Macy's: Coming Soon to a Mall Near You

Say goodbye to Famous-Barr, Filene's, Foley's, Hecht's, The Jones Store, Kaufmann's, L.S. Ayres, Meier & Frank, Robinsons-May, and Strawbridge's. Say hello to Macy's.

Federated Department Stores announced on Thursday that most of the stores it will acquire in its merger with May Department Stores will be converted to the Macy's brand. The announcement shocked no one in retailing circles, since Federated re-branded its remaining regional department stores (Lazarus, Burdine's, Rich's, Goldsmith's, The Bon Marche) to Macy's earlier this year.

As I reported on Wednesday, Federated has postponed a decision on whether to rebrand May's Marshall Field's division, which operates primarily in Chicago, Detroit, and Minneapolis-St. Paul. I doubt that the Marshall Field's name will be saved, but if it is, it will probably remain only in Chicago. Field's has less of a following in Detroit and the Twin Cities -- those stores were re-branded from the Dayton's and Hudson's banners just 4 years ago.

Federated has also postponed any decisions about Lord & Taylor, which is May's "upscale" division (see this post from Steve's Blog). Lord & Taylor hasn't been doing well -- May recently pulled it out of several markets -- and Federated may sell it. My prediction is that Federated will ultimately shut down Lord & Taylor and rebrand its "best" stores as either Macy's or Bloomingdale's.

Bloomingdale's, which is Federated's "upscale" division, may add some stores and enter some new markets as a result of the merger. As of yet, no specific stores have been identified by Federated for conversion to the Bloomingdale's banner.

While Federated will be adding approximately 330 new Macy's stores next year, it will also divest 68 "duplicate locations" at malls across the country. This is just the "first round" -- expect a lot more store closings over the next few years.