I got published in Chain Store Age

Today, I opened my November copy of Chain Store Age magazine and read some familiar words: my own. Each week, CSA, posts a different poll to its website, mostly about the retail industry. I participate in the poll nearly every week, and sometimes leave comments.

The dicussion on September 20th was: "Federated Department Stores plans a major rebranding initiative. Next year, all stores will fall under its Macy's or Bloomingdales banners -- Gone are the hyphenated combination names that include "Bon," "Burdines" and "Goldsmith's." I offered my opinion as follows:

Macy's is not a bad name, and virtually everyone who shops knows it. The hyphenated names were a joke from the start. The old regionals were fast becoming more and more like each other. If I took an average person into Rich's, for example, blindfolded them, teleported them to Macy's and removed the blindfold, they would be hard-pressed to tell they were in a different store.

Apparently the response to the discussion was so strong that CSA shared the information with Federated chairman Terry Lundgren and decided to publish it in their magazine. They neglected to print my name, or the names of the other posters, but I knew my writing immediately.

You can find the comments of others and Lundgren's letter at Letter to the Editor : Federated Redistributes the Brand

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