Chicagoans don’t like change. (Take Wrigley Field, for example, in all its jumbotron-less glory.) Yes, they are a strange, stubborn people who do not eat ketchup on hot dogs and who put the sauce on top of their pizza. And they don’t like Macy’s. Why? Because Macy’s did away with Marshall Field’s.
From the Chicago Tribune:
One year after Marshall Field’s became Macy’s, more than 200 “Field’s Fans” stood under the store’s clock on State Street for a moment of silence Sunday, hoping their passion might resurrect a name for the sake of Chicago pride and childhood memories.The change in corporate ownership aside, these people missed their Marshall Field’s Frango mints, their Walnut Room lunches, the charm of following a Christmas story from one decorated window to another. All of those things remain, in some version, but the people who gathered said it is simply not the same.
“You don’t give up on something that you like,” said Rosario Probo of Pilsen. “Just the [name] itself — you say Marshall Field’s, people know where you’re at. Everybody knows Marshall Field’s is Chicago.”
Macy’s former Marshall Field’s stores (particularly in Chicago) continue to languish under the new Macy’s brand. The costs involved in converting Marshall Field’s and other local department stores are often cited as the reason Macy’s continues to under-perform. From Bloomberg:
The company is paying a price for alienating Chicago customers, even though second-quarter profit exceeded analyst estimates. Chief Financial Officer Karen Hoguet acknowledged May 18 that sales at the State Street store were “doing badly, but we feel we can turn around the performance.”
Shares of Cincinnati-based Macy’s have fallen 26 percent since it dropped the Marshall Field’s name, from $40.41 last Sept. 11 to $29.76 at the close of New York Stock Exchange composite trading on Sept. 9.
“It’s a very unorthodox and major mistake to give the Marshall Field’s name the death penalty in Chicago,” said Burt Flickinger, managing director of New York-based consulting firm Strategic Resource Group.
Despite the protest and the lagging stock, Macy’s says it will not consider reviving Marshall Field’s:
“The decision is 100 percent decided,” said McNamara, whose chain is second only to Sears Holdings Corp. in the U.S. based on annual sales. “It was made well over a year ago and we believe it was the right decision to make for our company.”
…
“We researched 40,000 of our customers.” McNamara said. “They don’t want to be stuck in the past.”
Meanwhile, the Chicago Tribune reports that protesters were happy about Macy’s poor sales and were hoping someone would buy them out and bring Field’s back.
Though many said they had never participated in a protest, they thought they might actually have an impact because Macy’s sales have been down, especially in Chicago.
“We have more hope now than we did a year ago,” said Marianne Nathan as she pulled a green-clad mannequin on a rolling cart. Nathan, 58, of Oak Park reasoned that Macy’s won’t likely change the name but perhaps the company would be bought out and the Marshall Field’s name restored.
Darrid Morris of Columbus, Ohio, said he’s shopped from coast to coast but has never found a store with the level of service and quality of Marshall Field’s. He’s dedicated a Web site, Darrid.com, to his love for the store.
“It’s standing up for what you believe in,” said Morris. “I believe a Chicago icon should remain a Chicago icon.”
Ahh, Chicago. We love you.
A year later, Field’s enthusiasts still fighting for name [Chicago Tribune]
Macy’s Finds Chicago Indignant on Marshall Field’s (Update1) [Bloomberg]
(Photo:Chuck Berman/Chicago Tribune)
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Having just moved from Chicago I do understand some of Killa’s frustration. I too, seriously never got the whole Marshall Fields obession/Macy’s obsession. Before Macy’s bought it, all I ever heard from people was bitching about how hard it was to find clothes to buy at the Field’s State Street store due to its bizarre organization, so they didn’t like to shop there. The store was usually pretty empty.
To those who say that they are upset because Macy’s has ruined their decades-long tradition of going to Marshall Fields at Christmas to look at the windows and the trees?
1) They will still be there at Christmas, as will the clock outside. The name doesn’t change ANY OF THIS!
2) Maybe if all those times you went at Christmas you actually bought stuff, the brand wouldn’t have been bought out. Stores exist to make money, not to create someone’s holiday traditions. If you want free holiday traditions, watch the parade or something.
