Robinsons-May

Robinsons-May

Former type	Department store
Industry	Retail
Fate	Acquired by Macy's
Founded	1993
Defunct	2006
Headquarters	Los Angeles, California
Products	Clothing, footwear, bedding, furniture, jewelry, beauty products, and housewares.
Parent	The May Department Stores Company (1993-2005) Federated Department Stores,Inc. (2005-2006)
Website	None

An abandoned Robinsons-May store in Riverside, CA, as seen shortly before being converted into a Macy's.

Robinsons-May was a chain of department stores operating in Southern California, Arizona and Las Vegas, Nevada, previously with headquarters in North Hollywood, California. It was a subsidiary of The May Department Stores Company, having been acquired with Federated's takeover of The May Department Stores Company on August 30, 2005. Robinsons May had 45 stores.

History

May Company and JW Robinson's

The double-barreled Robinsons-May name was created in 1993 when the former middle-to-low-brow May Company California was consolidated with their carriage-trade corporate sibling JW Robinson's. May Department Stores had acquired Robinson's with its 1986 acquisition of Associated Dry Goods Corp. JW Robinson's had been acquired by Associated Dry Goods in 1957, while May Company California had been established in 1923 when May acquired the then-named A. Hamburger & Sons (founded in 1881 by Asher Hamburger).

Both chains had operated exclusively in Southern California until 1989 when May Department Stores had dissolved its Goldwaters division, based in Scottsdale, Arizona, and apportioned its Phoenix metropolitan and Las Vegas, Nevada, stores between the still separate JW Robinson's and May Company California. In 1993 Robinsons-May absorbed the Tucson-area locations of sister division Foley's, which were themselves the remains of the former Levy's stores. Robinsons-May was further consolidated with Portland, Oregon-based Meier & Frank in 2002, which retained its individual nameplate, but merged its primary headquarters into Robinsons-May's in North Hollywood.

Conversion to Macy's

On August 30, 2005, operational control of the Robinsons-May stores was assumed by Macy's West (the Meier & Frank stores were transferred to Macy's Northwest). Fifteen of its California stores were offered for sale under an agreement with the California State Attorney General, though Federated has retained several of the stores covered by the agreement since satisfactory offers from competitors were not received (including stores at Woodland Hills and Northridge). During 2006, the majority of the Robinsons-May stores were converted to the Macy's or Bloomingdale's nameplate, either as replacements for existing stores, new locations or as expansions of existing locations. Prime locations at South Coast Plaza, Costa Mesa and Fashion Valley Mall, San Diego where Macy's already had stores were shuttered in early 2006 and refurbished as Bloomingdale's locations.