Make no mistake, I HATE Macys for eating up my BELOVED Marshall Fields...

[Mind_your_head]

I won't forget.

[aquart]

1. Nor should you. Worst retail decision of the millennium.

[elleng]

2. I missed it! (lived in Chicago YEARS ago!)

What was bad about the decision? Curious. Thanks

[Mind_your_head]

3. If you ever 'lived' in Chicago....Marshall Fields was THE place to go

if you needed anything REALLY really 'good'. They offered the best dresses, the best suits, the best chocolates, the best bakery, the best lunches (the Walnut Room) and the whole FLOOR with their bakeshop and luncheon place! The best EVERTHING with outstanding customer service to boot, without being 'snobby'....price points for everyone! And ALL OF US were their BEST/most favorite customer (and we loved them back!)

How could you have 'lived' in Chicago w/o going/knowing about Marshall Fields? (especially if it was *years ago*). In fact, if you don't *understand* about Marshall Fields, I would doubt that you ever lived in Chicago 'years ago'.

[elleng]

6. I 'missed' the Macy's acquisition,

so I'm asking what was bad about it. I lived in Chicago for 10+ years, and of course I know about Marshall Field's.

I'm not a big shopper, so what I 'know' about Marshall Field's is probably not what you know/loved about it. They did sell a very good coconut+ skin cream which I haven't seen elsewhere.

[alcibiades_mystery]

33. Strangest hostile response in the history of DU

:rofl:

[GreenPartyVoter]

44. Indeed. Very odd.

[elleng]

48. The 'history?' Thats a lot!

and was just looking for a REASON, REAL one, not because it was such a great place to shop!

[Shell Beau]

53. For real!

:rofl:

[sinkingfeeling]

43. I travelled with IBM for 29 years and I loved Chicago's Marshall Fields! I would shop there every

time I was in Chicago. I would actually wait to buy a new suit until I went to Chicago.

[pnwmom]

4. What was bad? No more Marshall Field's.

Macy's is not the same.

[BuelahWitch]

74. Seems to me when the big stores "gobble" up the smaller, regional ones

the local culture is "gobbled" up too, to an extent.
And that doesn't even take into account the lack of competition when this happens.

[elleng]

76. Oh, OLLIE!!!!

Leggo my NOSE!

[BuelahWitch]

78. Kukla and Ollie got their start at Marshall Fields

Burr Tillstrom ran the puppet theater there. :hi:

[Peacetrain]

77. Carson...Carson Pierre... Carson Pierre Scott and Company

When I think of Chicago I think of that.. My Dad went to college in Chicago when I was a little girl, and I remember that commerical..Does Carson Pierre Scott still exist?

[sandnsea]

5. Macy's ate up all the best local department stores

And Macy's isn't that much better than JC Penney.

[elleng]

7. Looks like they've been eating all over the country;

same here in DC area. Macy's did have very good 'buyers,' who seemed to find good stuff different from others, imo, but I'm not really an expert; don't like to shop, so when I do, want it to be short and sweet.

[Phoebe Loosinhouse]

17. Macy' s ate up Jordan Marsh in New England

I remember going to the Garfinckels in DC as a teenager which was the ne plus ultra in department stores.

[elleng]

18. I'm in DC.

Seemed to me that Garf's had a long-term death wish.

[ixion]

23. they ate up Burdines in Florida

Burdines was a fantastic store. I was very sad when Macy's bought it.

[elleng]

19. 'Ate the best' after the best went bust, I think.

Took advantage of the hard times for all, isn't that what Macy's did?

[sandnsea]

46. Macy's is on the bankruptcy list

And they've been eating everything up for about ten years. Many of them were stores that had been around for decades.

[FormerDittoHead]

63. Ate up Philly's Strawbridge & Clothier and Wanamaker's.

I believe they're now turning Strawbridge's into a casino.

[SeattleGirl]

8. Macys gobbled up The Bon too.

I miss it. I used to work for The Bon years ago.

