R.I.P. Marshall Field's

Federated Department Stores (an accurate name, in view of their ownership of every department store I can think of) announced that it is changing the name of the Marshall Field's chain of department stores to Macy's. It is causing a bit of a problem here in Chicago, because the Field's name has associated with Chicago retail for 150 years, and folks are still miffed that they no longer make Frango chocolates in Chicago anymore.

Funny thing is, the stores known as Dayton's (what I grew up with in Minnesota) and Hudson's (Michigan) changed their names to Field's in 2001, despite their long history in their respective states. I guess Field's was just due.

Although I think changing the name of every Field's store to Macy's does not make much marketing sense (people love Field's here, even though they can find the same thing for less somewhere else), I have long since stopped trying to understand corporate decisionmaking. In the end, I don't think that the axis of the Earth will be knocked too far off of its axis because I end up buying a tie at Macy's and not Field's.