Much to the enjoyment of many of our readers, Macy’s can’t seem to catch a break. It’s no secret that sales are down, a gracious amount stemming from local boycotts. Just this Monday their food court came down with a severe case of drosophila melanogaster (we did that from memory – damn you, freshman bio!), garnering a shutdown from the Health Department. Macy’s earned the right to reopen this morning, but with last night’s news, we’re not sure anyone will want to eat there.
An unidentified 29-year-old man plunged to his death inside the maligned store yesterday. The incident happened around 8 p.m., after closing time. Witnesses saw the man up on the 8th floor near the atrium; minutes later, he plunged over the balcony to the ground below. He was pronounced dead soon after arrival at Northwestern Memorial Hospital. Police are treating it as a suicide, but so far it’s unclear whether he jumped or just fell.
Questions abound, of course. Why would a man, demarcated as not being a Macy’s employee, be in the store after close? Where exactly did it take place? If we go there tonight to check things out, will we see crime tape everywhere? Weird. Ultimately, this erodes Macy’s reputation even further. Be assured that we do not mean to make light of a tragedy. But if we were unusually cruel people, we’d speculate that if this man was dead set on suicide and also a Field’s supporter, he might have chosen Macy’s on purpose, whether for the many-storied atrium in the middle, or to make shopping there even less palatable. Consider it: can you ever really look at the fountain the same way again?
Image courtesy of Michael DaKidd.
add to digg
add to stumble upon
add to reddit
email this
add to facebook
add to del.icio.us
Shit happens, it has nothing to do with Macy's/Fields.
I'll take "metaphors for macy's handling of the marshall fields acquisition" for 500, Alex.
Didn't a similar suicide happen recently at Bloomingdale's?
I don't know, do you look at the Golden Gate Bridge the same way? It's one of the most popular places to kill yourself. This happens often in every city, it is of course unfortunate for those involved, but I don't think it will 'damage' Macy's.
Your speculation about the man being a Field's supporter is ridiculous, gauche, and otherwise uncalled for. We don't fling ourselves off buildings to protest a retailer!
the ghost of Marshall Field Jr has been summoned...
Crazy. Yeah, there have been more than a few falling/jumping deaths at the Bloomingdales building. But for some reason, theyre always kept quiet in the news, I just hear about them bc I work in the building. It always makes me feel creepy.
or it could be a standard voodoo curse upon the store, who knows
we’d speculate that if this man was dead set on suicide and also a Field’s supporter, he might have chosen Macy’s on purpose
I'm sorry, but this is really really stupid and you have no basis at all for speculating this.
Wow, I've never read a more rediculous article on Chicagoist! Shouldn't Chicagoist care about what their people are posting? Your report was callus and disgusting. When you jump from the 8th floor of Macy's with a Marshall Fields shirt on we'll be sure to take photos and post them here.
Initially, I thought it might be spook, making some grand and dramtic gesture about the futility of protesting a corporate department store, but then I see he's already posted here on Chicagoist today.
pantagrapher and mich: i've never heard of any suicide at bloomie's. they do a good job of keeping that hush-hush then.
guest 4: ever see 'the bridge'?
Ferdy and guest 9: yes, the jump in conclusion may be a little silly on my part. i don't mean to trivialize a man's death. but don't you think this might affect Macy's image just a little? their profile is so much higher since the takeover. why commit suicide (presumably) in a building under such scrutiny?
Shannon, seriously? Chosing Macy's on purpose? That's a pretty pretentious and idiotic comment.
But, it was kinda cute how you used the collected "we", Ferdy. Made me giggle. Like you guys have a secret handshake and a tree fort or something. Marshal Fields Fans...BFF 4EVER!
This person may or may not have shopped at Fields. Unless the public hears otherwise, it is silly to speculate.
Sure Shannon, maybe the person commiting suicide was thinking: "I know! I will jump in the Macy's building! This building is under such scrutiny already that this will add fuel to the fire! I really want to affect their image! Bring Marshall Field's back!"
Do you realize how ridiculous that sounds?
I think Shannon was just being silly, that's all.
Then again, the way these Field's protesters carry on, I half expect one of them to pour gasoline on him/herself and set a match in front of Macy's, like the Buddhists in South Vietnam, or that dumb Iraq war protester from Chicago hardly anyone cared about (at least he stopped the war, right?).
That's it. I'm done.
You know, I was a real supporter of this site for quite some time. You occasionally used my images and it was great to feel connected to the city with your news and humor.
Now your site feels like a silly little bully pulpit for random speculation. I'm taking you off my RSS reader. I'm here for news not nonsense.
Just a thought: take a good hard look at Gapers Block. They manage to cover city events, news, food & music reviews AND maintain their integrity with style and humor.
http://www.gapersblock.com/
i just skimmed shannon's article and didn't see the part where she speculated about the man's choice for death.
i guess i'm a sick fuck, too, cause that's something i thought of immediately. i also have personal experience with mental illness, so i can attest to the fact that suicide is caused by people who are hopeless and feel helpless, but also not really thinking completely rationally at the time.
so, it wouldn't surprise me either way if the location was entirely spontaneous and random *or* if it was planned with special significance. in fact, it would seem more likely to be the latter, since people who commit suicide usually have it fairly planned out well before they actually do the deed.