Our stores used to be Daytons. That is what I remembered growing up and all the traditions they had at the original downtown Minneapolis store around the holidays.
We took our kids there after it was turned into Marshall Fields and all the holiday stuff was exactly the same.
What I have noticed was that the store in our corner of the backwater started to suck as Daytons before the merger. Then the Marshall Fields started to suck before Macys bought them out and it has continued to suck under Macys. What annoys the hell out of me is that the Macys at the Maul of America actually has a decent selection. But out local store has only carried crap for years and the staff are about the calabur of the local Walmart.
The last time I got anything resembling actual service in a department store was Nordstrom about ten years ago, and Williams Sonoma generally still does.
Our current local Macys is about the same level as JcPenney with the exception of over priced Ralph Lauren clothes.
@hyperlexis:
Yeah.
I’m the bad guy because I got upset that you have so far told me to get the hell out of Chicago over a name change.
And because I’m not a Cubs fan (I’m a converted Sox fan, thank you very much), you assume I’m from the suburb, somewhere else, or should feel threatened over it.
I decided to take a look at your posting history – know what I found?
Most of your posts are about Macy’s.
You are a marshall fields groupie. Just admit it. You ONLY seem to care about Macy’s….
And I still don’t get what you mean. My post wasn’t about Macy’s as a company. My post was mocking the idiots who spent their sunday protesting, well – I’m not sure what.
My point is and has always been that Macy’s owns the store. Period. Marshall Fields hasn’t been owned by a relative (or anyone who cared about anything more than profit) for what, 15 years?
You want to freak out and give a crap about the importance of a name. Me? I spent my Sunday volunteering at a homeless shelter, feeding the homeless and talking to them.
As I said before – there are more important things in life than Marshall Fields (which was in name only for 15+ years or so).
For this, you’ve called me heartless and told me to get out of Chicago.
Yes, Macy’s is experiencing financial trouble. But again – This guy doesn’t give two craps about them.
You seem to, though. What statement are you sending the world when the most important thing in your life is Macy’s and what they do with a store they bought.
BTW, I asked my girlfriend what she thought about Macy’s – she said that she likes it better because they have better stuff. If morons stopped protesting and actually went inside, and slacker news reporters reported actual news instead of making a big deal about it, they might actually do well in Chicago.
Her words, not mine. All I did was ask.
You are mentally unstable if you think that Macy’s or Marshall Fields is what really matters in this life.
@schwnj:
Yeah. I got that.
The only thing I have to say is that I’m not worked up about Macy’s.
I don’t care about them.
I just don’t like being called selfish and told I should move out of Chicago because I find it ridiculous that people protest Macy’s for changing Marshall Fields to Macy’s.
Especially offensive? Being told I don’t care about my community or anyone else besides myself when I spent my Sunday volunteering at a homeless shelter.
@killavanilla: Make sure you mention the homeless shelter a couple of more times. I’m sure the Mayor’s office will see it soon and commend you on your fine upstanding citzenry.
@hwyengr:
homeless shelter…
Homeless shelter…
Homeless shelter…
Sorry bout that.
My computer didn’t update so I thought it was lost in cyberworld. I just went back and saw that it was in fact posted.
Marshall Fields failed because it was an oddity- you go in there during Christmas to ogle and see how the rich folks do things, and then everyone goes to Carson’s to buy the same stuff at 2/3 the price.
@killavanilla: Geez man, calm down a bit. Point is taken and rest assured you’re doing a good service for Chicago as a whole. And if I was a Chicago native, I would definitely mock the very logic of people protesting for Fields.
We were pretty mad in Pittsburgh that they took away Kaufmann’s, too.
Megh,what have you done.Some very passionate people.look I lived in Chitown all my life and Macy’s made a marketing bobo big time. So they will,
in here corporate wisdom fix it, or perhaps a new CEO,hay all good. Anyway, the most important question is this, did the Crazy Quilt Dragon, Cinnamon Bear, and Uncle Mistletoe get severance pay? and could they role there 401K? oh did they every find that star? also I know as a fact they never put catsup on a hot dog. You don’t put marinara sauce on Italian beef. Not in Chicago,, I had to say that,sorry.
I’ve lived in Chicago for 40 years and I love Chicago hot dogs AT LEAST as much as the next person, but if you want to put ketchup on your hot dog, go ahead.
