A year later, Field's followers still protesting
By Sandra M. Jones
September 8, 2007

It has been a year since Macy's made its Chicago debut, and the department store chain can't seem to shake the image of a New Yorker trampling on the Second City.

Marshall Field's loyalists plan to gather Sunday in front of Macy's on State Street in Chicago to call for the return of the famous moniker, marking the fourth protest organized by the grassroots group Field's Fans Chicago.

"Our goal is to demonstrate that Chicago would like Marshall Field's back not only in name but also in service and quality," said Jim McKay, the group's head and an adjunct associate professor of architecture at the University of Illinois at Chicago. "It's a Chicago icon."

Few thought the uproar over Marshall Field's disappearance would still be going strong one year after Macy's mothballed the name, along with 10 other regional department store brands, in an effort to create a national department store chain.

But corporations frequently underestimate the depth of consumer attachment, said J. Garland Pollard IV, a Sarasota, Fla.-based historic preservationist and writer who tracks defunct brands.

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I especially like this line ===> Last month, the retailer posted a 77 percent decline in second-quarter profit on a 1.7 percent sales decline.