The thing about Field's is pretty obviously a joke, I can't believe people are getting upset over it.
hilarious.
i've looked down at that artrium and have gotten severe vertigo. it's super high up.
scary!
Sparky gets the most apt metaphor award!
Maybe when Shannon, Ferdy, and the rest of the kids, take off their paper hats,- made of Red Eye news papers- put down their card board swords, and come out from the club house/fort, they will consider not trivializing the suicide of fellow citizen in a attemp to score childish points for such a silly intellectually bankrupt mission demonstrative of a Parish Hilton mentality.
The above posts, should be about discussing the lack of treatment and prevention of mental illness in America, not working out emotionally( in the wrong way) the "protesters"
issues of abandonment because they feel a corporation "abandoned" them
Again Fields left, get it? Go protest them if any thing
Its funny once the sign of the club house read "no girls allowed", this one says no thinkers allowed
That's what they could do with Fields is make it a mental institution. Perfect location.
Uh-oh... Better pack our bags. The empathetic spook is taking us all on a guilt trip again.
I'm Jim McKay, the co-founder of FieldsFansChicago.org
Very tragically, the atriums in the store at 111 N. State have been the site of suicides through the years, long before the store became Macy's. Unless there is some unsual connection not yet explained, this tradgedy shouldn't be blamed on or discused within the conversion of Field's to Macy's.
Having worked years ago in a discount store 15% the size of 111 N. State Street, I found it not uncommon that straggling customers would still be in the store up to 15 minutes after closing. I'd wager such a huge building as 111 N. State would take even longer to be cleared of customers.
God bless the soul of the person who died last night, as well as those who have been affected by last night's tradgedy.
Jim McKay
jjmckay@fieldsfanschicago.org
OMG spook u r sooo much better than every1 else omg!
U r so much better a person and good looking and smarterest! omg!
"Be assured that we do not mean to make light of a tragedy. But if we were unusually cruel people, we’d speculate that if this man..."
And then, you go on to speculate. I guess you really are unusually cruel people! You can't have it both ways.
Ethan,
Wouldn't the effort and anger that you put out in continuously badmouthing ex-Field's shoppers be better utilized in correcting the various real injustices in the city and country?
ARE we sure that it was NOT Mr Lundgren ..... CEO of Federated Department Stores???
He was sure to be hung by the shareholders anyways!
Que sera sera...
Murphy's Law of retail states that there's always at *least* one person who comes in a fraction of a second before closing time and doesn't leave until 20 minutes after closing time. So it doesn't seem that weird that this guy was still there after the store closed. Besides, wasn't it, like, 20 minutes after the store closed? It wasn't all that long, I don't think.
Jim McKay: thank you. like bloomingdale's, i'd never heard of a suicide at field's/macy's.
Writing as one who supports the boycott, I have to defend Chicagoist for pointing out the unique timing of this tragic event.
There is nothing wrong with Chicagoist placing this tragedy against the background of recent events of the Field's/Macy's battle. Furthermore, Chicagoist has not insulted this man and obviously was not serious about his actions being caused by the controversy.
All we know, and all Chicagoist claimed to know, is that a young man has been lost. His family is certainly grieving now. He deserves our prayers.
Whenever I am in that building and I look up to marvel at the Tiffany dome or look down I always think that this place is too easy to jump off of if you had the will and determination. I try not to go too close to the railing because it scares me just to think about the possibility.
Condolences to the family for that man.
I think it's especially highlighted because of the Macy's media frenzy nowadays. I am sure things like this happen more often than we think, but considering the times - the MF/Macy's debacle, it is prime meat for the media to exploit.
There are a lot of suicides at the Bloomingdale's building AND at Water Tower Place. You just don't hear about it in the media for fear of copycats. I used to work on Michigan Ave, and word would filter through the retail sector about them.
I had a friend who worked at Bloomies who was sitting on a bench with her husband on break in the main area of the atrium, and as they got up to go, heard a BOOM like a bomb going off. Sure enough, it was a jumper from the top level. They missed getting landed on by seconds.
And I won't even recount the horror stories I heard from friends who worked at Water Tower and the staggered openings of the central area there...
Those high rise malls give me the creeps now.
Also, if you check your Chicago history, back in the days of the old courthouse, I think, it was known as the Bullseye because of all the jumpers.
(The columns in the Cancer Survivors Park off LSD that they rescued from the lake are remnants of the courthouse, if my memory serves).
The location of the suicide was on the state and randolph side of the building near the coach handbags.
That place is going to be haunted for real!
#18,
The disgust is not that people couldn't take it as a joke, the disgust is that it's just plain stupid andR sophomoric, and dissapointingly reflects a growing lack of judgement by Chicagoist writers.
Too often lately this blog has felt like the back page of the RedEye - RedEye readers will know what I mean.
I agree with #36; this shows bad judgment and poor taste by Chicagoist.
Stop trying to twist stories in your desperate attempt to smear Macy's. You are exploiting the situation.