Gala-Sears

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Gala-Sears
TypeSubsidiary
IndustryRetail
Founded20 May 1980
Defunct16 September 1983
Headquarters
Santiago
,
Chile
Number of locations
5 (1983)
Area served
Chile
Products
  • Clothing
  • footwear
  • bedding
  • furniture
  • jewelry
  • beauty products
  • appliances
  • housewares
  • tools
  • electronics

Gala-Sears (Grandes ALmacenes de América-Sears) was the subsidiary of Sears Roebuck in Chile, which formally began operations on April 2, 1982, the day after the opening of Mall Parque Arauco.[1] It was one of the first international commercial ventures that retired from the country after few years of failures and economic losses.[2][3][4][5]

History[]

Parque Arauco store map (1982).

On May 20, 1980, the company "Grandes Almacenes de América Gala Limitada" (Gala Ltda.) was constituted, formed by "Sociedad Comercial Fontana Limitada" (linked to the businessman , owner of the supermarket chain Almac and later founder of Distribución & Servicio),[6] "Compañía de Inversiones Golfo Pérsico S.A.", and Jaime Francos Ringer (who subsequently would form the company "Importadora y Comercializadora Francos Limitada").[7] Its initial capital was of 1 million dollars.[8]

In December 1981, "Comercializadora de Bienes y Servicios de Grandes Tiendas Sociedad Limitada" joined the company.[9] On May 11, 1982, the company was incorporated.[10]

Among the novelties presented by Gala-Sears at the time of its opening in Parque Arauco was the distribution of its sections inside the store, generating a hexagonal arrangement that contained the storage spaces in the 4 corners generated by said form within the enclosure built in order to favor a quick replacement of the products;[11] it also introduced the mail order catalog through the possibility that customers acquired the US catalog of Sears to make their purchases at home,[12] and presented one of the first department store credit cards in Chile.[13] During the following months it opened some stores —called «satellites»— of smaller surface and variety of products, installed in the center of Santiago, Providencia and Ñuñoa; all of them were closing at the beginning of 1983, leaving only the store of the Parque Arauco shopping center; the store at Plaza Lyon was later replaced by Almacenes París.[14]

Gala logo, May-September 1983.

The store —from May 1983 called simply "Gala", after Sears decided to withdraw from the commercial society— closed its doors definitively on September 16, 1983 because it went bankrupt and did not capture the taste and custom of the Chilean consumer in those years;[15][16] also, the company was in retreat from the Latin American market.[17] In October of that year Gala disappeared from the retail scene and replaced by Falabella, which acquired the department store chain as a strategy to reach upper-class.[18][19]

Stores[]

Location of Ñuñoa satellite store, currently occupied by an Express de Líder supermarket.
  • Parque Arauco Shopping Center
  • Satellite stores:
    • Santiago Centro: San Antonio 53-L, store 100-C
    • Providencia: Providencia Avenue 2178
    • Ñuñoa: Irarrázaval 2353
    • Plaza Lyon: Nueva Providencia 2235, store 105

References[]

  1. ^ "Hoy, los chilenos pueden nacer, estudiar y casarse en un mall". Economía y Negocios (in Spanish). 17 April 2011. Retrieved 16 May 2019.
  2. ^ "The Globalization of Chilean Retailing". Knowledge@Wharton. 12 December 2007. Retrieved 16 May 2019.
  3. ^ Enrique Vergara (2018). "Modernity and media construction of consumption. An approach to Mall Parque Arauco's strategies". Comunicación y Medios. Retrieved 16 May 2019.
  4. ^ "Chile Retail Market". Latin American Retail Connection. Retrieved 16 May 2019.
  5. ^ "Multinacionales que han fracasado en Chile" (PDF). Pulso (in Spanish). 7 May 2014. Archived from the original (PDF) on 16 May 2019.
  6. ^ "La revolución del retail en Chile". Qué Pasa (in Spanish). 9 September 2007. Archived from the original on 30 April 2019. Retrieved 30 April 2019.
  7. ^ "Constitución Gala Ltda". Diario Oficial de la República de Chile (in Spanish). 4 July 1980. Retrieved 25 January 2018.
  8. ^ Corporación de Fomento de la Producción (October 1980). "Sears to Open in Santiago". Chile Economic News. Retrieved 7 June 2020.
  9. ^ "Extracto Modificación". Diario Oficial de la República de Chile (in Spanish). 7 January 1982. Retrieved 25 January 2018.
  10. ^ "Extracto escritura constitución Sociedad Anónima". Diario Oficial de la República de Chile (in Spanish). 14 May 1982. Retrieved 25 January 2018.
  11. ^ Centro Internacional De Compras con Sabor y Estilo Chilenos. El Mercurio (in Spanish). 3 April 1982.
  12. ^ Descubra una forma de comprar... por catálogo. El Mercurio (in Spanish). 3 June 1982.
  13. ^ Liliana de Simone. "Evoluciones e Hibridaciones de las tipologías comerciales en Santiago de Chile". Metamall (in Spanish). Retrieved 16 May 2019.
  14. ^ Arturo Scheidegger & Ignacio García Partarrieu. "Santiago: Híbridos Metropolitanos" (PDF) (in Spanish). Retrieved 16 May 2019.
  15. ^ Álvaro Ibáñez. "Revisión histórica del mall". Formación y reproducción del espacio (pseudo-público) mall en Santiago (in Spanish). Retrieved 16 May 2019.
  16. ^ Gala se acabó. El Mercurio (in Spanish). 14 September 1983.
  17. ^ "Metamorfosis". Capital (in Spanish). 14 March 2012. Retrieved 16 May 2019.
  18. ^ "Quién es Carlo, el menor de los Solari Donaggio que entra al directorio de Falabella". La Segunda (in Spanish). 29 December 2010. Retrieved 25 January 2018.
  19. ^ "El rincón juvenil, la compra de Gala Sears y relanzar su haras: tres episodios en la vida empresarial de María Luisa Solari". Economía y Negocios (in Spanish). 8 November 2015. Retrieved 16 May 2019.

External links[]

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