Marshall Fields was no big bonus of a store. It’s mostly just memories of Christmas for former little kids now grown up to be 80 and senile.
I never saw the point of standing around in 5 degree weather and looking into the Marshall Fields windows at Christmas, either. Maybe in 1910, this was the height of entertainment, but now? I think not.
@wndrwmn24:
Sweetie, it was Dayton-Hudson who bought Marshall Field’s and then changed the names of its existing Dayton’s and Hudson’s to Field’s. Not the other way around. Research your facts before you start talking smack.
The real problem is that the Field’s that these people want back hasn’t existed for probably 25 years. As a small kid, the highlight of every birthday was a trip “Downtown” to Field’s on the El, a trip through the toy department (when they actually had one), and lunch at the Blackhawk, followed by a trip to the top of the Prudential Building (yeah, I’m THAT old).
My parents swore by the “old” Field’s. My mother would call them up and order what she wanted, sight unseen — and get exactly what she wanted. They paid a bit more, but they considered it a convenience fee.
So I suspect for many of us, there is some bit of DNA that misses the store that used to be — and those placard-holding fans pine for those old days. Problem is, there are very few stores that can afford that level of service and quality. In these Wal-Mart days, we seem to care more about price than the crap that we’re being sold.
Those of you who say that people in Chicago should just get over the change in the NAME are missing the point. You have also clearly never searched high and low for jeans that don’t make your hips look funny, only to have your favorite brand disappear when you need a new pair.
Here in Western NY all of the Kauffman’s stores were switched over to Macy’s, and I have yet to make a purchase. I’m not protesting anything (heck, I keep going in hoping to spend money), there is just not a single item that I want to buy. All of my favorite brands have gone the way of the dodo, and I’m left with… well shopping somewhere else.
The thing that really ticks me off though, is the huge fanfare with which Macy’s changed over all of the Kauffman’s stores. It was as if Macy’s came in and told all of us hicks here in Rochester in Buffalo that we don’t really know want we want and MACY’S will show us the light with a more upscale shopping experience, but the carpet in the dressing rooms is still ripped.
Sure, there are better things to protest than the changing of one department store to another, but I appreciate someone speaking out against the homogenization of the American retail experience. Besides looking for jeans can make people do crazy things.
@AngrySicilian: IAWTC
killavanilla: “And Marshall Fields WAS a giant corporation.”
It was OUR giant corporation. Field’s and Chicago have a long history, as you may note by the FIELD MUSEUM, just as one example. The family was Chicago, the store was Chicago, it was local, and it was ours.
If you don’t give a shit about the local history that makes Chicago unique, that’s fine, but don’t hold yourself up as a lover of Chicago while not caring when it’s made like every other cookie cutter metropolis in the country and its traditions and unique local character are ripped away from it.
I like ketchup, relish, mustard (sometimes bacon bits and onions) on a hot dog. What is up with you people trying to tell someone that ketchup is wrong haha
Also I like gravy on my fries with salt, vinegar and ketchup yummmmy
@Eyebrows McGee:
I do care about the local history that makes Chicago unique.
What I don’t care about is a company that was sold by anyone related to the Fields family back in 1982 to a tobacco company.
Get it straight, folks. Marshall Fields WAS a part of our history. It was family owned until 1982, not 2007. Since 1982, Marshall Fields has been on a slow decline. It stopped being a part of true Chicago in 1982, and continued down that road. In 1990, it was sold to the company that became Target Corp. Target is not a Chicago company either.
So all this over a name that was bought and sold twice. That makes it part of Chicago history in name only.
Simply put, Marshall Fields stopped being a true ‘Chicago’ institution in 1982 and was further removed in 1990. The brand sunk slowly as self-professed loyalists continued to play lip service to it’s heritage while shopping elsewhere and flat out not supporting the brand.
So spare me your historical nonsense. It’s revisionist history at best.
Since you people seem so interested in history and so willing to protest over nothing, I would like to take a moment to point out that no stink was made over Montgomery Wards, also a Chicago based company that innovated the mail-order business model. Aaron Montgomery Ward actually invented the mail order business. Wards was the first mail order business in the world.