[pnwmom]

16. And they grabbed Frangos from Frederick & Nelson. n/t

[FreeState]

9. Bloomingdale's is owned by Macys

I'm almost 40 and in highschool loved to shop. I've long sence hated shopping and clothes. Except when I walk into the mens department at Bloomingdale's. I want to set up camp and live there.

[trueblue2007]

10. i hate macy's for GOBBLING UP MY BELOVED MEIER & FRANK

In Portland Oregon.

I do NOT generally like change

I HATE the change from M & F to Macys. Macys sucks

[BanzaiBonnie]

13. Exactly...

I won't darken their doorstep.

My guess is that in these times of economic turmoil, they are reaping what they had sown. There is no loyalty to Macys.

[nonpareil]

70. Ghost Town

I did some back to school shopping at the Lloyd Center store a couple of weeks ago and it was a ghost town. It reminded me of shopping at the downtown Lipman's before they were taken over by Frederick & Nelson-and at Frederick & Nelson before they went under. I miss the old Meier& Frank. :(

[FreeState]

11. They took the Bon Marche in Seattle (which had taken Fredrick & Nelsons home of the Frango) n/t

[Hannah Bell]

12. f&n was a marshall fields-owned store since the Depression. The Bon never owned it that I know.

The Bon itself became part of the Hahn's/Allied chain during the Depression.

They were never stand-alone local stores in my lifetime.

The Bon licensed the right to sell frangos from f&n during the transition to bon-macy.

[FreeState]

14. Your right F&N closed, the Bon howevere took over a lot of it's retail space on the east side

That must be were I got that impression. (the one in Bell Square was huge the basment became Bon Home).

[davidpdx]

15. I read the other day Macy's is one of the 10 most likely companies to go bankrupt

They have a heavy debt burden (probably from buying other companies like May Company) and if sales don't rebound soon they are going to be in trouble.

[elleng]

21. So they're REALLY watching the market, etc.

Hope they make it, considering all they've done. If they can't, prolly not likely that huge retail market could do anything but keep declining (I think.)

[Greyhound]

20. Parisian was one of the few stores I liked. Along comes Macy's and filled it with

over-priced, cheap Chinese shit.

[Phoebe Loosinhouse]

22. What all the old great department stores had in common - tearooms!

There was always a restaurant on an upper floor often actually called the "tearoom" which was a ladies lunch type of place. Chicken salad croissants, iced tea, famous scones or muffins, etc. Some of them had really great food. Nothing better than Christmas shopping and going to the tearoom where you could hardly get around the tables for all the bags. They also had waiters and waitresses who often had been there for YEARS.

Combined with that were the outrageous Holidaylands that a lot of them set up so that the whole family would have to truck downtown and ooh and ah at the display. It's sad to think that people miss out on that stuff nowadays. It's a lot more convenient to just order all the stuff online, but holiday shopping in the old time department stores was amazing.

[Maeve]

25. Ah, you could be talking about my beloved Lazarus! Downtown Columbus, OH

There were even fashion shows in the tearoom--at the height, I think there were four or five places to eat in the 6-story story, including an old-style diner counter in one of the basements. And Christmas! there would be shows for the kids, so moms could drop them off and get the shopping done. And a special area for the little ones to "secret shop" for the parents. Tell the clerk how much the kid could spend and who they were buying for--she'd guide the child and there were plenty of cheap, but nice gifts...You could spend as much time playing as shopping.

But they stopped being profitable, the malls (even their own stores in those malls) drew the customers and tastes changed. Now, the malls that helped kill downtown have been killed by newer malls and online buying threatens them. Nothing stands still.

[Phoebe Loosinhouse]

30. Thinking of Jordan Marsh Boston and The Outlet Company in Providence

tearoom wise. Even the mallized Jordan Marshs' maintained a restaurant, pretty hard when you have to compete with the food courts, but it was a place to sit down and have real food with real service. I don't know if Macys maintained those in the takeover or not.

