White Front was a chain of discount department stores in Southern California and the western United States from 1959 through the mid-1970s. The stores were noted for the architecture of their store fronts which was an enormous, sweeping archway with the store name spelled in individual letters fanned across the top.
History
The name White Front was said to refer to the practice of lining up appliances like washers, dryers and stoves in front of the store, giving it a "white front." Another feature of each store was that each had a separate key booth located in the parking lot. In 1929, the company was founded and opened its first store at 7651 S. Central Avenue in Florence, South Los Angeles In 1950 it expanded this store. In advertisements it explained that its location was in a “low rent area”. Its second store opened in October 1957 at 16040 Sherman Way in Van Nuys. In April 1959, the two stores were acquired by Interstate Department Stores, Inc., for $1,650,000 in cash and shares. Interstate expanded the chain to other California locations and broadened its retail mix beyond the original housewares. In September 1960, Interstate also acquired Topps, which at the time had 10 stores. For several years, White Front was the leading discount store in the U.S.
Entering the Portland market
In 1970, the company made an abortive attempt to expand into Oregon at the Mall 205 in Portland, Oregon. A television ad campaign to introduce the store featured Allen Ludden of Password fame. The Portland store failed largely due to complications with coordinating sale ads printed in Southern California with deliveries of the advertised merchandise to Portland. White Front lacked a distribution warehouse outside of California, which caused logistics problems. Frustrated by the inability to buy advertised specials at the remote suburban store, traffic diminished, numerous complaints were filed, and the store closed in 1974.
Entering the Puget Sound market
White Front entered the Seattle/Tacoma market on October 19, 1967, with the North Seattle location in a 155,000-square-foot building and a parking lot with a capacity for 1,000 vehicles. The grand opening was hosted by the stars of Petticoat Junction, Howard Duff, and Sharon Vaughn, the former Miss Washington of 1958, who was known as Miss White Front for the opening. It was televised live for three hours on KING-TV. Four additional stores were built in high-traffic areas in Burien, Tacoma, Bellevue, and Everett. All but the Everett location were closed by January 19, 1973. The last ad for White Front appeared in The Seattle Times on December 9, 1972. The Everett and Portland stores remained open while the remaining stores' merchandise was liquidated until February 1973. According to a December 14 article in The Seattle Times, the company stated that "the five stores hadn't begun to turn a profit". Due to the struggling economy of the "Boeing Bust" of the late 1960s and early 1970s, this could have played a role in the downturn of the chain in the area as well as the lack of a local distribution center. Three of the four closed stores were acquired by Weisfields to become Valu-Mart/Leslie's stores by the end of 1973. The grocery sections were leased to Associated Grocers. The Tacoma store had seen many ownership changes: first as a Valu-Mart/Leslie's store, later a Jafco and then a Best store. The Burien store became the flagship store for Valu-Mart/Leslie's. It was acquired from White Front in February 1973. The Burien location is one of the larger stores in the Fred Meyer chain. The North Seattle store became a Kmart. The Everett store was integrated into Everett Mall in 1977 to become a Bon Marché and then Macy's. The Bellevue store was acquired by Valu-Mart/Leslie's in November 1973 and became a Fred Meyer as well. The towering store signs used for the locations remain visible at the North Seattle and Tacoma sites. Another cause for its failure in the area could have been that the stores were too close to competing discount chains such as Gov-Mart/Baza'r, Valu-Mart, and House of Values, which had a stronger presence in the area and were locally owned. Stores built before 1970 contained a "Discount Foods" grocery store department. People complained of high prices in the grocery section. Safeway Inc. took ownership of the grocery section in some markets, and newer-design stores, such as those in Everett and Bellevue that were built without the arch, also did not have a grocery store.
Bankruptcy
In 1966, Interstate acquired the toy store chain Children's Supermart, predecessor of Toys "R" Us, which is the only survivor of the company. White Front was closed after Interstate filed for bankruptcy in 1974. Some of the locations were changed to Two Guys, another discount chain. Two Guys soon failed as well, and the stores became relabeled as FedMart stores, which eventually were purchased by Target. The Target store in San Bernardino, California sported the archway across its facade for many years until a recent remodeling. The White Front store on California Avenue in Bakersfield, California, was taken over by Zody's. Later it was purchased and remodeled by Mervyns, which soon went out of business. A number of independent local pharmacies continue to carry the White Front name in Costa Mesa and elsewhere, having inherited it from their former host stores, but are otherwise unrelated.
