Macy's closing 36 stores

[rwsandiego]

Honestly, I think part of the problem is the events that transpired about 10 years ago when they converted all those department store names to Macy's and generally downscaled them. Sears and Penney's at least have the benefit of being legacy names and at one time really meant something. Not so much for Macy's in 90% of the communities they occupy.

No, Macy's had pretty good name recognition. It wasn't about just the fact that they eliminated nameplates, it was the nameplates the eliminated, in 2006, alone:

Famous Barr - St. Louis
Filene's - Boston
Foley's - Houston & Dallas
Hecht's - DC/Baltimore
The Jones Store - Kansas City
Kauffmann's - Ohio
L.S. Ayres - Indianapolis
Meier & Frank - Seattle
Robinsons-May - California
Strawbridge & Clothier - Delaware, New Jersey and Pennsylvania.

...

You left off one of the (if not the biggest) goofs: Marshall Field's. Granted, in Minneapolis and Detroit the Field's stores were originally Dayton's and Hudson's, respectively. In Chicago, Marshall Field's was the place to shop. Nordstrom did not do very well there and Bloomingdale's almost pulled out until Field's became macy's.

[veteran+]

You both left off May D&F in Denver Co.

[dblackwood2011]

Lets not forget that Macy's had exited some markets that they ended up reentering like Toledo and Kansas City in the 80's. The KC-Topeka-Wichita stores went to Dillard's, and the Toledo stores went to Elder-Beerman. Because Mercantile never took interested in Wichita (despite building a The Jones Store in Topeka and Towne East having a still vacant anchor slot) Macy's never made a return to Wichita and has publicly told economic development officials that they're not interested many times alongside other requested chains like Apple and Cheesecake Factory. Macy's treated the Topeka, KS store and the Metcalf South Shopping Center store in Overland Park, KS sore pretty poorly... In Overland Park they were sitting on the store hoping MD Management would stop dragging their feet and get the mall redeveloped, but when you're a slumlord company that only owns one not-dead mall and three of your malls have already been closed and demolished I don't think you can carry much weight with retail chains. You could tell that Macy's didn't want the Topeka store and the Iowa Famous Barr stores and Omaha Jones Store were handed off to Younkers. In Kansas City Macy's inherited two nieces stores in Johnson County, KS that May had picked up from Jacobson's and Montgomery Ward, but it also came with the long neglected and semi rundown Prarie Village, Metro North, Metcalf South, and Topeka stores. I can't comment on what condition the Independence store in in because I've never been in there. Macy's is dumping the musty Metro North store soon for a significantly smaller single level store that will probably be similar to the Lee's Summit, MO store.