I think the old Department Stores concept of being all things to all people and carrying everything in the world just got displaced by online and category killer stores. They just shrank and shrank and shrank until they were all pretty much just soft goods, whereas they used to have books, toys, furniture, rugs, etc. The only place that still makes even an attempt to be like that somewhat nowadays is Sears, which just doesn't have the cachet of the old department stores.

On a side note, the shopping highlight of my life was going to Harrods on my honeymoon. I'm not even a shopper, really - I've never been a big consumer type, but Harrods, OMG. I got pretty hung up in their food provisioners and couldn't escape for hours.

[demodonkey]

31. Lazarus in downtown Columbus was AMAZING... I got to see it before it closed when...

...I worked at the OH Capitol for 2 months in the early 90s. I was really sad when it shut down but then Macy's gobbled up all our good Pittsburgh department stores too.

[Maeve]

36. You should have seen it in the 60's and 70's

The basements had less expensive clothes and jewelry, first floor had perfume and jewelry up front and really cool stuff in the back--I remember a beaded-curtain area for black lights, posters and "hippie" stuff and some early electronics. Women's clothes got better the higher the floor. Books, fabrics and some furniture on 5, kids clothes, pets and toys on 6. Luggage was over in the annex with a specialty foods deli and there were four parking garages, one with valet parking. And there were two sets of escalators--you literally could get lost in the store, since they went to different basements!

Sheesh, I feel old!

[demodonkey]

39. That's the way it pretty much still was when I was there (except for the hippies stuff)...

...AMAZING store. Really wonderful. I spent most of what I made on the 2-month job in Lazarus, lol!

[housewolf]

62. That was "THE store" of my childhood!

I grew up in Columubus many years ago. What a treat it was to go to Lazarus downtown - it was a "dress-up" occasion. Lunch at The Chintz Room, of course - this wonderful creamed chicken on mashed potatoes! And, OH! the home-made candy counter downstairs! My sister and I often got to take the bus downtown from the east side to have lunch and Lazarus and buy the latest Nancy Drew mystery book. I was SO sorry to hear a few years ago that they had closed the downtown store.

[CurtEastPoint]

41. Rich's Magnolia Room in Atlanta. Ladies lunching, fashion shows, etc.

Rich's closed that downtown store before Macy's ate it all up but it was THE southern institution. The shopping bags used to say "Atlanta born. Atlanta owned. Atlanta managed."

Of course, we used to have our own banks here, too!

[mitchum]

68. As a kid, I was addicted to Rich's white chocolate pretzels

It was THE place

[datasuspect]

24. they took over Foleys in houston as well

i worked for both Foleys and Marshall Fields a long time ago.

[a kennedy]

26. They ate my Daytons too....

:cry: :cry: :cry:

[MrsMatt]

32. Actually, Marshall Fields acquired Daytons

for which I've never quite gotten over. I hated Marshall Fields for that.

Then Macy's purchased Marshall Fields.

[a kennedy]

35. Really??? oh my, I thought our store went from Daytons to Macy's

Doesn't really matter I don't do Macy's anyway and I don't even remember it being Marshall Fields. :shrug:

[MrsMatt]

40. Don't know where your store was

but that's how it was for the St Paul & Minneapolis downtown stores.

[a kennedy]

71. Our store is in La Crosse Wisconsin.....about 2.5 hours from

the Twin Cities, so not to far from you.

[Gabi Hayes]

72. never mind...should've read one more post

[Gidney N Cloyd]

56. Marshall Fields didn't eat Daytons (or Hudsons).

Dayton-Hudson ate Marshall Fields then used the Fields name because to rename the other stores in its chain. Unfortunately that mainly served to water down the brand.
From Wikipedia:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marshall_Field%27s#BATUS

After Dayton-Hudson Corporation acquired the Marshall Field's chain, the corporation decided to rename some of its Dayton's and Hudson's stores as Marshall Field's; however, these stores were outside of Field's existing markets and never adopted either the corporate culture or the higher-end merchandise for which Field's had become famous. Then in 2000, Dayton-Hudson renamed itself Target Corporation, having determined that Target was where more of its future growth would be and the more nationally visible division to stockholders. Target then merged the remaining Dayton's and Hudson's department stores into Marshall Field's.

