Look Out, Now!

Rich, mass-selling R. H. Macy & Co., Inc. has long yearned for a West Coast anchor for its department-store chain (eight stores in seven U.S. cities). Last week it got one: San Francisco's sedate, pioneer O'Connor, Moffatt & Co.

In a quiet exchange of stock (three shares of Macy common for four of O'C.M.'s class B), Macy's acquired a reasonably new (1929), eight-story-and-basement building at Stockton and O'Farrell streets, just a block off San Francisco's well-beaten shopping triangle, plus valuable adjoining frontage on nearby Union Square. It also acquired a reputation for stodgy merchandising.

Catering to San Francisco's upper middle class, paternalistic, 79-year-old O'Connor, Moffatt's has displayed its wares in a subdued, take-it-or-leave-it fashion, seldom allowed promotion to go beyond coy plugs for its bridal department, shied shudderingly from any stock line, ad, or antic smacking of the sensational. Example: last year O'C.M. turned down an Adrian-designed dress line as "too Hollywood"; the rival City of Paris across the street snapped it up, did handsomely.

No More Children. By clinging tightly to its determinedly loyal following, O'Connor, Moffatt's has managed to pay off most of the debt from its new building, even to prosper with the tide of Bay Area war money. But ruddy, O'C.M. President Joseph V. Costello, who knew lean days in prewar San Francisco, decided to sell out. Reason: in his 60s, President Costello has only one nephew who is interested in the business. Said a competitor: "This was a good time to sell. It's just one of those deals where the family finally runs out of children."

Rival department stores heard of Macy's imminent arrival last week with understandable alarm. The Macy name will replace O'Connor, Moffatt when the new building is up and other improvements made. Presumably, the aggressive Macy technique, which is as colorful as O'C.M.'s was subdued, will promptly introduce display, promotion, and advertising fireworks of a kind conservative San Francisco has never seen.

Gloomed venerable Abraham Livingston Gump, head of famed, luxury-lined S. G. Gump & Co.: "Say, we had better look out, now!"

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