Field's name not dead yet

By Sandra Jones
Crain's Chicago Business

CHICAGO - Strong holiday sales at the State Street store have given Federated Department Stores Inc. bosses second thoughts about their controversial decision to deep-six the Marshall Field’s name.

“We are looking for ways to continue the Marshall Field’s name and keep the name alive,” says a spokesman for Federated.

In September, Federated seemed to write the epitaph for the 154-year-old Field’s brand, announcing: “All Marshall Field’s stores will convert to the Macy’s nameplate in fall 2006.”

Those plans haven’t changed, but the company hasn’t decided to abandon the name altogether, the spokesman says. He declines to elaborate.

Possibilities range from Field’s-branded goods to an in-store Field’s shop or keeping the Field’s name attached to the State Street flagship, retail experts say.

Any continuing use of the Field’s name seems most likely at State Street. Sales there rose more than 3% during the holidays, outpacing the more than 2% gain at Field’s 61-store chain as a whole, people familiar with the figures say, as sentimental shoppers flocked to take in the State Street store’s last holiday as Marshall Field’s.

The turnout evidently impressed Federated CEO Terry J. Lundgren, who toured the State Street store in December as shoppers snapped up Field’s green clock Christmas ornaments and stood in line for up to five hours to lunch under the Christmas tree in the Walnut Room.

Retail experts say it makes the most sense to keep Field’s name present at the State Street store, where tourism is a big part of business. Federated, which is based in Cincinnati and New York, could sell Field’s merchandise or establish a Field’s boutique within the store on par with the scads of other leased shops that previous owner Target Corp. put in place when it refurbished the flagship in 2003.

Federated’s two other flagship stores—Macy’s Herald Square in New York and Macy’s Union Square in San Francisco—operate virtually as separate businesses with their own marketing, special events, visual merchandising and vendor arrangements. Carving out a Field’s enclave at the State Street store (the third-largest department store in the nation after Macy’s Herald Square) wouldn’t be difficult, nor would it conflict with Federated’s efforts to create a national chain under the Macy’s banner, says Ken Nisch, chairman of JGA Inc., a Michigan-based retail branding and design firm that worked on Field’s State Street makeover under Target.

“They already have a template to do it,” says Mr. Nisch. “It’s a way to use a valuable asset.”

OTHERS CONCERNED
Federated already has decided to allow shoppers to continue to use their Field’s charge cards after the stores change to Macy’s, a step it is taking in other markets where it bought regional chains in its $17-billion acquisition of St. Louis-based May Department Stores Co. The Field’s card will be valid until it expires or is lost or stolen, at which time it will be replaced with a Macy’s card, the Federated spokesman says.

Still, several owners of leased shops within Field’s State Street store say they’re worried about the potential of losing sales when the transfer takes place in September, right before the crucial holiday shopping season. Many Chicagoans vowed to boycott the stores under the Macy’s moniker.

“It would be exciting if they found a way to keep Field’s name attached to (the State Street store),” says Lindsay Cain, founder of Femmegems, a New York jewelry retailer with an outpost at the store.

Don Barliant, owner of Chicago-based Barbara’s Bookstore, runs shops inside Field’s stores on State Street and in downtown Minneapolis. He was putting together a package of history books on Chicago to send to Federated’s top executives last fall when he heard about the company’s decision to drop the Field’s name.

“The rebel part of me wants to singlehandedly save Field’s,” says Mr. Barliant. “You can’t pick a book about Chicago without Marshall Field’s being prominently mentioned. It’s not just a retailer, it’s an institution. Why would you throw that away?”