[AllentownJake]

27. Macy's can't survive that much longer

Not in this type of economy. I believe this notion of bigger is better is about to sink a lot of retailers.

They get some economy of scale, however in rough times they get saddled with losing stores. The problem is the stores that are unprofitable sink the stores that are.

[blue_onyx]

69. We'll know in a few months whether Macy's can survive.

It's going to be a bad holiday shopping season again. Unemployment will be even higher than last year and many people will have even less money after struggling for last the year or more.

If Macy's is going to close it will probably be early next year, after the holidays are over. My guess is Macy's will survive but I could be be wrong. If Macy's doesn't survive, it would be nice to see some of the regional names come back.

[BuelahWitch]

75. So will Macy's be labeled "Too big to fail" and get a gov't handout?

[flyingfysh]

28. Filene's in Boston

Macy's bought Filene's and closed it. Filene's was a much better store, always had exactly what I wanted. I don't like the styles Macy's tries to push people to buy.

[dana_b]

54. really?

I haven't been to Boston in years and used to love to go to the basement. Got the best shoes there!!

Bastards - Macys seems to buy up EVERY other department store! I tore up my car when the execs took big bonuses and let off a bunch of workers last year (I know, no one cares) but truth is I couldn't afford their shit anyway and hadn't shopped there for a while.

[WillowTree]

29. I've not set foot in any of the old Field's stores since they put up the Macy's signs & I never will

Marshall Field's was a beloved institution in Chicago and is missed terribly. My Mom worked there for years. I have memories of Field's that extend to my early childhood.

What I find amusing is that Macy's has said that they're surprised at how poorly their takeover has been received by former Field's customers. Talk about not knowing your market!!

[Neurotica]

37. I loved the old Fields store on State Street - haven't been back since Macys

took over.

My husband's family is from Chicago so he grew up making trips downtown to go shopping and visit museums with his mom.

When our kids were young, we continued the tradition. We were in Chicago several times at Thanksgiving and we'd take the train downtown, go to Fields, then go to lunch at the Berghoff.

We haven't gone back to Fields since the Macys acquisition - I think I would be too disappointed. My MIL says it's not the same at all.

Macys took over Hechts here in the mid-Atlantic region. Hechts was ok, but seemingly going downhill and post-Macys, the quality of the merchandise has just gotten worse.

[demodonkey]

34. Macy's gobbled up the good stores in Pittsburgh too, Kauffman's, etc.

Hornes and Gimbels are gone... As another faceless Macy's, Kauffman's is not anywhere near as nice as it was.

And in New York (where I lived for a number of years) even the 34th St. "flagship" Macy's is a shadow of what it once was.

Someone else said it on this thread; the Macy's "good" clothes are overpriced cheap Chinese shit. The clothes are junk and cost a fortune, the services these stores offered are gone; there are no more restaurants; it is just sad.

And where does everyone get their "good" clothes now? Wal-Mart clothes are worse than shit. And you can't try things on from a website.

[spiritual_gunfighter]

38. As a Chicagoan I totally agree! n/t

[Romulox]

42. Marshall Field's did EXACTLY the same thing to Hudson's.

Live by the sword...

[Barack_America]

45. Yup. Was just about to post that.

[Fire1]

66. I miss ole JL. Especially at Christmas time. n/t

[Gabi Hayes]

73. got it backwards....see earlier post. dayton-hudson bought fields

[Dora]

47. It was Goldwater's in my town.

:(

[Gidney N Cloyd]

49. Chicagoans like to pretend we don't have a 2nd city complex but >>>

>>> whether it's Macy's taking over Fields or the Mets beating the Cubs, it always stings just a little bit more to lose to New York.

