Why Marshall Fields Matters
For about a year now, I’ve been following the fight against Federated Department Stores‘ plans to consolidate 11 department store chains into their Macy’s brand. The fight is over — and lost.
I can’t speak to the other 10 stores Federated will be (and has begun) desecrating, but I can speak on a reasonable level to Marshall Field’s. For more than 150 years, Marshall Field’s has been a respected department store in the midwest.
I’ve been getting in a huff about this whenever it’s brought up, but a lot of people wonder why I care at all about this. After all, Marshall Field’s is just another American department store surrounded by acres of SUV-covered asphalt. To be perfectly honest, I really don’t care about the Marshall Field’s stores — the actual service they provide, I care about the brand. Fields’ current success — until the Federated acquisition — is built on the millions of consumer who chose that store and more importantly the thousands of employees: all of whom made it what it is today.
For the less brand-nostalgic, take a simpler thought: the primary reason Federated is doing this is to save money. Saving money how? Laying off workers. Why go through all the trickiness of designers for multiple brands when you can whip it all into one? How efficient.
My other big issue is a little less thoughtful, but still a valid one: Macy’s is tacky. I don’t think this point requires any further explanation.
150 years of work and passion. All in the end to provide Macy’s with a few more locations for its rampant chain. I do hope anyone reading this boycotts Federated’s stores. Though thanks to their intelligent business plans, it shouldn’t be too hard to remember which stores.