Marshall Field & Co: adieu, ciao, farewell, alas

Classy Marshall Field is to be swallowed up by Macy's. The store where I bought my first maternity clothes, where my kids stood in line to see Santa Claus, where one December day we did all of our Christmas shopping for the whole holiday is going to become a Macy's. Major Bummer. Just 3 weeks ago when we were in that toddlin' town we made a special trip through Field's at Water Tower Place. Still there. Still cool. Still made me want to shop.

When Macy's first came to the Natick Mall in suburban Boston, I went in to take a look around. Kinda junky. Way too many departments with sleazy junior clothes for the teeny bopper crowd. A sea of cheap clothes is not calculated to pull me in to shop. Maybe they weren't cheap and maybe they were not junior sizes, but by god, they looked it. Just something about it wasn't . . . me.

Actually Lord and Taylor at Natick Mall is no prize either. Filene's (soon to also be the late Filene's) I can hack. Good cosmetic counter, children's clothes, housewares and always a nice sale in better sportswear.

I can still remember the red sweater at Field's I bought myself one year while Christmas shopping. Oh, the huge holiday tree, lunch in the dining room with the kids in their best finery, back when they could be coaxed into dressing up. Frango mints. The absolutely cool coffee table that is made out of old chocolate molds. Betcha Macy's doesn't have that.

And Major Daly saying we have to go with the times. Quatch! May all the Mall shoppers surveyed who thought this was a "good idea" spend eternity looking for the exit in an endless mall where the food court smells of rancid grease and the sound of bawling two-years olds never ceases. May all the people polled on the phone who also thought that this was a "good idea" get busy signals and roam in voice mail hell until their ear atrophies and falls off.

Marketing! Now there's a department. Marketing wants things yesterday. No, really. Marketing dreams things and up forgets to tell the people who make it happen. La di dah marketing. They are worse than upper management. Well, almost.

Like the guy said, this is a marketing faux pas way up there with New Coke. Remember new Coke? Yeah. Marketing.

So shoppers: go to Target. Keep the independent stores and small chains in business. Buy less. Make do. Boycott Macy's. You won't drop if you don't shop.

Marshall Field forever. Amen