Boston Stores (California department store)

Ghost Corp Apparel — resurrecting iconic corporate ghosts.

Boston Stores began in 1934, when Ira Kaufman opened a single store in downtown Inglewood, California. Often called The Boston Store, it grew as a distinctly Southern California junior department-store chain: approachable neighborhood locations, recognizable national brands, and none of the intimidating mega-emporium energy.

Its stores tended to be smaller than full-scale mall department stores, serving communities that were distant from, or underserved by, the region’s big retail centers. The chain expanded through Southern California and into Arizona; by 1990, it had approximately 20 stores, including 14 in California and six in Arizona. That year, its headquarters moved from Inglewood to Carson, California.

Boston Stores also accumulated local retail lore. It acquired Myers Whittier in 1972 and changed its Whittier stores to the Boston Stores name in 1976. In 1984, Donald Kaufman led a management buyout and the company acquired Wineman’s; in 1990 it purchased Moore’s Department Store in Lompoc. Growth came with debt, because apparently retail expansion never met a spreadsheet it could not challenge.

The company sought Chapter 11 protection in 1992, closed stores, and liquidated its remaining locations in 1996. Our Boston Stores (California department store) collection celebrates the neighborhood-chain confidence, regional ambition, and gloriously vanished signage of this Inglewood-born retail ghost.