Gimbels Has It! (12 page)

Crowds gather at the grand opening of the Cheltenham store in Philadelphia.
Courtesy of the Temple University Libraries, Urban Archives, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
.

The Great Northeast branch in Philadelphia was among the most popular and profitable Philadelphia Gimbel stores. It was located on Cottman Avenue next to Roosevelt Mall.
Courtesy of the Temple University Libraries, Urban Archives, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
.

The three-level, 200,000-square-foot business was known as a true “neighborhood store.” Its success set the pace for all future branches, and the company made plans for further growth in the Milwaukee suburbs.

The next division to try its luck in the suburbs was Philadelphia. Gimbels chose Cheltenham Township for what Philadelphia executive Arthur C. Kaufmann called “the latest word in department store planning and construction.” The three-level, California-type store opened for business on August 29, 1955. Kaufmann stated that the Cheltenham store embodied “a symbol of Gimbels’ faith in the future.” Located at the corner of Cheltenham and Ogontz Avenues on Joseph E. Widener’s former estate, Gimbels-Cheltenham was the largest department store in the Philadelphia area, outside of Center City. For decades, Cheltenham was the strongest link in the Gimbels Philadelphia chain. It was located in a sound, stable community. Former manager Bob Di Benedetto says, “Cheltenham was the ‘King of the Stores’ at one time. It was a big store that was overbuilt. It was successful because it was located in a big strong Jewish community.” The Philadelphia division capitalized on the Cheltenham success by opening another store in the West Philadelphia community of Upper Darby. Television showman Steve Allen helped open the Upper Darby store’s doors on August 26, 1957. Gimbels said that the Upper Darby store, like its previous suburban stores, “had been designed as a full-scale department store with a blending of contemporary and traditional décor.” The adjoining Sansom Parketeria provided parking for 1,700 cars. Arthur Kaufmann called Upper Darby “the first drive-in department store in this area.” After Upper Darby came Gimbels–Great Northeast. Bruce Gimbel cut the ribbon, and seven-year-old Bailey Gimbel helped hoist the flag for the opening of the Northeast store in October 1961. The store employed over five hundred workers, and 90 percent of them were residents of Northeast Philadelphia. Former manager Diane Curley Balenti says there was always a competition between the Cheltenham and Northeast stores. “No matter what we did in Northeast, we couldn’t beat Cheltenham.” She continues, “There were a lot of Jewish [people] in the Northeast. Their homes were paid for, and you always did better in an established neighborhood than in a new neighborhood.”
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All three stores knew the communities in which they were located, and they knew their customer. It was Gimbels’ formula for success in the Philadelphia market for many years.

The Cross County Shopping Center store in Yonkers was the first Gimbels branch in the metropolitan New York area. It opened in September 1955.
Courtesy of the Milwaukee County Historical Society
.

All five New York branches were featured in a 1963
Gimbelite Magazine
article.
From top to bottom
: Cross County Center; Green Acres in Valley Stream; Bay Shore; Paramus, New Jersey; and Roosevelt Field.
Collection of the author
.

As the Philadelphia market expanded, the company was criticized for being the last major New York department store to tap into the suburban trade. Gimbels explained that it “deferred going afield until it refurbished its downtown headquarters.” Finally, just a week after the Cheltenham store celebrated its grand opening, Gimbels entered the New York suburban market. Sixty-five thousand shoppers came to the grand opening of the Cross County Shopping Center store in Yonkers on September 4, 1955. The five acres of selling space contained all the merchandise that the Thirty-third Street carried “except pianos and liquor.” Gimbels said that the new Yonkers store was “music to the ears (and budgets) of Westchesterites and Upper Bronxites.”
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It carried “everything from buttons to bassinettes, from pinafores to Paris fashions.” Macy’s chairman Jack Straus joined Gimbels chairman Bernard Gimbel on the store’s first day. Straus “fingered a garment” and said that it was good merchandise and told Bernard “but you’re crazy if you think I’ll buy it.” Straus did agree that the new Yonkers store was “beautifully done, well stocked, and in good taste.” For Barbara Gimbel, the Yonkers store sticks out as her favorite suburban store in the New York market “because it was the first!” About one year later, Gimbels established a location in the popular Long Island retail market. Gimbels Valley Stream, at the Green Acres Shopping Center, opened for business on October 11, 1956. The store said that it “carried your favorite brands at favorite prices, and its 124 departments carried everything but everything.”
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The following March, Gimbels purchased a small branch in Bay Shore from Brooklyn’s famous Namm-Loeser’s department store, which was in the process of liquidation. The forty-thousand-square-foot, two-level store developed a loyal customer base. According to former Bay Shore employee Peter D’Ambrosio, “Employees literally lived for that store.”
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D’Ambrosio also admits, “The store had quite a cast of characters come and go through there.” On September 12, 1960, Gimbels opened its first and only northern New Jersey store at the Garden State Plaza in Paramus. Through its Bamberger’s division, it was the first time Macy’s and Gimbels went head to head in the suburbs. And just to make it worse, not only was the Gimbels-Macy’s rivalry now in the suburbs, but Gimbels was also a tenant in a Macy’s-owned shopping complex.

An African American employee arranges merchandise at the Gimbels in Center City Philadelphia. Until the 1960s, many African Americans were only offered jobs as custodial workers or elevator operators at most department stores.
Collection of the author
.

Four interior views of the Gimbels at Valley Stream, Long Island.
Collection of the author
.

In 1964, children skate at the Winter Wonderland rink located on the fifth floor of the Center City Philadelphia store.
Courtesy of the Temple University Libraries, Urban Archives, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
.

The last division to make the suburban move was Pittsburgh. The company had invested in an extensive renovation of its main selling floor downtown. The design firm of Raymond Loewy not only helped to modernize the store’s facilities but also filled in the store’s balcony, creating major additions to its selling space. But the renovation did not deter from the march to Pittsburgh’s suburbs. Gimbels opened Pittsburgh’s “largest and most beautiful suburban department store” in the North Hills Shopping Center on February 21, 1957. It wasn’t Pittsburgh’s first suburban department store, but it was the first to carry all the same departments as the main store. The two-level, 138,000-square-foot North Hills store was not as large as the other suburban locations in Gimbels’ other cities. But it carried “big brands, big selections, and big bouncing bargains.” One advertisement detailed how the department store market was changing. It stated that at Gimbels North Hills, there was “no need to dress up. Just hop in the car!”
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The next suburban Pittsburgh store did not open until August 15, 1963, when Gimbels Eastland welcomed its first customers. It was “a wonder-filled new world of suburban shopping where Gimbels’ famous added measure of value takes on an added measure of convenience.”