Premature Observation: Marshall Fields and Macy's

If Mr. Marshall Fields were alive today, he'd only live long enough to see Macy's Department Stores take over his Empire, then he would turn over and die again! Now that Marshall Field's locked the doors for the last time yesterday, consider yourselves all whores to New York and the Macy's name. With a hostile takeover such as this one similar to Adolf Hitler's reign of terror in Europe, all you can do this time is throw up a white flag and surrender! Personally, I don't really care. They say things will remain the same...that's good for me because I STILL can't shop there for a $15 pair of socks the way I could if it were still Marshall Fields. With the change comes all sorts of changes which may take some time to re-adjust to after nearly 120 years of having the same name. For instance, the big tree which has been a fixture in the State Street and Randolph store in Chicago forever, is pushing aside that tradition to make way for what is considered a "tradition" in New York. With the percentage of New Yorker's Jews, a large Hanukkah Bush will take the spot of the tree. Ironically, one of the all time Christmas favorites is Miracle on 34th Street, the first 90 minute infomercial where "Macy's" was by no means used sparingly. A young Natalie Wood and old Sebastian Cabbott as Santa Claus couldn't even figure out they were being prostituted for commercial purposes! Another bit of irony exists here... Apparently, this "classic" didn't quite do the job to get people to walk into the store. NOPE! They didn't just remake the movie once or twice, they remade it three times. The highlight of the second one as you may recall, pulled David Hartman away from his chair on "Good Morning America" in the FORGETTABLE 1970's remake. Now, people in Chicago are up in arms as is the case in those places were L.S. Ayres and Famous Barr changed over too. In Chicago, people shopped shoulder to shoulder during yesterday's final hours to purchase something, anything, with Marshall Field's name on it and then rushed home to immediately put these items on eBay. How would you like to spend $25 (starting bid) on a green paper shopping bag that you could have gotten for free had you gone to the store? Thank you Internet for making this possible. Too bad the Internet was still only an idea on paper when Kresge's, Venture, Woolworth's, Ben Franklin, and Montgomery Wards went belly up. I don't know about you, but I don't recall anyone cutting up their credit cards and sending them back with hate mail the way their doing now. So, for the time being, you may initially become confused when you decide to go shopping at Marshall Fields on a Sunday. The Macy's name is now owner of the "Field's" name. Imagine the confusion of taking the family to the old Field Museum which will soon be called the Macy's Museum. Finally, remember the only constant in life is "change". It wasn't even a decade ago that Macy's was about to file banfruptcy and sell out to a little store called "The Dollar Tree". So, to all the people who are mad as hell about shopping at Macy's, you may complain however, spend your $80 on a nice pair of jeans, or keep on boycotting the joint and maybe one day you can buy 5 pairs for $5 when Dollar Tree takes over or, in other words, quit bitchin1. Macy's hasn't cornered the market just yet!