Sakowitz

Leebe Shaikovich, was an Ashkenazi Jewish man from Korostyshiv, Volhynia, today part of Ukraine, but at that time part of the Russian Empire. He emigrated to the U.S. in 1886, where his name was changed upon arrival to Louis Sakowitz. In Galveston, Texas, Louis began a peddler business, taking orders and delivering clothes on a bicycle to the many merchant seamen. Then, he and his son Samuel opened a small store near the wharves, while brothers Simon and Tobias worked elsewhere around town, for the time being. But in 1902 they opened the Sakowitz Brothers gentlemen's haberdashery in Galveston at 2113 Market Street, then expanded into booming Houston in 1911 at 308 Main Street, which Simon ran while Tobias ran the then-larger Galveston operation.{{cite web |url=http://www.tshaonline.org/handbook/online/articles/fsa63 |title=Simon Sakowitz |accessdate=2007-12-13 |work=Handbook of Texas}}{{cite web |url=http://www.tshaonline.org/handbook/online/articles/fsatg |title=Bernard Sakowitz |accessdate=2007-12-13 |work=Handbook of Texas}} The location in Galveston was closed in 1917 and consolidated into the Houston store.{{Citation needed|date=January 2010}}

By 1929, the original Houston store on 308 Main Street had relocated to the Gulf Building at 720 Main Street by noted Houston architect Alfred C. Finn.

In 1951, Sakowitz moved again to a five story, modernist store at 1111 Main Street (Dallas and Main) also designed by Finn. This was the first time that Sakowitz truly "ran a department store", as it now directly managed the women's (and several other) departments, which prior to then had been franchised to other operators.{{cite journal |work=Houston History|last1=Zapata |first1=Johnny |title=Sakowitz: a Legend in Houston Retail |volume=16 |issue=2 |url=https://houstonhistorymagazine.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/06/Sakowitz.pdf |access-date=13 November 2023}}

The store, whose exterior has been kept but whose interior has been turned into a parking garage, contained:{{cite news |last1=December 18 |first1=J. R. Gonzales on |title=Ever shopped at Sakowitz? |url=https://blog.chron.com/bayoucityhistory/2009/12/ever-shopped-at-sakowitz/ |access-date=13 November 2023 |work=Bayou City History |date=18 December 2009}}

• 8,073 feet of polished and antique mirrors
• 10,872 incandescent and fluorescent lamps
• 32 public telephones
• 205 store telephones
• {{cvt|254000|sqft|0}} of space
• The landmark Sky Terrace restaurant
• 2 “Red Reminder” phones. Phones at the store’s entrances that can be used to call any department in case a patron overlooked an item while shopping.

In 1956, Sakowitz opened its first suburban location at Gulfgate Mall.

In 1959, a large, {{cvt|187000|sqft|0|adj=on}}, freestanding store was opened on Westheimer Road at Post Oak near The Galleria.{{cite news |last1=Fraser |first1=Bruce |title=Sakowitz ‘capsulizing’ |url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/fort-worth-star-telegram-sakowitz-capsu/135083438/ |access-date=13 November 2023 |work=Fort Worth Star-Telegram |date=31 October 1978 |pages=17}}

Eventually, the chain expanded to 16 locations, of which 14 were in Texas, one in Scottsdale, Arizona and another in Tulsa, Oklahoma.{{cite news |last1=Blosser |first1=J. B. |title=Sakowitz in Tulsa market |url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-kilgore-news-herald-sakowitz-in-tuls/135125030/ |access-date=13 November 2023 |work=The Kilgore News Herald |date=7 March 1984 |pages=8}}

Some of the new sububrban stores were designated as the "Sakowitz II" format, essentially junior department stores, smaller in scale and targeting markets within a {{cvt|3 to 5|mile|0|adj=on}} radius of each store, rather than {{cvt|5 to 20|mile|0|adj=on}} like full-line stores did. The Champions Village store was the first in 1978; another in Clear Lake City (a.k.a. Ports O'Call or NASA), followed in 1979.Such locations included Champions Village in Northwest Houston, and near NASA.{{cite news|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Cy4EAAAAMBAJ&q=Sakowitz+Store++history++Clear+Lake+City+houston&pg=PA154|title=Buck horns in on yuletide shopping at ritzy store|accessdate=2009-10-23|work=The Deseret News|date=May 1980}}

There were purposefully no floor-to-ceiling walls in the Sakowitz II stores, and salespeople could wait on customers in different parts of the stores – men's, women's and children's; apparel, accessories and shoes. The smaller stores followed what Sakowitz's "I.D.A."merchandising strategy: innovational, directional and acceptational. Innovational fashion at the store's center, directional areas radiate from there, and acceptational merchandise lined the edges.

