Give the Lady What She Wants

I researching my article about the Marshall Field’s name change yesterday, I did find out one thing I didn’t know about the department store’s landmark building, which dates from the 1890s. The granite pillars at the State Street entrance, according the Field’s web site, were installed in 1902 and are the second-tallest granite pillars in the world, after those of the Temple of Karnak in Egypt.

Now that’s the kind of fact I like. I will be sure to admire those pillars for a few moments next time I'm nearby. It’s unlikely that I’ll be able to visit those taller ones anytime soon.

Anyway, I plan to boycott the Chicago Macy’s, which will be very easy, since my annual spending at Marshall Field’s, downtown or otherwise, has been vanishingly small in most years. I bought a pair of winter gloves there ca. 1988, promptly left them in a taxi a few weeks later, and then went back and bought another pair—they weren’t especially expensive, though Field’s has (had) that reputation.

When I worked at 35 E. Wacker, which isn’t too far from the State Street store, I would occasionally visit its basement, which had (for me) the most interesting merchandise: the food court, books, and Frango mints. But I almost never went there after I started working in the West Loop.

Last year I went to see the Christmas windows on State Street, and that was about it (see December 16, 2004). After 2005, Federated Stores might not bother with the windows, which clearly cost a lot of money to design, and do not function as a profit center. Can’t even charge people to look at them. They only serve to help distinguish the store from all the other stores in the world, and where’s the synergy in that?