You may (or may not) be keeping up with the merger of the two major department stores Macy’s and Filene’s. As it stands here in New England most of the Filene’s stores will close…and a couple Macy’s as well. The assumption is that all of the Filene’s will be replaced with Macy’s.
This makes me pretty sad. I do 85% of my clothes shopping at Filene’s. They have super sales almost all the time and I can actually find clothes that FIT, I feel good in and are not too expensive. Macy’s just doesn’t do that for me. I find their stores (well, the few I’ve been in) to be messy, unorganized, and full of clothes that are either too expensive, too young or too old for me. I can’t think of the last thing that I purchased there…it may have been a frying pan. (just try wearing that to work!)
Bloglines alerted me to another post in the Boston area written by someone with similar views as mine. ***Check it out here|http://www.bigdumptruck.com/2005_07_01_oldblog2.php#112260117103279878*** and leave me a comment if you have something to add!
I think I’ll be headed to Filene’s today, coupon in hand, to try to savor my last few moments there. Alas!
Wow – they are merging? (This is what I get for being in Outer Mongolia – no news!) Wow – that is going to make for some more retail craziness. I don’t look forward to it. And you’re right – Filenes usually has good stuff. But I am most fond of sales at Lord and Taylor… you can get some amazing deals there, too.
I’m sorry Becky! I’m surprised to hear that you’re a Filene’s woman, though. Their clothes don’t fit me, and I’ve always found them overpriced — but then, the only Filene’s I knew was on Cape Cod! I am glad to hear there will be more Macy’s, because although they’re always understaffed, my experiences with their clothes have been decent.
Chicagoans don’t care about Filene’s! The crisis is whether they will change the Marshall Field’s name. THIS is a crisis of epic proportions. I personally have very fond memories of a certain Filene’s basement experience, so I would be sad to see it go!
Check out the official press release to see all of the details that have been released on the merger. There is a lot of information in there, so it’s likely that most of your questions can be answered.
The only question that’s not answered is whether Marshall Field’s will be changed. It says they are doing further study on that issue, so I assume that there is some strong support out there for that name to stay the same.
Lord and Taylor is not going to change, according to the merger details.
Filene’s Basement will not be affected by this whatsoever… they are a separate company that was bought out several years ago by the company that owns the Value City and Schottenstein’s discount stores.
I have had very few experiences at Macy’s, but the few times I’ve gone along with Becky my impression is of a very cluttered, messy store, very hard to find things, overly glitzy. Filene’s seems more down to earth and well organized. But it could just be that the Macy’s at the North Shore Mall isn’t run well.
Interestingly, under the terms of this merger, the existing Macy’s at the North Shore Mall is going to be sold off, and will be moving into the Filene’s location. If you’ve ever been there, you would know that Macy’s is enormous compared to Filene’s. So I’m guessing that the Macy’s just isn’t doing that well and that they would be better served in a smaller location.
The scope of this merger is just amazing. It’s going to affect people from coast to coast. It will be interesting to see what happens after it all goes down.