space at the corner of J and Tulare streets in Fresno.

Department store known for firsts

Gottschalks was the first modern department store to have a candy department, according to The Modesto Bee’s archives.

The store installed the first air-conditioning system in Fresno.

It also had the first U.S. Post Office location in a retail store in the valley, as well as one of the first large toy departments, according to the archives.

Gottschalks was one of the first businesses to initiate a five-day, 37.5-hour work week in Fresno.

Retail chain expands to Modesto

More than 70 years after it was founded, Gottschalks opened its first department store in Modesto in the Vintage Faire mall.

While rival retailer Weinstock’s was the first business to start construction and complete building in the mall on Dale Road, Gottschalks was the first business at Vintage Faire to make a sale.

When Weinstock’s was granted permission to open ahead of the planned Vintage Faire grand opening date, Gottschalks “began feeling the spirit of competition and realized its Modesto store, too, would be ready to open ahead of the center,” former Modesto Bee reporter Gerald Perry wrote in a February 1977 article.

Gottschalks opened for business on Feb. 11, 1977, and Weinstock’s opened the following day.

At that point, Gottschalks was California’s largest independently owned department store operation. The Modesto store was the company’s sixth outlet.

Federated Department Stores took over Macy’s department store chain in 1994 and bought The Broadway Stores, parent company of Weinstock’s, the following year. That’s when Gottschalks took over the former Weinstock’s location at Vintage Faire.

Meanwhile, Macy’s expanded to a second site in the mall, moving its men’s and home furnishings departments to where Gottschalks previously was.

Gottschalks remained in the old Weinstock’s building — which boasted a third-floor restaurant called The Grill on Third — for 14 years.

“I could always find what I needed and the prices were good,” Kim Weisser wrote in her response to The Modesto Bee’s callout. “Clothing, shoes, housewares — they had it all.”

Gottschalks adds second Modesto store

Satisfying residents’ wishes for a department store on the east side of town, Gottschalks opened a second Modesto location in Century Center shopping plaza on Orangeburg Avenue at Oakdale Road on Oct. 1, 1984.

It was the retailer’s eighth store overall.

In their responses to The Bee’s callout seeking Modesto’s most-missed businesses, many readers cited the Century Center location as the one they missed the most.

“It was so nice to have a department store on the east side of the city,” Joyce Starkey wrote in her response to the callout.

Gottschalks wasn’t the first department store on the east side — or the first one to occupy that building.

Gray’s department store was the original tenant of the 50,000-square-foot building, but it did not prove successful. Gray’s closed just months before Gottschalks moved in due to “rising business costs,” founder Ron Gray told The Modesto Bee then.

The sales volume in Gottschalks’ first 12 months of business in Century Center was about 25% above what had been expected, Joe Levy, chairman and chief executive officer of Gottschalks, told The Bee in 1985.

Asked about their feelings about the traffic increase Gottschalks brought to the plaza, Century Center owner Gaylon Patterson told The Bee in 1985 that “happy is an understatement.”

Gottschalks’ Century Center location expanded in 1992 and 2001, adding a total of 40,000 feet.

It was an anchor of Century Center for 25 years.

Modesto Bee reader Sherri Fabbri said she enjoyed shopping at the Century Center location because it was close to her and had “great choices in clothing and everything for the home.”

“It was nice that it wasn’t too big and all on one level,” Fabbria wrote in her response to The Bee’s callout. “Also, I got to know many of the sales ladies who were always so nice and helpful.”

Financial struggles, bankruptcy lead to store closures

Gottschalks operated 73 department stores and 13 specialty apparel outlets in six western states by 2002.

The Modesto stores were two of the top-performing outlets in the chain. The Vintage Faire location ranked just ahead of the Century Center outlet in terms of sales, according to the archives of The Fresno Bee and The Modesto Bee.

In 2002, Gottschalks posted a net loss of $12 million. Some stores were closed and the company’s credit card business was sold.

The company introduced new products to boost sales, and profits rebounded the next year to $1.9 million.

In 2006, Gottschalks announced that it anticipated putting itself up for sale. At the time, the company said it was also considering partnerships, going private or revising its business plan.

Gottschalks ended its search for a buyer after 13 months, then posted an annual loss of $12.4 million for 2007.

The New York Stock Exchange removed Gottschalks in 2008 because of its low market value. That’s when the stock price fell below $1 per share for the first time since the chain went public in 1986.

Gottschalks filed for bankruptcy in January 2009, and a group of liquidators wanting to sell the company’s inventory in clearance sales purchased the assets at the end of March that year.

Liquidation sales began at all Gottschalks stores just days later and all stores were vacated by July 15.

Thus, the legacy of Gottschalks department stores ended after 105 years.

Forever 21 purchased the leases to 13 Gottschalks locations, including the Vintage Faire spot, which was sold for $243,384.

There was no bid for the Century Center site.

After seven years of being largely vacant aside from a Planet Fitness that occupied part of the 90,000-square-foot space, the former Gottschalks building turned into an MB2 Raceway indoor kart racing center in 2016.

It’s now home to Central Valley Pace, a “program of all-inclusive care for the elderly,” according to its website.

“(Gottschalks was) the only place I ever truly enjoyed shopping,” Laurie Scott wrote in the callout.

What do you want to know about life in Modesto? Ask our service journalism team your top-of-mind questions in the module below or email servicejournalists@modbee.com.