Department Stores

After nearly 150 years as a fixture in the local retail market, the Hecht Co. has begun the process of shutting its doors forever. The department store chain, which grew from a Baltimore furniture store started by Samuel Hecht in 1857, began major clearance sales at its stores this week. The sales are designed to clear out the stores so they can be converted to the Macy's nameplate by mid-April. The conversions are part of a plan by Federated Department Stores Inc., which acquired May Department Stores Inc. last year, to create a nationally recognized department store chain.

The names Woodward and Lothrop have graced dry goods emporiums for more than 100 years. Whether they will continue to do so is uncertain.Woodward & Lothrop Holdings is on the bidding block. As a result of its continuing bankruptcy process, the Alexandria, Va.-based department store chain is considering buyout proposals or other offers from outside investors.Chairman and CEO Robert B. Mang said last week that Woodies has received "viable interest" from four potential partners. Some are other retailers, he said.

Retail sales grew at an expected slow pace in February, as U.S. consumers continued tightening spending amid a weakening economy. Sales at the nation's biggest chain stores rose, on average, 2.8 percent for the month, when retailers typically clear out winter merchandise, a Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi index showed. The gain fell short of a much healthier increase of 6 percent in February 1999, before consumer confidence began to ebb because of higher fuel costs and a plunging stock market.

After 115 years in business, Woodward & Lothrop Inc. agreed yesterday to be bought by a group led by Federated Department Stores Inc., the giant retailer that swallowed R. H. Macy & Co. in December.Woodies, which has operated under Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection since January 1994, said the deal includes the purchase of most of its assets, including at least 11 Woodies stores and the flagship John Wanamaker store in downtown Philadelphia.Woodward & Lothrop said the deal, including the liquidation of assets not purchased by Federated, would generate a projected $640 million.

R.H. Macy & Co. Inc. announced yesterday that it will shut its 200-worker Hunt Valley Mall store by Aug. 1, raising fears about the survival of other retailers in the troubled mall.The New York-based retailer, which filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in late January, said it was also closing seven other stores nationwide, affecting 1,850 workers.The Hunt Valley store will be the second Macy-owned department store to be shuttered in Maryland this year. The debt-laden company has said it will close its I. Magnin store at White Flint Mall in Kensington on June 7.Macy's employees at Hunt Valley said they learned of the closure in a letter yesterday and were told they would receive four weeks of severance plus earned vacation pay. Macy also said it would help employees explore other job prospects in the company.

At 6:30 a.m., April 8, 1861, an obscure young man named John Wanamaker opened the doors to a modest clothing shop tucked in downtown Philadelphia, 94 hours before the first gunshot echo of the Civil War.More than a century later, the fabled Wanamaker name, graced on a 12-story granite and steel department store, will vanish from the retailing universe before a parade of lawyers in Room 627 of U.S. Bankruptcy Court in New York City at 10 a.m. Aug. 8.There goes...

Woodward & Lothrop, Annapolis' first large department store, was to have been the bridge between the old and the new Parole Plaza, the only store that would remain during the redevelopment of the 33-year-old strip center.But the buyout of Woodies in a New York bankruptcy court last week has left the fate of the store and shopping center up in the air.Federated Department Stores, which owns Macy's, offered to take over the Parole Plaza building as part of its bid to buy the Alexandria-based Woodies and its Philadelphia subsidiary, John Wanamaker department stores.

Woodward & Lothrop Inc., the Alexandria, Va.-based department store chain in Chapter 11 bankruptcy proceedings, said yesterday it has received "several" offers to buy all or parts of its operation.Woodies officials declined to identify the bidders. But industry sources said that Federated Department Stores Inc. and J.C. Penney Co. are among the parties that have been looking over Woodies' operation.Both Penney and Federated have declined to comment about Woodies. But Federated has said it is interested in acquiring regional operators and adding them to its nationwide net of Bloomingdale's, Macy's, Burdines and other department stores.

Thomas D. Fingleton, a 43-year-old veteran corporate finance executive, has been named to the No. 2 post at Hecht's, the department store chain's parent, May Department Stores Co., announced yesterday.He succeeds Warren Harris, 62, who is retiring after 18 years with May. The move is effective April 1.Mr. Fingleton, whose new title is chairman, will report to Irwin Zazulia, 49, who continues as president and chief executive officer of Hecht's. In the May department store units, contrary to the practice at most large corporations, the president is the ranking executive, said Jim Abrams, corporate spokesman for St. Louis-based May."

Frugal-minded shoppers spent their tax rebate checks at discount merchants last month, boosting sales at some of the country's largest chains. But they stayed away from higher-priced department stores and specialty stores, causing sales to fall by double-digits at Nordstrom Inc. and American Eagle Outfitters Inc. It was a sign that consumers are confining themselves to spending on the basics, and even then, they are looking for bargains, retail experts...