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?
6 Responses to “Remembering Rileys”
By Phoebe Froggatt Brubaker on Nov 14, 2008
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
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
By Christine Bagwell on Nov 17, 2008
By Sarah on Nov 17, 2008
By David Middlecamp on Nov 17, 2008