It’s generally not a good sign when the ABC news van is parked in front of your establishment in the middle of the business day. ABC was reporting on food health violations at the new Macy’s State Street. I’d much rather discuss the economic health of the store after a year of deaf-eared marketing decisions by Federated CEO Terry Lundgren.
If you thought you heard a citywide refrain of ‘I told you so’ yesterday, you weren’t imagining things. According to a report in Wednesday’s Chicago Tribune, Federated finally admits feeling financial pain over a hardcore group of former Marshall Field’s shoppers who decided to quit shopping the chain when the nameplate was switched to Macy’s last fall.
This weekend, as the respirator plug is pulled on the Marshall Field nameplate once and for all, Federated will finally get to see how well their big advertising push to lure old Field’s customers to the new ‘Macy’s on State Street’ has worked. My guess is not very. One look at the campaign’s commercials and printed ads easily shows why: where’s Chicago? And why would anyone in Chicago–or anywhere else–cares about Macy’s arrival, anyway?
Yesterday, my blog post about signage in the new Macy’s State Street that invented names of Chicago streets made citywide news. Then it made national news. And none of that would have happened if Federated staff had simply bothered to look at a map of the Loop. Or proofread. Or realize that the correct street names are already printed above every exit in the former Marshall Field’s flagship store.
I’m glad I had my camera with me today when I took a shortcut through Chicago’s new Macy’s State Street. All this week, workers have been busily installing new awnings outside the store and information maps within. Trouble is, no one actually proofread the new store maps before posting them throughout the store. Ever heard of Wabash ‘Street,’ or Washington or Randolph ‘Avenue’? Neither have I. But as these photos show, that’s how Macy’s labeled the streets on every new map in the store.
Marshall Field’s becoming Macy’s and Carson Pirie Scott’s flagship store becoming no more do not portend the end of commercial life on State Street. Really.
Bed, Bath & Beyond had just sent out another round of their endlessly arriving midnight blue 20-percent-off coupons, and now I needed one. But true to form, I had thrown mine out the moment it arrived in my mailbox. Then again, I realized, so had everybody else at Marina City.
One of the best stores in the city for finding travel guidebooks and travel essays is downtown’s Savvy Traveler. But God help you if you actually want to make a purchase.