dunno if he ever had stores in Calif, but his SYMS men's clothing stores and his ubiquitous commercials ("an educated consumer is our best customer") were NY mainstays for decades. He was the NY equivalent of George "Men's Wearhouse" Zimmer.
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/n/a/2009/11/17/financial/f145445S20.DTL&type=business
my first Syms experience was the one in Depew, NY, near Buffalo. To get there , we had to drive past Salvatore's Italian Gardens, which you could not miss:
I bought a Pierre Cardin tweed jacket. Ah yes, the 70s.
