Farwell, Marshal Field's. It's been fun.

[looseliam]

After surviving the Chicago Fire, the Great Depression, the Great Chicago Flood and five separate owners, Marshall Field's disappears Saturday from the Chicago landscape and officially becomes Macy's.

'Tis a sad day here in Chicago. No more Fields. No more green.

I remember as a kid going to breakfast during Christmas with the family. Now I won't be able to do the same with my kids.

It's really bothering me that people are just passing the old for the new. In my area old, classic houses give way to monstrous square pads.

So, what's so bad about the past? Why must everything be new, improved?

 

[bma1983]

It's happening all over the country. Here in Baltimore, Hecht’s is becoming Macy's. But I never understood Federated Department Stores, INC. (the owner of Macy’s) decision to do away with the Marshall Field's in Chicago. New York gets to keep its Bloomingdales. Why can't Chicago keep its Marshall Field's?

 

[slobone]

And Boston is losing Filene's. I think this is a monumentally dumb move on Macy's's part.

I read an article recently which said that because of all the mergers, there are now quite a few cases where there are two stores, both named Macy's, in the same mall. In some cases one is slightly more upscale than the other, or caters to a slightly different clientele, or has furniture where the other one doesn't. In other cases they're pretty much indistinguishable.

But Macy's is not announcing or promoting the distinction, you have to figure it out for yourself. Is this really the best way to run a chain of department stores?

 

[doctorsun]

All of the Kaufmann's here in Ohio are becoming Macy's.

 

[Croynan]

Sorry to hear the bad news. Why do we have to distroy our own cultural history?

It would have to be Macy's. At least it is not Bloomingdale's. We lost the Bullock's stores especially the landmark Bullock's Wilshire.

And I met some of those Macy's people before they took over Bullock"s - they were so rude to one of the employee's I called the store manager and complained about their behaviour in front of the public. It was disgusting. It may fly in New York but it does not here is Los Angeles.

Now it's a choice of Robinson's May or Macy's

Baaah Humbug.



eM.

 

[ronboy]

This is the second time that I've had to endure the change in stores.

Rochester's best and most fashionable department store used to be the Sibley, Lindsey and Curr Company, more commonly known as Sibley's. It was truly more fashionable and more exclusive than other Rochester stores such as McCurdy's, EW Edwards, and B. Forman's. They had a landmark building in downtown Rochester, with an exterior clock tower, and another highly polished copper clock on the main floor. Sibley's was the largest downtown department store between New York and Chicago (in terms of square footage). They also had 7 branches in the suburbs. They were a part of the Associated Dry Goods chain since 1957, but most people still assumed that the store was locally owned, because all management decisions were made locally. Associated pretty much let each chain they owned run themselves, and that's why the stores were so unique (among the other Associated divisions were Stix, Baer & Fuller in St. Louis, H&S Pogue's in Cincinnati, Powers' in Minneapolis, Hahne's in New Jersey, Stewart's in Baltimore, and JW Robinson's in Los Angeles).

Sibley's continued to expand through the years. They opened a store in Downtown Syracuse when the former EW Edwards store closed, and had a branch store at the Fayetteville Mall in Manilus. In 1980, Associated merged Sibley's with Buffalo's William Hengerer Company, giving the chain another landmark downtown store, in Buffalo, and about 5 branches in Buffalo area malls.

When May Department stores merged with Associated Dry Goods in 1985, they thought that Sibley's wasn't making enough money. So they downgraded the overall merchandise, closed the downtown stores in Buffalo and Syracuse (Rochester would close in 1990), and ran Sibley's as a less exclusive, more middle-end store. By 1990, the decision was made to merge Sibley's into Kaufmann's, ending 121 years of history in Western New York. And so, Kaufmann's of Pittsburgh was also Rochester's store.

I was never a fan of Kaufmann's. So now, with the change to Macy's, I am hoping that the merchandise they sell is of better quality. I was always told that Kaufmann's Downtown Pittsburgh was a spectacular store, but you couldn't prove it by the stores they had in Rochester, which were mediocre at best.

I feal sorry for the people of Chicago and Boston, who had REAL department stores in Marshall Field's and Filene's (both stores which I had been to and loved). hang in there......

