Wednesday, January 03, 2007
Today's dose of Schadenfreude...
So apparently, Macy's hasn't set Chicago's retail world on fire. Mwa ha ha ha ha ha ha ha!
As you may know, Macy's bought and changed the name of Chicago's historic Marshall Field's stores and generally downgraded the quality of the merchandise to craptastic. The latter point I gather from hearsay, as I have successfully boycotted Macy's since the name change. Oh, it pained me--it pained me!--to not have Marshall Field's as my classy one-stop Christmas shopping destination and to avert my eyes from all the Frangos, but principles are principles. Granted, I'm not engaged in a particularly important struggle, in the grand scheme of things, but I do think a corporation should be punished for tarnishing beloved childhood memories and all that.
In my heart of hearts, I hold out hope that Field's will one day be resurrected, but I doubt it. So much of that whole State Street area that was so exciting and delightful to me when I was younger is gone, replaced by gazillion dollar condos. That's all that ever seems to get built in this city anymore. What I always wonder is, a) How many people are there out there who can buy $700,000 one-bedroom condos? b) At what point are there more $700,000 one-bedroom condos available than anyone could possibly afford to buy? I just envision an empty ghost city filled with unoccupied $700,000 one-bedroom condos, layers of dust covering the immaculate white drywall and bamboo hardwood floors.
--karen
As you may know, Macy's bought and changed the name of Chicago's historic Marshall Field's stores and generally downgraded the quality of the merchandise to craptastic. The latter point I gather from hearsay, as I have successfully boycotted Macy's since the name change. Oh, it pained me--it pained me!--to not have Marshall Field's as my classy one-stop Christmas shopping destination and to avert my eyes from all the Frangos, but principles are principles. Granted, I'm not engaged in a particularly important struggle, in the grand scheme of things, but I do think a corporation should be punished for tarnishing beloved childhood memories and all that.
In my heart of hearts, I hold out hope that Field's will one day be resurrected, but I doubt it. So much of that whole State Street area that was so exciting and delightful to me when I was younger is gone, replaced by gazillion dollar condos. That's all that ever seems to get built in this city anymore. What I always wonder is, a) How many people are there out there who can buy $700,000 one-bedroom condos? b) At what point are there more $700,000 one-bedroom condos available than anyone could possibly afford to buy? I just envision an empty ghost city filled with unoccupied $700,000 one-bedroom condos, layers of dust covering the immaculate white drywall and bamboo hardwood floors.
--karen
# posted by karen gsteiger @ 9:34 AM 