Did you protest when they folded? How about when the Wards building was turned into condos? Were you standing outside in tears, shaking your fist at god for allowing such a gem to fade away into nothingness?
No. You weren’t. And that was a Chicago business that stayed family owned from 1872 until 1976.
Spare me your riteous indignation. Marshall Fields was a huge company that hadn’t been a true Chicago company since 1982.
Get over it. Macy’s bought them and have every right to do as they please with the state street store. There is nothing uniquely Chicago about Marshall Fields anymore. The brand is dead. Quit crying. The city has plenty of character and true Chicago history. Instead of looking to mega-global corporation for your culture, try shopping at one of those locally owned, small shops. Support LOCAL businesses and for gods sake get on with your lives.
@Eyebrows McGee:
Furthermore, since you seem to be tied up on Chicago history, do you buy all your computers from CDW instead of Dell? Do you only fly Delta? Do you only drive Ford Five Hundreds (now taurus)? Do you only eat at McDonalds? Do you still shop at Sears?
I just don’t buy it. I can understand being unhappy with the loss of Marshall Fields. what I cannot understand is that some of you seem to think that Macy’s owes you. They own the stores and bought the brand. It is their choice to operate as they see fit.
@Eyebrows McGee:
Were you upset when Eli’s place for steak closed?
Do you even know what that is? They were a downtown Chicago restaurant. I’ve been fortunate enough to enjoy a few meals there. The created the Eli’s Cheesecake. When they closed, no one protested. Isn’t that odd that a part of Chicago culture went away for business reasons? All the tears shed! How awful!
And when Berghoffs closed, people cried for months!
Hogwash. Nonsense. Selective outrage!
@killavanilla:
Not to start another flame war but according to this [en.wikipedia.org] Benjamin Franklin started the first mail order business in 1744.
Further reading will show that Hammacher Schlemmer is the oldest continuously operating mail order business established in 1848.
Aaron Montgomery Ward is credited with printing the first mail order catalog in 1872.
I am sure that the catalog that Ward publish did indeed revolutionize the mail order business. But he was not the first.
These facts do not in any way diminish your point about Marshall Fields and other Chicago landmarks going by the wayside with barely a whimper from the general populace. Now if something happens to the original Pizzaria Uno on Ohio, then we have a situation worth protesting over.
Funny how all these people who think the pro-Field’s / anti-Macy’s protesters need to get a life and find more important things to protest find the time themselves to write a comment. Why are you even bothering to read the article if you don’t care? Losers. Just a bunch of negative losers too busy busybodying themselves in other people’s lives. Well you are the people who need to get a life, or at least get out of mine.
@Sudonum:
Sorry to tell you this, but Pizzareia Uno has been bastardized, packaged and sold all over the country….
[www.unos.com]
How sad. The food is still good at the downtown location, but the spirit is gone.
When I was between jobs in the restaurant biz (back when I was still in), I had just left a restaurant that did $2 million a year – around what Uno’s was doing. A recruiter sent me over to an Uno’s to interview. I met with a district manager, a regional manager and a HR person. I was embarrassed by the way I was interviewed. These people shows me zero respect and asked me questions inappropriately with a condescending tone. I walked out, called the recruiter, and told her that I wouldn’t work for them if they paid me $150,000 a year and bought me car. I expressed my disgust with the restaurant company and told her, in no uncertain terms:
1) No one should be made to feel bad about themselves over an interview
2) If they didn’t want to interview me, they shouldn’t have
3) I would NEVER frequent a restaurant bearing the Uno’s name again
Here’s an example:
Them: Why do you think you are qualified to run an Uno’s as a GM?
Me: well, my experience is pretty extensive, especially for my age. I have turned around failing restaurants in the past, increased profitability and efficiency in every store I’ve ever managed, and run units with similar volume and menu’s.
Them: So what makes you think you can run a place like Uno’s?
Me: Well, my last restaurant did similar volumes and a good chunk of the food came from our Pizza menu. We had a brick oven and did some impressive volume.
Them: (laughing at me now) So you think you know what kind of volume we do?
Me: based on my experience, yes. The size of the restaurant and location leads me to believe that this restaurant that we are sitting in likely did somewhere between $1.5 and $2 million a year.