 

[Lube]

The stores here have changed names so many times, I'm not even sure what they're called anymore.

I usually buy stuff at smaller, locally owned shops anyway.

or the Internet.

 

[sissyboy]

In the St Louis area, we are loosing Famous-Barr stores which were part of the May company along with Lord & Taylor and Robinson-May. They were bought by Federated and are all being turned into Macy's.Not really a huge loss, since Famous really hasn't been anything more than overpriced for years, but their restaurants served the BEST French Onion soup ever(other than my own, that is). Many locals are mourning the loss for that reason alone.

 

[Joshua_me]

*sigh*

It's the same down here. All you Southern boys know that 'Burdine's'
is now Macy's, too.

There actually was a 'Burdines' family that started the chain back around
1900 or so. (When Soilwork was just a boy) and for over 100 years they were the best department stores. Not quite Saks, but certainly a cut above
the rest.

But alas, with one swoop, ALL of them are gone overnight, replaced by Macy's.

And get this, even though they said all Burdine's credit cards would be honored for years to come, I tried to buy a couple of shirts a few months
ago, and my credit card, with it's $5,000 limit was *Declined*

It'll be a cold day in Hell before they get anymore of my business.

 

[PieRules]

Foley's has turned to Macey's here in Colorado.

 

[metta]

I miss getting the Robinson's Christmas catalogs. They always had these crazy things in them like being able to buy a real race horse. When I was young, my parents used to give me the store card and note and I could buy whatever I wanted as long as I did not go over a certain amount that my Dad told me not to go over. Ahh....the good old days...

 

[cocktales]

Let's see, when ALL the dust clears and the MACY signage is put up, Macy will have like something like over 900 stores.......with them buying up ALL the new department stores!!!

Marshall Fields "was" a part of downtown Chicago like forever.....! sigh

I mean, I loved eating in the coffee shop, it seemed so elegant...way back when!

Foley's gone...

Robinson-May gone...

ETC gone....! sigh

 

[antdak]

Here in the Pacific Northwest, we lost the Bon Marche several years ago, and now we just lost Meyer and Frank.

 

[unclaimedblessing]

In Tucson too.
Our favorite Robinsons-May was recently taken over by Macys.
We hate their merchandise and miss the sale bargains.

It reminds me of one of my recent postings complaining about the major chain restaurants destroying historical independent restaurants.

Before we know it there will be a Macy's and an Olive Garden on every corner.

 

[GL]

Foley's has turned to Macey's here in Colorado.

Likewise here in S.A.

 

[pacz]

Wow, I never thought of it that way, since I grew up with Macy's. That would be like Macy's Herald Square becoming a Marshall Field's! Not nice, Macy's has a lot of nerve. I hope they keep the local character of the stores and not make a cookie cuter template of all it's stores.

 

[RyanJ]

Likewise here in S.A.

what happens to malls that have both Foley's and Macy's?

 

[GL]

what happens to malls that have both Foley's and Macy's?

I honestly don't know. I drive by one of the malls every day on my way to work and it was only yesterday I noticed that the Foley's signage had come down and was replaced with the Macy's stuff. I'm guessing they'll close out the Foley's stores.

 

[looseliam]

Wow, I never thought of it that way, since I grew up with Macy's. That would be like Macy's Herald Square becoming a Marshall Field's! Not nice, Macy's has a lot of nerve. I hope they keep the local character of the stores and not make a cookie cuter template of all it's stores.

Nope, it doesn't resemble Field's anymore. The Macy's logo is smeared all over. They say they'll keep the walnut room, and the State St. plaques.

 

[Joshua_me]

I mean, I loved eating in the coffee shop, it seemed so elegant...way back when!

Ooo, I'd forgotten that Burdine's used to have a restaurant in it as well.
Called 'Palm Avenue', or something like that.

My Grandmother used to take me there quite often. (*Sniff* )

It wasn't a *great* place to eat or anything, but there was something so
cool about sitting down to eat in the middle of a department store...hard to
explain, really.

(She could never figure why a little boy such as myself loved shopping for
clothes with her so much.... )

Anyway, even though it sounds silly, you don't realize how special those days
are until long after they're gone.

Sigh.