Macy’s to cut 271 more jobs including Marshall Field’s window designer

Macy’s to cut 271 more jobs including Marshall Field’s window designer

Posted January 18, 2008

Sales at Macy’s department stores in December saw one of the biggest declines ever — 7.9 percent.

Just days later, the Cincinnati-based retailer announced that 271 employees in its Midwest division will be let go.

Off those jobs, 100 will come from the famed former Marshall Field’s stores, including the window designer for Chicago’s State Street store.

Amy Meadows had designed the windows, including the Great Tree’s twinkling star, for 25 years.

The heartless company’s only remarks about firing a 25-year employee were: “We have a talented visual team who will decorate our store windows and continue the time-honored tradition.”

Rotten bastards.

Chicago shoppers continue to help destroy Macy’s (good).

“It’s a loss to our city,” said Jim McKay, co-organizer at fieldsfans chicago.org, a grass-roots group that has been an outspoken critic of Macy’s, upon hearing of Meadows’ dismissal. “It used to be a one-of-a-kind store, and now it’s one of 800, and that’s a detriment to our city.”

Not only is it a detriment to your city but to the country. Macy’s will fall. Soon.

I urge you to stop shopping Macy’s. Do what’s right and stop supporting a company that doesn’t support its employees, customers or those “time-honored” traditions.

Macy’s finds new strategy, cuts 2,300 jobs

Macy’s finds new strategy, cuts 2,300 jobs

Posted February 7, 2008

Well, it seems the Red Star Whore store has learned something from its big bully take over of regional chains — don’t mess with success.

Macy’s announced Wednesday a major shakeup in the company’s business plan.

Not even two years after removing several well-known store names and trying a full scale national department store effort, Macy’s will begin rolling out a plan that calls for regional districts serving no more than 10 stores each. Current districts serve up to 18 stores.

“Macy’s said regional headquarters in Minneapolis, St. Louis and Seattle will be consolidated into offices in New York, Atlanta and San Francisco, respectively,” the AP reports.

The plan comes at a major cost, though. Macy’s said 2,300 jobs would be lost in the company’s new plans. About 250 manager positions will be created in areas adopting the new business plan.

This round of job cuts is different from the company’s two other recent announcements of getting rid of hardworking people. In early January, the company announced that 1,171 people would lose their jobs.

Macy’s January same-store sales fell 7.1 percent. Its worst month on record is December 2007 when the company announced a 7.9 percent fall.

Previous to the big merger of MayCo stores operated under similar strategies. Stores were grouped into districts where local managers made buying decisions and visual layouts in stores.

Macy’s will take this plan and attempt to market its New York appeal locally.

As much as I hate Macy’s, I am glad they have seen the light and realized their original plan to sweep across the nation and change the mindset of shoppers from Pittsburgh to Seattle has failed. There was no chance in retail hell that Macy’s could market a New York store in Topeka, Kansas.

The company needs to listen to local shoppers. It can’t bring sweeping changes to areas that just won’t accept them. We’ll see how this changes things. Sadly, this still won’t bring back Kaufmann’s and Filene’s. It won’t bring a uniqueness to the local shopping experience. Consumers will still go about their business like hamsters in a cage, forced to pick from a mundane selection that people all over the country have to choose from as well.

Maybe prices at Macy’s will drop. HA! Who am I kidding?

Macy's dress code leads to workers' grievance

By LaMont Jones, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

A decision by Macy's to require all employees to wear black has a lot of workers seeing red, and the union that represents workers at the Downtown Pittsburgh store has filed a grievance to rescind the new dress code.

The new dress code is to take effect Sept. 4 at all 113 stores in the nine-state Midwest division.

Macy's spokesman Nathan Shore said the change will make it easier for customers to identify store employees, as has happened in other divisions that have already implemented a black dress code.

But the new policy violates a contract provision and the National Labor Relations Act, argued Thomas R. Scheid, a union representative for the Pittsburgh office of the Allegheny Regional Joint Board Retail, Wholesale Department Store Union, which represents workers at the Downtown store.

In a July 9 grievance letter to Kim Bass, Macy's Midwest manager of labor relations, Mr. Scheid wrote that the new dress code "will result in significant out-of-pocket expense to members of Local 101 and in some of the commission departments, it is likely to result in diminished sales for the Company and diminished earnings for Local 101's members."

First published on July 18, 2007 at 1:26 pm