Wise Company

On July 28, 1902, he opened "The Cash Store" grocery in 27-by-75-foot (2,200 sq ft (200 m2)) quarters that W. H. Wise rented for $30/month at Pine and First street (later the site of the Bank of Italy).

[4] The Long Beach Press-Telegram already called the 1925 building "splendid" and "one of the finest department stores on the Southern California Coast".

Buffums department store, the Independent and the Press-Telegram newspapers saw the prominent nearly-empty building as a negative influence on the overall economic health of the retail core and central business district in general.

The almost disgraceful misuse of the fine structure carrying his respected name over the last quarter century has proved an utter waste of an excellent property and a blot on all Downtown Long BeachThe building had multiple owners at that point.

John sold to Belcher Investments, who formed a syndicate with Buffums and the two newspapers and gained an option agreement with National Dollar Stores which would give them control over the western portion should they find a major retail anchor tenant for the building.

[10] May Company Lakewood alone was larger than Downtown Long Beach's Buffums, which in the first half of the twentieth century had been such a protagonist of civic pride.

[11] In addition to growing and running his retail business, W. H. "Herb" Wise had served as the head of the Long Beach Merchants' Association and of its Rotary Club.