Them: (condescending now) Nice try. We did $1.2 million here.
Me: Well then, I’d say you were underperforming. Frankly speaking, if you do a cost analysis of the square footage and number of seats, you could be doing more. That kind of push is what you get with me – a desire to grow and increase your business.
Them: (now harsh) So you think you know how to run this place better?
Me: To be honest with you, it’s pretty clear that the culture around here is broken. I’ve interviewed at least 100 people before and so far, you have made me uncomfortable, been condescending, and insinuated that I don’t know how to do my job. This interview is over unless you start treating me with some basic respect.
That’s how the interview ended.
Sadly, that restaurant had been taken over by guys in flashy suits who don’t understand that theirs is a people business.
Maybe things have changed, but I still don’t go there.
@Sudonum:
No flame war!
But wiki is confused!
[en.wikipedia.org]
“Montgomery Ward (later known as Wards) is an online retailer and a former American department store chain, founded as the world’s first mail order business in 1872 by Aaron Montgomery Ward. “
Close enough…. They still innovated.
Perhaps you are correct!
Who knows…
@sroelofs:
Because part of the joy of this site is helping others resolve issues and the other part is making fun of people who protest what companies do with their property.
Come on, you don’t think it’s hilarious that in 2007 people are protesting that Macy’s, who bought the brand from Target, who bought the brand from a tobacco company in 1982 are wasting their time trying to get a brand revived that stopped being a true Chicago name long ago?
@killavanilla:
sorry about the excess space.
I have no idea why it keeps inserting it.
maybe it’s the pc I use?
@killavanilla: I apent a year in Chicago doing a major hotel renovation. I won’t tell you what property, we just called it the “Mistake By The Lake”. It was on Michigan near Ohio. I have fond memories of that Pizzaria Uno.
After I finished the Chicago job, I had to go to Orlando. There I found one of the chain (or franchisee, whatever the case may be) and was appalled at the difference. FWIW I can buy frozen Pizzaria Uno’s in the freezer section of my local grocery. So no doubt the suits have taken over.
Who cares about the name. The fact of the matter is that the State Street store completely sucks now. Whether or not immediately-pre-Macy’s Fields was better or worse than pre-Target Fields is immaterial; we’re never getting pre-Target Fields back — but post-Macy’s Fields is noticeably worse than pre-Macy’s Fields.
If the store was the same, I would still find the name change tacky and annoying in that “I don’t /want/ to pretend I’m cool because I shop at a ‘New York’ store” way, but I’d still shop there, which is all they would care about. As it is, the store is stocked with crap, like their Martha Stewart stuff — a “name brand” I could get at K-Mart? Are you serious? If I am going to go to a reasonably upscale department store — it’s sure not going to be Macy’s. And if I wanted Old Navy quality, I’d hit the Old Navy across the street.
P.S. I haven’t been back to Unos (or Dues) since the first time I was roadtripping out east someplace and stopped at a turnpike rest area, and they had an Unos! I laughed my fool head off.
@Sudonum:
Next time you come to Chi-town, check out Gino’s east.
Or Lou Malnati’s.
Pretty much the same recipe. From what I understand, they all worked in the same kitchen that created Chicago Style Deep dish and then some of them went to start their own restaurant.
You can get a frozen Lou Malnati’s, and I’d bet it’s better than Uno’s….
It was sad to see Uno’s turn into a corporate pig, but the day of that interview I decided that interviews go both ways.
Just as they are interviewing me, I am interviewing them. That attitude made my last few interviews immensely successful.
I know its been said earlier in this thread, but it bears repeating – i’d feel a lot more sorry for them if they hadn’t just done the same thing to Hudson’s.
It’s the loss of diversity that is one of the major problems. Every
single shopping area looks the same and carries the same stuff. It
feels like Macy’s is shutting down choices: ultimately the mall will
just be one big Macy’s.
No wonder they are losing money. Tourists don’t go to Chicago to shop at Macy’s. That is going to be a major loss of revenue.
During the holidays people don’t have the generations of family that have traditionally gone downtown to see the Macy’s windows.
The icon of Chicago isn’t the Macy’s clock it is the Marshall Field’s clock.
I live in California but I have stopped shopping at Macy’s because I am so mad at them for changing the name.