Abraham and Strauss. Stern’s. Davison’s. The Broadway. Weinstock’s. The Emporium. Bullock’s. Jordan Marsh. Maas Brothers. Liberty House. I Magnin. Rich’s. Bon Marche. Lazarus. Burdine’s. Soon, every department store will be Macy’s. Except, of course, for Dayton’s and Hudson’s, which are now Marshall Field…
I haven’t purchased much of anything in a traditional department store in years. I generally don’t even visit them anymore, except for the occasional moment of desperation around Christmas. But I’ve always been somewhat fascinated by the history of the big regional chains and the architecture of their older stores, and it’s sort of sad to see so many grand old names disappearing so quickly over the past few years…
Although some people undoubtedly do, I don’t see some sinister plot here. And make no mistake: none of these stores has been locally-owned for decades anyway. Marketing consolidation was probably necessary for a troubled industry which so many people apparently find — as do I — to be such an utterly irrelevant part of everyday life. It’s just a shame that we have to bid farewell to century-old names and that we must forfeit one more little bit of regional identity in the process…