By 1985, Sakowitz stores all together totalled {{cvt|1100000|sqft|0}} in area. That year, an overextended Sakowitz filed for bankruptcy, and as part of the plan, they closed or sold off all the stores outside Greater Houston, as well as the {{cvt|225000|sqft|0|adj=on}} downtown Houston store and the Gulfgate Mall location. Four profitable stores remained, all in suburban Houston:{{cite news |last1=Reinhold |first1=Robert |last2=Times |first2=Special To the New York |title=THE DOWNFALL OF SAKOWITZ |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1985/08/02/business/the-downfall-of-sakowitz.html |access-date=13 November 2023 |work=The New York Times |date=2 August 1985}} Post Oak, Town & Country, and two smaller stores at Clear View (NASA Road) and Champions.

In the late 1980s, Australian developer L. J. Hooker proposed an upscale mall in suburban Cincinnati, Ohio, Forest Fair Mall, now Forest Fair Village. Hooker's plans called for Sakowitz to be one of the mall's anchor stores, along with B. Altman and Bonwit Teller, two upscale chains based in New York City.

In 1988, Hooker purchased controlling interest in all three chains so that they could open locations at the new mall and a number of other malls that it had already planned or envisioned, including the proposed Lake Fair Mall in Tampa, Florida,{{cite news |title=Bankruptcies maul projects // LJ Hooker abandons mall plans |url=https://www.tampabay.com/archive/1990/01/17/bankruptcies-maul-projects-lj-hooker-abandons-mall-plans/ |access-date=13 November 2023 |work=Tampa Bay Times |language=en}} as well as two New York State malls, Carousel Plaza (now Destiny USA) in Syracuse,{{cite news |title=Pyramid may be facing competition for Bonwit |url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-buffalo-news-pyramid-may-be-facing-c/135122468/ |access-date=13 November 2023 |work=The Buffalo News |date=13 March 1990 |pages=18}}{{cite news |title=Sale of Bonwit seen not affecting Galleria unit |first=James T. | last=Mador |url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-buffalo-news-sale-of-bonwit-seen-not/135122365/ |access-date=13 November 2023 |work=The Buffalo News |date=8 December 1989 |pages=6}} and Walden Galleria in suburban Buffalo. Sakowitz opened its store there on March 31, 1989.{{cite news |title=Sakowitz a long way from Texas |url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-cincinnati-enquirer-sakowitz-a-long/135121868/ |access-date=13 November 2023 |work=The Cincinnati Enquirer |date=31 March 1989 |pages=43}}

Only a few months after opening the Cincinnati mall with three of its department store, on August 9, 1989, Hooker filed for bankruptcy, due to debt accrued from its U.S. expansion.{{cite news|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/26384367/|title=Hooker wants OK to close 3 Forest Fair Mall stores|last=Josten|first=Margaret|date=August 4, 1990|work=The Cincinnati Enquirer|pages=A1, [https://www.newspapers.com/clip/26412343/ A4]|access-date=February 19, 2018|archive-date=February 19, 2022|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220219012519/https://www.newspapers.com/clip/26384367/the-cincinnati-enquirer/|url-status=live}} sold B. Altman back to its former owner, but proceeded to liquidate both Bonwit Teller and Sakowitz.{{cite web |url=http://www.icsc.org/srch/sct/sct0103/page1c.php |title=Forest Fair finds a savior in Mills Corp. |access-date=2007-12-13 |last=Mitchell |first=Donna |date=January 2003 |work=ICSC.org |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070930201514/http://www.icsc.org/srch/sct/sct0103/page1c.php |archive-date=2007-09-30 }}

Over the course of 1990, all Sakowitz locations were closed, along with the Bonwit Teller and B. Altman chains.{{cite web |url=https://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9C0CE5DF143DF936A15756C0A966958260 |title=Sakowitz Stores To Be Auctioned |accessdate=2007-12-13 |date=1990-05-25 |work=The New York Times}}

Starting in 1976 originally Evans Fur Company leased Sakowitz' fur salons with Jerry Gronauer as manager. In 1986, Gronauer left Evans and started leasing the salon space from Sakowitz himself, and with his son, and the Gronauers continue to operate in a store near the old Post Oak Sakowitz store.{{cite web |title=Jerry Gronauer Owner of Sakowitz Furs |url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L_W7Dtsr4fM |website=YouTube |access-date=13 November 2023 |language=en}}

*full-line department store

{{Reflist}}

{{Portal|Texas|Companies}}

• [http://www.sakowitzfurs.net/ Sakowitz Furs]
• [https://sakowitzfurs.net/about-us/ About Sakowitz Furs]
• Gonzalez, J.R. "[http://blogs.chron.com/bayoucityhistory/2009/12/ever_shopped_at_sakowitz.html Ever shopped at Sakowitz?]." Houston Chronicle. December 18, 2009.

Category:Retail companies established in 1902

Category:Companies based in Houston

Category:Defunct department stores based in Texas

Category:Defunct companies based in Texas

Category:1902 establishments in Texas

Category:Retail companies disestablished in 1990

Category:1990 disestablishments in Texas

Category:Lists of department store branches by company