Prior to liquidation, it was the largest independently owned, publicly traded department store chain in the United States.

In a strategy to win over teenage baby-boomers, Gottschalks launched Bobbie West, a chain of junior apparel stores, in the late 1960s.

Gottschalks gained success by locating only in smaller cities that could not support full-size national department stores.

This tactic kept Gottschalks' overhead low by allowing it to build smaller (80,000- to 110,000-square-foot), single-level stores with lower real estate costs.

The chief executives of Gottschalks, Inc. following the death of Emil Gottschalk: Presidents/chief operating officers who served after Irving Levy's death in 1981: Abe Blum (died 1963) had a degree in electrical engineering from Rutgers University, and was responsible for installing one of Fresno's first air conditioning systems and was among the first retailers in the area to accept bank credit cards.

The company installed electronic point of sale (POS) "wands" that read bar codes and store credit cards.

The exception was the Alaska market, where sales were strong and only one store, Wasilla, was closed prior to the company's shutdown.

In Washington state, the remaining Gottschalks locations had succeeded in rural and suburban areas with less competition from other department stores.

NYSE officials stated that the value of the stock was too low to continue to be listed, and that its average global market capitalization had remained below $25 million for 30 straight trading days.