Originally published in 2006; expanded and updated in 2026.
Macy’s arrived in the Bay Area long before the suburban mall era, establishing its San Francisco presence in 1945 with the acquisition of O’Connor, Moffatt & Co. From that downtown foundation, it expanded outward for the next half-century, first through acquisitions and later as a defining anchor of the region’s new shopping centers.
As the postwar suburbs grew, Macy’s became closely tied to the development of enclosed malls across Northern California. In many cases, it did not simply occupy space in these centers—it arrived with them, helping establish the commercial cores around which new communities formed. Malls like Valley Fair, Bay Fair, and Stoneridge were not just locations of Macy’s stores; they were part of the same development wave that reshaped the Bay Area itself.
By the mid-1990s, that system was already under strain. The region had too much retail space, too many overlapping shopping centers, and a department store model that was beginning to contract. The 1995 acquisition of Emporium-Capwell by Federated Department Stores marked a turning point, triggering a rapid expansion of Macy’s presence through consolidation rather than growth.
What followed was a shift from expansion to absorption, and eventually to retreat—tracking the broader decline of the enclosed mall era across the region.
Downtown roots (1945-1953)
Macy’s established its Bay Area presence through acquisition rather than construction. In 1945, it acquired O’Connor, Moffatt & Co. in downtown San Francisco, folding a well-established local institution into the national Macy’s brand. The store was fully rebranded by 1947, anchoring Macy’s in the city’s retail core.
From this base, Macy’s expanded outward through further acquisitions. In 1953 it absorbed Albert’s department stores in San Rafael and Richmond, bringing both locations into the Macy’s network on February 24 of that year.
The San Rafael store at 4th and Court remained in operation until January 1996, ultimately closing during Macy’s post–Emporium-Capwell consolidation.
The Richmond location at 10th and Macdonald closed much earlier, on January 6, 1973, as Macy’s shifted its East Bay strategy toward newer suburban developments such as Hilltop Mall, which would open nearby in 1976.
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| Vintage newspaper ad announcing the February 24, 1953 conversion of Albert's department stores in San Rafael and Richmond into Macy’s—marking Macy’s earliest presence in the North Bay. |
Building suburbia (1954–1971)
Macy’s suburban expansion began in the mid-1950s, marking a shift from inherited downtown stores to purpose-built anchors in planned shopping centers.
The first of these opened at Hillsdale Shopping Center in San Mateo in 1954, signaling a new model: Macy’s as a co-developer of retail environments rather than just a tenant.
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| Grand opening ad for Macy’s Hillsdale in the San Francisco Chronicle, November 17, 1954. This marked Macy’s first major expansion into the Peninsula, introducing its signature New York-style department store experience to San Mateo County. |
That approach quickly accelerated. Valley Fair followed in 1956 in San Jose, helping establish the department-store-as-anchor model that would define Northern California suburban retail. Bay Fair in San Leandro opened in 1957, reinforcing the pattern of malls and anchors developing in tandem.
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| Grand opening of Macy’s at Valley Fair Mall in San Jose, August 10, 1956. Under the slogan “All for You,” a smiling family gestures proudly as a man cuts the ribbon, marking the debut of one of the first suburban Macy’s stores in California. |
By 1961, Macy’s expanded into Stanford Shopping Center in Palo Alto, joining The Emporium and highlighting the competitive clustering of major department stores within the same regional centers.
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| Grand opening ad for Macy’s at Stanford Shopping Center, October 12, 1961. “Meet the freshman of the Macy family,” the ad announces, with a college-themed illustration of a woman riding in a Macy’s-branded wagon pulled by a cheerful co-ed—introducing Macy’s to the heart of the Stanford campus community. |
The late 1960s brought another wave of regional mall growth. Macy’s opened at Sunvalley in Concord and Del Monte Center in Monterey in 1967, followed by Serramonte in Daly City in 1968. Although originally considered for Westlake Shopping Center, Macy’s ultimately aligned itself with the enclosed mall trend that was reshaping suburban retail.
By 1971, the scale of these stores had grown significantly, with Eastridge in San Jose opening as a 186,500-square-foot regional anchor.
The mall boom years (1976–1985)
By the mid-1970s, Macy’s expansion was fully integrated into the regional mall boom.
Hilltop Mall in Richmond opened in 1976, with Macy’s relocating from downtown. This marked a broader shift away from urban retail cores toward large enclosed suburban centers.
Oakridge followed in 1978, and Sunnyvale Town Center in 1979, embedding Macy’s in rapidly growing South Bay commercial corridors.
