Results tagged “macys”

Sometimes you just need to check your pride at the door and do what must be done. Which is why we found ourselves Saturday afternoon at Macy Field's, Christmas shopping and looking for a nosh. The Walnut Room is still the Walnut Room, and the seventh floor food court is still dominated by fast food concepts from celebrity chefs. The newest, from Marcus Samuelsson (C-House), is probably the best of a lot that includes Rick Bayless Frontera Fresco and Takashi Yagihashi's Noodles by Takashi. Incidentally, all three chefs are members of Macy's Culinary Council, dating back to the store's days as Marshall Field's.

      

If there's one thing we can be sure of, it's the high level of vitriol with which locals despise Macy's for forcing out Marshall Field's. But now we've come up with a plan that may allow you to get a little bit of revenge and help a charity in the process. Macy's is running a campaign this holiday season called Believe based on the New York Sun's famous 1897 editorial, "Yes, Virginia, there is a Santa Claus." Ha ha. Anyway. Each store is equipped with a "Believe Station" at which the young and young at heart can write a letter to Santa and drop it in the Santa Mail box. For every letter received, Macy's will donate $1 to Make-A-Wish, up to $1 million. So that got us thinking: how can we make sure Macy's has to shell out the full cool million and allows us to express our contempt for the store at the same time? Why, by stuffing the mailbox, of course!

We've got a special Macy's-themed post coming up Monday for all of you drinking the Macy's haterade this holiday season, but for now, we'll leave you with this pretty clever clip from yesterday's parade where the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade gets RickRolled. This clip is amazing and we like to think that Matt Lauer and Al Roker were completely flummoxed by it all, whether or not they were in on the joke.

While nothing tops the gravity-defying vertical runway show Marshall Fields busted out five years ago, the Fall fashion event Macy's is throwing this year is getting us almost as jazzed up. The historic department store, now celebrating its 150th year in business, will host an 80s-themed “Pop Candy Arcade” fashion extravaganza this Friday that will feature the store’s new looks, as well as allow us to revel in retro-mania.

For some time now, Macy’s has been sitting quietly in Chicago’s retail corner, attempting to appeal to some kind of market and curb the company’s tumbling earnings, all while attracting minimal attention from pissed off former Field’s customers. But while local department store equivalent Von Maur is doing well, with plans for store expansions, Macy’s continues to trim jobs (it’s called “restructuring,” y’all). The latest: an undisclosed number of support positions across the board at former Field’s stores, with about 10 alteration and personal shopper positions eliminated at the State Street flagship store.

If, as everyone keeps saying, celebrity chefs are the new rock stars, then food groupies should keep an eye out for Marcus Samuelsson in the upcoming days. Tipster "youattal" wrote that the Swedish superstar, Aquavit owner and Macy's (née Marshall Field's) Culinary Council member is in town today training staff for tomorrow's opening of Marc Burger.

You know when you toss money in a vending machine and then absent-mindedly hit the wrong buttons, and end up with vanilla wafers instead of your coveted Snickers? Or you watch the mini turnstyle spin only to stop just short of dropping your snack, and your Fritos dangle by a thread in front of your face as if to taunt you?

A marketing slip-up in the merger of two large corporations can cause customers to feel angry and betrayed, especially when a company with local ties is being overtaken by a national company. We saw this with the Macy’s corporate take-over of Marshall Field’s, which some are calling this decade’s “New Coke” of marketing disasters.

It’s with a bit of irony that the company responsible for killing the Marshall Field’s trademark green is now, itself, going green. Earlier this week, Macy’s announced they will be using recycled paper shopping bags at all its stores, as well as biodegradable packaging for online shipments -- all part of Macy’s “commitment to contribute to a more sustainable environment.”

Launching on Earth Day late next month: organic Frango mints. The Tribune reports that Macy's and Frango producer Gertrude Hawk will make the organic mint chocolates using organic vanilla, organic milk chocolate and organic cane sugar, and that the mints will be packaged in recyclable paperboard boxes printed with vegetable-based inks. Macy's says that the decision to sell organic Frangos is part of an effort "to keep pace with growing consumer demand for organic products."

