 Hooker and its chief executive officer, George Herscu, purchased the controlling interest in the B. Altman stores (as well as Bonwit Teller, Sakowitz and a majority of Parisian) to use these chains as anchors in poorly located, yet extravagant, new shopping centers across the country.With Hooker and Herscu knowing virtually nothing about how to operate these various retail chains, and then placing them in locations with no regard for market recognition or demographics, their strategy failed miserably, and in August 1989 B. Altman filed for bankruptcy protection, with the last store closing in 1990.The suburban Buffalo location at the huge Walden Galleria complex was, in fact, fully completed and fixtured but never occupied by Altman's.