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| Grand opening ad for Macy’s at Sunnyvale Town Center, dated September 27, 1979. Children were invited to leave their handprints in fresh concrete as part of the celebration; a tradition they'd carry through the 1980s. The store served the community for 40 years before closing in 2019, marking the end of an era for downtown Sunnyvale retail. |
The early 1980s continued this pattern at scale. Macy’s opened at NewPark Mall in Newark and Stoneridge Mall in Pleasanton in 1980, followed by Santa Rosa Plaza in 1981, extending its reach deeper into Sonoma County.
By the mid-1980s, the expansion wave was nearing its end. Macy’s opened at Solano Mall in Fairfield in 1985, and later that year at the Village at Corte Madera. The opening included promotional ceremonies such as handprints in fresh cement—symbolic of permanence during a period when the retail model still appeared to be expanding.
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| Grand opening two-page ad for Macy’s at The Village at Corte Madera, August 15, 1985. With the slogan “It’s the place to be,” the playful image shows a stylish woman with short ’80s hair tugging the tie of a man in glasses—capturing the fun, fashion-forward energy of Macy’s newest North Bay store. |
The great consolidation (1995–1997)
By the mid-1990s, the department store landscape was already under strain. Analysts estimated the U.S. had far more retail space than demand could sustain. In Northern California, earlier closures like Bullock’s and Liberty House signaled the beginning of a larger contraction.
The defining moment came in 1995 when Federated Department Stores acquired Broadway Stores, including Emporium-Capwell. By 1996, Emporium-Capwell had disappeared, replaced by Macy’s across the region. The transition was not a simple rename—it was a mass absorption that placed dozens of new Macy’s stores into existing malls, often creating overlapping locations.
Stonestown in San Francisco became Macy’s in 1996 directly from Emporium-Capwell.
In Walnut Creek, Broadway Plaza converted to Macy’s, while a second Macy’s operated in the former I. Magnin building nearby until its later closure after consolidation.
In Santa Rosa, Coddingtown was converted to Macy’s, alongside the existing Macy’s Clearance Center at the mall.
In Cupertino, the Vallco location reopened first as a clearance center in 1997 before becoming a full-line store in 1998.
At Stoneridge and Sunvalley, consolidation reinforced Macy’s presence across already-established regional retail nodes, sometimes resulting in multiple Macy’s locations within the same broader market area.
The last expansion (2002–2004)
By the early 2000s, Macy’s growth had largely shifted from expansion to replacement.
Macy’s Capitola opened in 2002 at Capitola Mall, taking over the former JCPenney space.
Macy’s Antioch followed in 2004 at Somersville Towne Center, also replacing JCPenney. It closed in 2020, part of the next wave of suburban retail contraction.
The retreat and what remains
By the late 1990s, Macy’s Bay Area footprint had already peaked. What followed over the next two decades was not expansion, but gradual withdrawal from the suburban mall system it had helped define.
Store by store, the regional network began to thin. Sunnyvale closed in 2019, followed by Antioch in 2020 and Hilltop in 2021. Bay Fair, once one of the earliest postwar suburban anchors, closed in 2024. NewPark and Corte Madera followed in 2025. Each closure marked not just the end of a store, but the erosion of a specific kind of retail geography—one built around enclosed malls, regional driving patterns, and long anchor tenancy.
What remains is a smaller, more fragmented Macy’s presence across the Bay Area, no longer expanding outward but consolidating inward, concentrated in fewer locations and larger catchment areas.
Seen in full, the pattern is less about a single company declining than a landscape changing shape around it. Macy’s once followed the growth of the Bay Area—downtown cores, then suburbs, then regional malls stitched across counties. Now it moves through the afterimage of that system, occupying the spaces left behind.
The stores are fewer, but the footprint still traces the outline of how the region once grew.
Macy's stores
- Union Square (1945) - Acquired when Macy's bought O'Connor, Moffatt, & Company. The store was rebranded as Macy's in 1947. The store got larger by the consolidation of I. Magnin, and the purchasing of the old Liberty House across the street, now Macy's Men's store.
- San Rafael (1953-1996) - A former Albert's store that became Macy's on February 24, 1953. It was located at 4th and Court in San Rafael. Closed January 1996.
- Richmond (1953-1973) - A former Albert's store that became Macy's on February 24, 1953. It was located at 10th and Macdonald in Richmond. Closed January 6, 1973.
- Hillsdale (1954) - Opened November 18, 1954 at Hillsdale Mall in San Mateo.
- Valley Fair (1956) - Opened August 10, 1956 at Valley Fair Mall in San Jose.
- Bay Fair (1957-2024) - Opened August 8, 1957 at Bayfair Mall in San Leandro. It closed January 2024.
- Stanford (1961) - Opened October 12, 1961 at Stanford Shopping Center in Palo Alto.
