Word: stores
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...years, shopping on Chicago's State Street meant one thing: Marshall Field's, the hallmark department store that has stood at that address since the White Sox were the White Stockings. Come September, the store's new parent, Federated Department Stores, will rechristen it Macy's, and loyal Marshall Field's customers are both angry and genuinely sad. "For some chain to come into Chicago and think we're New York is totally misguided," says June Cuci, 48, who has been shopping at Field's since her childhood. Even film critic Roger Ebert lamented the loss. "I thought...
Sentimental shoppers will have a lot to cry about in the coming months. With the merger last year between department-store chains Federated and May, 78 stores are going to close. But Macy's, with its name attached to more than 800 stores, will soon expand as big as a balloon in its Thanksgiving Day parade. The majority of the hometown retailers owned by May, including Marshall Field's, will be converted to the Macy's nameplate this fall, among them Kaufmann's in Pittsburgh, Pa.; Filene's in Boston; Strawbridge's in Philadelphia; Foley's in Houston; Famous-Barr...
...part of Federated CEO Terry Lundgren's plan to make Macy's a truly national department store. "This hasn't been done before," Lundgren told TIME. "Macy's is a great brand that has never been maximized to its full potential." After decades of bankruptcies, closings and consolidation in the industry, Macy's may soon be the last traditional, mid-priced mall-based American department store standing. Its future matters not just to Federated shareholders but also to a $100 billion chunk of the retail economy. Everyone from fashion designers to cosmetics companies to small-town malls is praying that...
...many ways, the $17 billion Federated-May merger is the logical evolution of decades in which the industry failed to respond to customer complaints that department stores were boring, the service nonexistent and the merchandise ubiquitous without being interesting. "Department stores have lost sight of their customer. It's that simple," says Janet Hoffman, a San Francisco--based retail strategist for Accenture. Sales tumbled, and chain after chain of historic, family-owned retailers--Gimbels, Woodward & Lothrop, Wanamaker's, Montgomery Ward--closed their doors or were swallowed up by stronger companies. In 1980, about 35 major department-store chains were...
...focusing on one slice of the market. Luxury purveyors like Neiman Marcus, Nordstrom and Bloomingdale's (the only other brand that will stay in Federated's portfolio) have boosted profit margins by catering to the affluent. Discounters like Wal-Mart and Target have captured the bargain hunters. The stores that tried to appeal to a broad middle-income audience, as Macy's hopes to, have struggled. Former No. 1 retailer Sears merged with former No. 1 discounter Kmart to try to right two listing ships. Saks, a luxury icon suffering from mismanagement, misfired in its attempt to go down-market...