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, the Macy’s on State Street signage troubles that I uncovered weren’t the only public-relations blunder dogging the Cincinnati-based department store giant, Federated. Full-court press also went to the South Loop’s Eleven City Diner for daring to serve a sandwich named after the defunct Marshall Field’s–a sandwich that actually earned a cease-and-desist letter from Federated.
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.
Federated will soon rename Marhsall Field’s flagship store ‘Macy’s State Street.’ Or maybe not. It depends on who you listen to.