- Sunvalley (1967) - Opened August 17, 1967 at Sunvalley Mall in Concord. A second store opened in 1996 in the former Emporium-Capwell.
- Monterey (1967) - Opened September 15, 1967 at Del Monte Center in Monterey.
- Serramonte (1968) - Opened October 3, 1968 at Serramonte Mall in Daly City.
- Eastridge (1971) - Opened August 12, 1971 at Eastridge Mall in San Jose.
- Hilltop (1976-2021) - Opened September 2, 1976 at Hilltop Mall in Richmond. It relocated to the former Capwell's store in 1998 after it was acquired in 1996. Closed March 2021.
- Oakridge (1978) - Opened August 23, 1978 at Oakridge Mall in San Jose.
- Sunnyvale (1979-2019) - Opened September 27, 1979 at Sunnyvale Town Center in Sunnyvale. Closed in 2019.
- Newark (1980-2025) - Opened August 6, 1980 at NewPark Mall in Newark. Closed March 2025.
- Pleasanton (1980) - Opened on September 4, 1980 at Stoneridge Mall in Pleasanton. A second store opened in 1996, replacing Emporium-Capwell.
- Santa Rosa (1981) - Opened August 8, 1981 at Santa Rosa Plaza in Santa Rosa.
- Fairfield (1985) - Opened August 1985 at Solano Mall in Fairfield.
- Corte Madera (1985-2025) - Opened August 15, 1985 at the Village at Corte Madera in Corte Madera. Closed March 2025.
- Stonestown (1996-2018) - Converted in 1996 from Emporium-Capwell. Closed March 2018.
- Broadway Plaza (1996) - Converted in 1996 from Emporium-Capwell. Macy's also operated a second Walnut Creek location in the former I. Magnin building, which closed in 2015 after Macy's enlarged this location.
- Coddington (1996) - Converted in 1996 from Emporium-Capwell.
- Southland (1996) - Converted in 1996 from Emporium-Capwell.
- Cupertino (1997-2015) - Converted from Emporium-Capwell in July 1997 to a clearance center. Became a full-line store in 1998. Closed March 15, 2015.
- Capitola (2002) - Opened April 2002 in the site formerly occupied by JCPenney at Capitola Mall.
- Antioch (2004-2020) - Opened 2004 at Somersville Towne Center in Antioch, replacing the former JCPenney. Closed in 2020.
Comments
Hillsdale was actually the first Bay Area Macys opened from scratch. SF's was originally O'Connor & Moffat until Macys bought them the late 40's.
San Rafael and Richmond's were a small retailer named Albert's that had been acquired around 1952. And small stores they both were, as I remember ads with the disclaimer "All Macys except Richmond and San Rafael", usually for big ticket items they didn't carry. Richmond closed in 1973, but Downtown San Rafael hung in there until Federated's purchase of Emporium in '96; though in it's last years in was just a "home store".
Because Macys was relatively new to the region, I guess they thought buying out small community based stores was less risky. In fact, I read that they were looking at such a store in Downtown San Jose before deciding to do Valley Fair from scratch instead.
The Richmond store was originally quite larger than San Rafael's, having been assembled from several buildings in the same block at 10th and Macdonald Ave. My earliest recollections from the early 60's was that it carried most things except furniture and large appliances. However, I later saw old ads from the 50's indicating that at one time it carried those items as well(where they found room to put them is unknown)
The Richmond Macys also had a coffee shop that you could smell throughout most of the first floor.
But as you said, the store declined rapidly due to competition from the El Cerrito Plaza and as Downtown Richmond was no longer seen as a safe place to be. There was a big riot there in the late 60's after which things pretty much started shutting down. It was during this period that the "except Richmond" disclaimers started outnumbering San Rafael's
Still, by 1970 Macys, Penneys, and several other chains were still around, but by then Macys was down to one level and even a third of that was closed off. As soon as plans for Hilltop Mall were announced, Macys closed the downtown store even though Hilltop wouldn't open for three more years.
In contrast, JC Penney not only stayed Downtown until Hilltop opened but even remained for over a year after that, giving Richmond the brief distinction of having TWO Penney stores.
San Rafael did indeed expand into the Penneys next door and across the street into what I think had been a Woolworths. But even with those expansions, it still couldn't shake the occaisonal "All Macys except San Rafael" disclaimer. The opening of the Corte Madera store in the 80's would eventually convert San Rafael into just a home store, but when Federated took over Emporium and Macys got a store at Northgate Mall, Downtown San Rafael's Macys was finally put to bed.
Its found at archive.org; here's the link:
http://www.archive.org/details/Shopping1957