One way you can tell you live in Fort Wayne instead of Chicago. Here, we note coming of Macy's with tearful reminiscences about the passing of the L.S. Ayre's era. There, they take to the streets:
Protesters marched, carried signs and called for a boycott Saturday because their beloved Marshall Field's store, the shopper's magnet on State Street for more than a century, had been replaced by a New York icon — Macy's.
"Hell No. Not My Dough" and "Macy's Is Just Wal-Mart with Pretension," read some of the signs carried by demonstrators, who also toted Field's signature green shopping bags.
The store is one of about 400 properties nationwide being converted to the Macy's nameplate by Federated Department Stores Inc., which acquired them when it bought May Department Stores Co. last year.
But unlike most of them, the big Marshall Field's store had amassed generations worth of loyalty.
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More info about the group protesting the conversion of Macy's to Field's at http://www.fieldsfanschicago.org
It's called civic pride. Although the mayor hasn't displayed much of it recently, Chicagoans don't like having East Coast brands shoved down our throats. Maybe Macy's will be successful everywhere else, but we'd like to think we can show Federated a lesson here. Even if we don't succeed here, perhaps we can make the next company think twice before taking yet another part of our history away from us.
We have civic pride here in Fort Wayne, too. It's just, for us, this battle was lost years a go, when Wolf & Dessaur became L.S. Ayres. Meet the new boss, same as the old boss.
Good luck to you, but I think you're tilting at windmills.