Macy's doesn't do coupons.
Simple as that. Too much trouble for the sales staff, too much of a headache for accounting. Plus there's all those slips of paper to deal with. It naturally follows, then, that when Macy's buys up other department stores, that's the end of the coupons for them as well.
Oops, my bad, says Terry J. Lundgren, CEO of the floundering corporation. Those rubes out in the hinterlands sure do love their coupons, and they just weren't ready for the panache and elan of New York City ways. That must be why they don't shop Macy's. There's no coupons for them to clip and think that they're getting a bargain.
Maybe it's the change of fashion apparel, the elimination of .....gag, the horror...lines like Dockers and Levis -- clothes right out of Hicksville, USA. All Macy's wanted to do was bring in some overpriced shite that the yokels would think was tres chic, low quality garments that were to be snapped up at retail prices. 'Macy's knows what you want and you don't' was the message, but what Macy's really wanted was to position the store so that they were no longer butting heads with Kohls and JC Penney because they were getting beaten so badly. Oops, my bad again, says Terry J. Lundgren. Dockers are back at Macy's; won't you come back?
Where did the shoppers go, the folks that put Marshall Field's on the map? They flew away to Kohl's and J.C. Penneys, where they can get the same quality as Macy's at a lower price. Without a coupon.
Coupons are coming back, Macy's has declared, but will the shoppers return to what used to be called Marshall Field and Company? When Mr. Lundren and his colleagues figure out that Chicagoans aren't flocking to Macy's because Macy's killed a beloved institution, they might return. And there's no coupon in existence that will fix what is really wrong.
2 comments:
It's true that in Chicago loyal Marshall Field's customers refuse to shop at Macy's. However, Saks Fifth Avenue, Nordstrom and Neiman Marcus all report an increase in business from former Field's customers that has allowed them to capitalize on Macy's ill-conceived decision to replace the venerable and profitable Marshall Field's stores.
From the day they took over it's been one bone-headed notion after another. A case of chronic corporate hubris, and the patient is terminal.
Anything done from here on in is too little, too late. The first impression was negative, and it's extremely difficult to change a bad image. Now that the lady has found someplace else that will give her what she wants, she's not interested in Macy's overtures.
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