The 2 most appropriate Macy's/Field's questions for this September

As the deal isn't going to be any more done than it is now as the name Field's comes off the stoes and Macy's (dare I say Macy*s?) goes up, I can't think of any more appropriate questions to ask than the following: 1. Is Macy's a New York store or a national store? 2. Are there any true "local" department stores out there today? My answer: Macy's is a national chain, no different than Sears or Penny's in the sense that it doesn't rely on any one city to be its focus. Sure it started in New York, but Federated has operated it from Cincinnati for years. And many cities, such as San Francisco, have had Macy's for so long it seems home grown. Macy's is no more New York than was a Dayton Hudson run Marshall Field's, with Mpls HQ, the real Chicago. In essence, the only connection left to the grand old stores is (was) the names. Period. Local department stores, and local specialty stoes, are as dead as a door knob. It didn't take Macy's to hammer in the last nail. They don't exist. The Carsons that will close its doors on State is so far removed in ownership and structure from the original Carson Pirie Scott that its hard to see a relationship at all. Rare was the local department store with the local name run differently than a corporation's chains in other cities, still operating under their local name. For years, Dayton Hudson ran Field's, Dayton's and Hudson's identically, only the names on the stores different (even the merchandise tags contained all three stores). Marshall Field's, Carson Pirie Scott, Wieboldts, Boston Store, the Fair, Sears, Wards, Goldblatt's all lined State Street, a collection of department stores that no site in the world came close to equally. With the closing of Carsons and the conversion of Field's, not a one of those buildings will bear the name of the stores mentioned above (although a smaller version of Sears still precariously remains). We weren't shocked when Wiebolt's shut its doors, when the Fair became part of Wards, when Goldblatt's succumbed to the discounters. Why should we be surprised to see what happened to Field's and Carsons? It's a different Chicago and a different State Street today. One would have to be insane to say it was a worse Chicago and a a worse State Street based on the changes to what were always the street's two shining lights and chief attractions: Marshall Field & Co. and Carson Pirie Scott & Co. Time didn't pass Chicago by, but it certainly did the grand age of department stores. We'll survive.>