Carol Alley, 63, went to Macy’s in...

Carol Alley, 63, went to Macy’s in West Covina on Thursday just as she had almost every week for 30 years. Inside the store, she ran her fingers over brightly colored capri pants and sparkly tank tops.

Alley, who retired in February from her job as a clothing broker, said with a smile that she came here often to get some respite from retirement.

“I get healed in here,” Alley said.

But Alley’s shopping therapy was tinged with dismay when she learned that the store would be shuttered next spring. The staff and stock will be moved to the other side of the mall to convert the Robinsons-May store there into a super Macy’s.

The emotions expressed by Alley were being felt across the Southland after Federated Department Stores Inc. announced Thursday that it would close 68 stores across the country, 22 of them in California.

The Robinsons-May name will be tossed in the scrap heap of merged and retired department stores.

In 1975, Bullock’s opened and occupied the premier spot in what is now called the West Covina Plaza. In 1994, the nameplate above the entrances changed from Bullock’s to Macy’s, but the difference was minimal. Macy’s had acquired the Bullock’s chain in 1988, and then Federated bought Macy’s in 1994.

Thursday’s announcement means the disappearance of a host of smaller department store chains such as Filene’s, Meier & Frank and Foley’s, some of which date back to the early 20th century.

In a statement, Terry J. Lundgren, chief executive of Federated, said although the decision to close some stores and convert others to Macy’s locations was a response to consumer demand, the company acknowledged “the heritage and traditions associated with those names.”

In the shoe department of the West Covina store, Ruben Cervantes, 19, carried towering stacks of boxes to a small group of women who were trying on summer sandals on sale.

Cervantes, a business administration student at a trade school, had been told about the store’s closing earlier in the day. He said management assured him that he would keep his job.

Still, he was nostalgic. “When you work full time somewhere, it’s kind of like your house,” Cervantes said. “It feels like home.”

Lidia Torres, a West Covina resident, recalled the countless days she had spent in the store with her best friend, Barbara Jasinski.

The two, both 19, said they had been going there for as long as they could remember.

In May, Torres spent the hours leading up to her senior prom at the store, getting her makeup and hair done with a gaggle of friends. She and Jasinski were forlorn about the closing.

Another shopper, Eva Sanchez, said the store conjured up memories of beige and lace -- she bought her wedding dress there in 1986.

Sanchez, whose family lives in West Covina, now lives with her husband in Saudi Arabia, where she teaches autistic children. Each summer she returns to see her family, and she makes a pilgrimage to Macy’s at least twice a week. When she returns to the desert kingdom, she flaunts her American clothes at private parties with her female friends.

“I look around, catch up on the latest fashions, and see what to take home,” she said. “I feel more comfortable here, maybe because I bought my wedding dress here.”