[azmouse]

50. Here in Phoenix Macy's ate up Robinson's-May dept stores.

I've only gone into the Macy's store a few times and it was mainly to use the Estee Lauder counter. I did discover a really good sale on handbags while I was in the store and nabbed a $125 Bernini bag for less than $50. But Macy's generally would be one of the last stores that I would shop in for clothes or housewares.

[michreject]

51. I hate Marshall Fields

They ate up my beloved J.L. Hudsons.

They killed my childhood Christmas memories.

http://apps.detnews.com/apps/history/index.php?id=29

[Gidney N Cloyd]

55. Don't blame Marshall Fields for that.

Dayton Hudson bought Fields, so your beloved Hudsons did it to itself.

[Berry Cool]

52. All the great Cleveland stores were eaten up a long time ago.

Sterling Lindner (Linda McCartney's mother was a Lindner) with its huge downtown Christmas tree was gone even before I was old enough to know of it. Higbee's (which lives on only in the movie A Christmas Story), the May Company, Halle's (for which Halle Berry was named)...all gone. Turned into other stores, and the downtown ones eventually closed.

Nothing's like it used to be anywhere.

[Javaman]

57. Well, since they are rated in the 10 corporations likely to declare

bankruptcy next year, you may get your instant karma.

[closeupready]

58. The old Marshall Field's really died when Philip Miller left it.

During his time as CEO, they had 400+ buyers at the Chicago State Street building alone. They were really at the top of their game then, in the 80's. When he left, it was all downhill, very fast. By the time Macy's got around to buying it, there was little more than the name left that was of any distinction.

He actually left there and subsequently took over at Saks Fifth Avenue. That does not surprise me. He was that good.

[LWolf]

59. I'm sorry.

I don't really relate, since I stopped shopping at department stores on a regular basis 2 decades ago, and haven't been inside one for at least a decade.

But I'm sorry.

I'm never in favor of narrowing options to a few giants on the block.

[Prism]

60. They've ruined it

I went one and only time since the transition to do a little Christmas shopping last year. The grand displays were all gone. The store seemed empty, generic, impersonal. Frango mints were tossed carelessly in some off-corner of the store.

Doing your Christmas shopping used to be an experience. I remember, growing up in the 80s, going downtown was a Big Deal. They had the candy apple carts out in the streets, the window displays were almost art unto themselves rather than the crappy plastic mishmash they throw together now. You could get lost in the international Christmas displays.

Now, it was just a cold, dead place. There was nothing there you couldn't do online. Oh, the Walnut Room still had the giant Christmas tree, but wooden pallettes were thrown across the viewing "balconies" on the various floors. The whole place had a palpable feeling of being run down and neglected.

It really pissed me off, and I walked out of the place without purchasing a single thing. I'm never going back.

[WillowTree]

65. Lunch by the "big Christmas tree" in the Walnut Room at the State Street store was an event.

Starting when I was little (I mean really little.......like 3 or 4) my godmother would take me on the train downtown every year for lunch by the big tree and some Christmas shopping. Even after my Dad was transferred out of state, if we were back in the Chicago area around Christmas time, she made sure we made the trek. And when I came home from college for the holidays, too.

After college and even after I got married, I turned the tables and I took her every year, sometimes taking my godfather with us. We kept that tradition until she became too infirm to deal with the trip and the crowds.

Macy's foolishly thought that the imprimatur of their name would overshadow that of the Marshall Field name, even in Chicago. Brings to mind the line from a song in The Music Man......."You've gotta know the territory!!" They didn't and they don't and not only are they losing for it, but Chicago lost a big piece of its history, as well. Shame on Macy's.

[BuddhaGirl]

61. They ate up my Bullock's in southern california, too

:-(

[musette_sf]

64. i'm not from Chicagoland but the Marshall Fields' at the Houston Galleria

was TEH AWESOME. i loved shopping there.

now it's Saks.

[SCRUBDASHRUB]

67. We had Hecht's here (VA), and Macy's took over that store.

Before Hecht's, I believe it was Thalhimers.

[DailyGrind51]

79. I treasure my Marshall Field's "New Traditions" leather bomber jacket.

Field's house brands were made to last.