Remembering Rileys
November 14, 2008 – 8:00 am
Former owner Ross Humphrey, left, and tearful manager Kim Humphrey thanked staff Sunday at closing time as 105 year old local department store, Rileys closed for the last time.
January 31, 1993
Rileys department store was a major shopping destination for five generations.
They were the last department store downtown and the last independent. Both J.C. Penny’s (reduced to a catalog outlet) and Sears had left downtown for Madonna Plaza a few years before. Montgomery Wards and Woolworth’s were long gone. The store that covered the block of Chorro St. between Higuera and Marsh Streets was closing.
Carol Roberts wrote the story.
Employees at Rileys were somber throughout Sunday, saying goodbye to customers and ringing up the sales that ended 105 years of history.
The tears didn’t come until after the doors closed for the last time at 5 p.m., ending a weeklong going-out-of business sale at the store that had become an institution in San Luis Obispo.
Store manager Kim Humphrey served pizza and drinks to the 40 employees who were there at the end.
“I just want to say how much I appreciate all of your help,” she sobbed, “especially this last couple of months.”
Her father, Ross Humphrey of Atascadero, and his brother Robert Humphrey of San Luis Obispo, owned the store for 30 years. They sold it five years ago to the Charles Ford Co of Watsonville.
“This is sad as hell,” said Ross Humphrey, “not only for us but all thepeople who shop here.”
Rileys opened in 1887. His family bought it in 1945. He and his brother took over in 1955.
Many employees had worked for years at the store.
Charlotte Brown, a 17-year Rileys veteran was quoted:
“The Humphreys treated us like family”, she said. “They were always there when we needed them. They always made us feel important. They never looked down their noses at sales people. We were all equal.”
My sister helped pay for college working in the house wares department. The building was separate from the main store and money had to be sent up in a pneumatic tube to cashiers who would send back the change and receipt.
The advent of freeways tilted the retail playing field to nimble big national chains. Those who could make the move to suburban shopping centers and compete in the discount shopping environment thrived.
The death knell came in the form of the Loma Prieta earthquake, which heavily damaged the Watsonville area stores of Charles Ford Co. in October 1989 leading to bankruptcy.
Tom and Jim Copeland would buy the building.
What do you remember about Rileys?
10 Responses to “Remembering Rileys”
I remember, growing up in Morro Bay, that a trip to Riley’s was a very big deal. I memorized my mom’s credicard number – 235-300- so I she didn’t know when I was charging things on it.
By Phoebe Froggatt Brubaker on Nov 14, 2008
I remember Rileys very well. Before school started each year, my mother brought her four young children to Rileys where we each got to buy one new school dress (or pants and a shirt for my brother) and one new pair of shoes. It was really exciting because it WAS a “very big deal,” as Phoebe Froggatt Brubaker said. We got to choose our one bought outfit of the year (we were a hand-me-down family).
But my favorite memory of Rileys occurred when I was maybe eight or nine. Mom was a hat person – she looked gorgeous in any hat she wore. We had all seen photos of her in her many sophisticated hats in New York City in the 1940s before we all came along. We often went to Rileys for household things or gifts and sometimes I got to tag along. But no matter what our errand at Rileys was, we always wound up at the millinery on the second floor. Mom would wander through the area, trying on various hats while I followed like a puppy. I’d watch her transform herself into someone else with each new hat. But she always put them carefully back on their stands, and walked away without buying one. For some reason I held on to that image, and it was a few years before I realized that she simply couldn’t buy one at that stage of her life. Today, even at 88, she still looks lovely in a hat.
By Hazel Culbertson Daniels on Nov 14, 2008
At the end of every August, and after all the profits from the animals we sold at the Fair was added up, the Medzyk clan would descend en mass on Rileys for our back-to-school shopping.
My very first “real” suit, a Pierre Cardin, came from Rileys. Being a strong Boy Scout family, getting Scouting supplies there was also a planned invasion by us boys and Dad.
Progress? I’ll need more convincing.
By SSG David Medzyk on Nov 14, 2008
If you needed something really nice, you would go to Riley’s. It was also a good place for a wedding present. SLO town residents just don’t understand that we had no mall ‘back in the day’ and Santa Barbara was a long car ride away. You would always bump into someone you knew while shopping. I have fond memories of seeing my grandma there unplanned.
By Christine Bagwell on Nov 17, 2008
Ir’s always a shame to see a family business and a community institution go under. I wonder how Rileys would have survived in this current economic morass, when retail giants like Mervyns and Linens N Things are falling just as fast as the little guys.
By Sarah on Nov 17, 2008
Thanks everyone for the comments…this is what I hoped the blog would be when it got started.
By David Middlecamp on Nov 17, 2008
I worked at both the slo store and morro bay in the mid-1970’s. What a grand time we had.
By meredith on Jul 20, 2010
Entering High School (at a point somewhere in the 60’s) I HAD to have a wool, Pendleton shirt (because EVERYONE ELSE had one) so Mom relented and off to Riley’s we went. Gosh, I loved that shirt and I really liked Riley’s.
Remember the Checkerboard girls?
By Hippie Rich on Jul 23, 2010
I bought a brown-and-white checkered blanket in 1976 from Rileys Department store. Ida Epperly was the sales person. She had worked at Rileys for years. I remember Ida as very friendly and helpful. The blanket came with us to Louisville in June 2000. It is a constant reminder of a great hometown department store and a friendly and helpful clerk, who made shopping at Rileys a wonderful experience in downtown San Luis Obispo.
By Bill Cattaneo on Jul 24, 2010
I used to work at Riley’s in the 80’s in High School and later while I was at Poly. I work in Domestics with Betsy and other lovely women. That place taught me such work ethic and how to have product knowledge and not to con the customer into buying something that they didn’t want. Thank you Riley’s for such good memories that there is just not enough space for.
By Kameron Hurtado on Jul 25, 2010