Just had to vent...Macy's is a horrible store and it is ruining city-specific culture and history! Macy's, a retail department store chain run by Federated Department Stores, is taking over more and more stores ever since Federated bought out the stores previously run by May Company department stores. May Company ran stores such as Strawbridge's, Hect's, Robinsons-May, etc. Now that Federated has bought out the May Company stores, most of these stores are being converted over to Macy's, some are being closed and sold to the rare few remaining retail chains, and some stores are simply being shuttered and left to rot. Even before Federated took over May Company, it ran several other retail chains and eventually converted its own stores over to the Macy's name...stores such as Lazarus, Goldsmith's, Burdines, and Bon Marche. Hells, probably the only Federated store that HASN'T been converted to the Macy's nameplate is Bloomingdale's!
So what does this mean? Homogenous cookie cutter Macy's springing up everywhere! In past years, you would be able to travel to a city and shop in city-specific, locally run department stores. In Chicago, Marshall Field's ruled. In Florida, it was Burdines. In my own city of Philadephia, it was Wanamakers, Strawbridge & Clothier, Gimbels, Lit Brothers, and Snellenbergs. Each major city had their specific department store chain with a large historic flagship store downtown. These regional department store chains contributed to a feeling of loyalty to one's city, because someone could shop in their own city of say, Philadelphia, and think, "Wanamaker's started here, in MY city!" Most of these city-specific department store chains had a long history and served as early pioneers of the retail industry. For example, John Wanamaker's was one of the first department stores in the nation to have electric lights and offer nighttime shopping hours for the first time in the late 1800s. A lot of these long-standing center city flagship stores also exhibited unique features such as in-store restaurants, ornate architecture, and Christmas puppet show exhibits. It added a unique flavor to each city or region. Macy's claims that they are trying to save the traditional statues and Christmas events that the former chains held, but they are only doing a half-ass job at best. Yeah they are saving the Christmas light show and eagle statue that made Wanamaker's truly "Wanamaker's"(just as Lord & Taylor, Macy's predecessor did), but they are changing the name and closing out the upper levels of the store! On top of that, they completely closed down the historic Strawbridge & Clothier location down the street...a store that I always visited each Christmas, to marvel at the history and visit the in-store restaurant! Couldn't they have kept locations open, and kept the same name?...If the stores are all run by Federated, the profit will end up in Federated's pocket no matter what the damn name is, but please keep tradition! And if I travel to say, Chicago, I do not want to go shopping to some ordinary Macy's that I could shop at back home. Now there are far less department store selections to choose from. Macy's is essentially destroying traditions and city history and contributing to the big business takeover of smaller chains...a similar tactic employed by Wal-Mart!
As a result, I am very angry at Macy's and will be boycotting them. LOL but in reality, I was boycotting them before the monopolizing occured, because I worked there once and they fired me in one of the most inconvenient, worst ways possible that I've ever encountered. When they fired me, I was thinking "I hope Macy's dies" so the last thing that I want to see is Macy's succeed and put other stores under. Yes I'm sure that other chains employ the same workplace tactics as Macy's so maybe Macy's isn't any worse of a workplace than most retail stores, but it doesn't help them any when I already think it's annoying that they are homogenizing the nation's historic department store chains. I have searched the web and found a large number of angry people that are outraged about Macy's pulling the plug on such long-standing chains such as Marshall Field's and Burdines. The other day when I randomly visited my local mall, I heard ladies outside discussing about how they used to shop at Strawbridge's, they don't like Macy's, and would rather start shopping at Boscov's(which doesn't have the same quality products as Strawbridge's did) than Macy's. I don't think there's too many people that are happy with Macy's right now. If you agree with me, you should start shopping elsewhere to prevent Macy's from profitting and growing even bigger.
At the rate that we are going, what's next? We do not have many middle-class department stores to choose from. The other chains in my area include JC Penneys, Sears, Kohl's, and Boscov's...that's it! (JC Penneys has closed many locations in recent years and at the rate the economy and retail industry is going, I do not see it lasting too long.) Besides those four stores, you can choose from the discount stores, but they generally cater to a different economic crowd than department stores do. There is still a decent variety amongst upscale stores(Bloomingdales, Saks Fifth Avenue, Nordstrom, etc) but they cater to people with more expensive taste than the middle class crowd. Even with discount stores, there have been many chain closures and now there are only three big chains left...Wal-Mart, K-Mart, and Target. Wal-Mart is the biggest chain of the discount stores, and I hate Wal-mart even more than I hate Macy's!And most people that like to shop at department stores, want brands that are more expensive than the brands generally carried at discount stores.
Anyone have opinions about the behemoth Macy's takeover of chains, or any bitter resentments about Macy's? This whole issue has really concerned me and annoyed me. I hate seeing traditions that I grew up with get ruined. As a capitalistic society, Macy's has a right to expand its business, but we consumers also have a right to boycott, protest, and take our business elsewhere.


And most people that like to shop at department stores, want brands that are more expensive than the brands generally carried at discount stores.
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) At the Macy's I used to work at, there was this older kinda condescending woman named Jackie...she declined a customer from using a coupon that expired freakin ONE DAY BEFORE, and did so in a very snobby way! Most stores will honor coupons if they just expired, to show the extent of their "great customer service" so that the customers will appreciate it and keep returning to buy from them. But not Macy's! Jackie also argued with customers and she wasn't very nice to me either. :-( That, and Macy's had two obsessions...1, pressuring customers to apply for their stupid high-interest credit card; and 2, pressuring customers to write good reviews about the customer service on the fds.com website! They even gave out rewards and incentives if you got good reviews written on the website by customers. Even though I was a very friendly and attentive worker, and ALWAYS did as management instructed by asking each and every customer to log onto fds.com and write a good review about my service, no one ever did. :-( I guess they were too busy with their lives to care about writing me a good review. So after they fired me, I wrote 3 good reviews about myself and sent them to their website! HAHA! I used my friends' addresses and phone numbers so if Macy's called to check the validity of the reviews, my friends would have my back. I also called Jackie the condescending older woman a few times at work, pretending to be a customer looking for "Phillydancer," the helpful young girl that'd helped me on my most recent shopping trip. I guess you can tell that I was pretty bitter that Macy's fired me and wanted to show them that they'd lost a good employee...
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Hopefully more chains will pop up so that Macy's will soon have some nasty competition!

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