The warm weather seems to have kept some of our naughty citizens somewhat at bay this weekend, but there was still some activity in Chicago's criminal justice world:

While the Field’s Fans are too busy protesting poor customer service at Macy’s as they long for the days of Marshall Field’s, customer satisfaction for shopping scabs has increased. An annual University of Michigan Study ranking shopper satisfaction among discount and department stores and supermarkets reported Macy’s saw a 5.6% increase in customer satisfaction, ending with a score of 75 out of 100 points. Nordstrom tops the list with a score of 80, only five points between the two. The Sun-Times reported:

The FBI finally caught the Kangol Bandit. [Trib]

It was a rough week for Macy’s, people. 2,500 jobs cut. January same-store sales down 7.1%. Let’s just put that into perspective: sales are nowhere near expectations across the board. A survey of 43 retailers by the UBS-International Council of Shopping Centers indicated that January sales were only up 0.5%, a percentage point below the anticipated 1.5%. Macy’s, on the other hand, anticipated their sales were going to be down 4 to 6%.

It's not just your suburban-bound friend's condo that's taking longer to sell -- the Cubs sale is proceeding slower than Sam Zell predicted due to real estate uncertainties as well.

One of the more anticipated restaurant openings in recent weeks has been Takashi, which opened its doors December 30th at 1952 N. Damen in Bucktown.

Further evidence that Macy’s strategies are not headed in the successful direction executives hoped, Macy’s North, the division that operates Macy’s in the Midwest, announced Friday the layoff of 271 employees, citing lagging sales. Combined sales for November and December were down 1.1%, while December’s sales were down 7.9%, significantly worse than the anticipated 4 to 7 percent drop over last year. January’s same day sales are expected to dip 4 to 6 percent.

It's been a banner year around these parts, with stories big and small, comments bold and beautiful, politicians grand and grandly inept. The last 12 months were filled with sports, food, music and mayhem. What were we all talking about in 2007?

Zero7068 has some fun with the tags of this fantastic capture: "yes virginia, there is a crazy rich uncle | I followed this dude all the way from Macy's | he walked awful fast for a guy with an elephant on his back." Heehehehehe.

We reported on Wednesday sales have been sinking at the flagship State Street store--nostalgic epicenter for Field’s lovers. Meanwhile, Field’s Fans continue to protest. A group of concerned Field's Fans showed up on Saturday to “protest against Macy's business practices here in the Chicago area.” They have scheduled special “leaflet” events on the Friday and Saturday following Thanksgiving, as well as another rally “Under the Great Clock” at noon on Saturday, December 2. Wednesday’s Trib...

A lesbian couple was named "cutest couple" for Waukegan High School's annual yearbook. Minor hand-wringing from a parent ensued. It's too damn early for Christmas music on the radio. Same goes for Christmas sales. You might want to think twice about eating those Jeno's or Totino's frozen pizzas. Too little too late? Macy's hopes FAO Schwartz can bring customers back to State Street. There's still some meaningful soccer to be played at Toyota Park....

Forced to choose between stepping inside Macy's or taking a bullet to the head, some of the more retentive opponents of the department store giant would wrap their mouths around the barrel like John Malkovich in In the Line of Fire. With the confirmation on last night's WGN Evening News and in this morning's Sun-Times that Macy's and Oak Lawn-based Cupid Candies have reached an agreement to manufacture one-pound boxes of Frango mints for local...

The president of Southern Illinois University plagiarized his thesis back in 1984, but school officials decided today that it was just a mistake, and he should keep his job.

File this under collaborations we really never saw coming. Chicago post-rock supergroup Tortoise has decided to team up with Nosferatu and ... Macy's ... at ... the Symphony Center?! Chuck this one up to the all-powerful clout of Metro's Joe Shinnyhan.

Protest over national vs. regional chains, the never-ending debate over the place of cars and bicycles in our metropolises, professional sports scandals, remembering a solemn day, and being issued a search warrant - it all happened across our sites this week! Another banner week at Chicagoist started off with daily reports from food writer Lisa Shames on her attempt to eat only locally grown and raised foodstuffs all week as part of a farmers market...