The Bon Marché is officially gone. The flirtation with the Bon-Macy’s has been put to bed – no surprise in that – and as near as I can tell, almost all Federated Department Stores owned stores are now simply called Macy’s; they also own Bloomingdale’s and as strong as the Macy’s brand is, Bloomies has a cult following on it’s own.

What’s it matter?

I don’t I guess. Personally, I think this is as close to sociology as I get: the study of people’s shopping habits. What’s worse is that I have a small annoying defect: I can remember the logo of any store that I’ve set foot in over the last 30 years. Pisses me off something ferce because it’s taking up room in my head and I want it back – I’ve got other things I could use that for! I mean, what practical purpose does it serve to know that Alexander’s had a rounded inverted, rounded V with a filled in circle for a cross-bridge for it’s A? None. None what-so-ever.

I once worked for an Edison Brothers store while in college and was simply amazed as the stupid things they did with their stores… they would burn mountains of cash on name changes yet refused to spend a dime on physical advertising. I once asked the regional manager and was treated to the “word of mouth” speech that they give to people that ask “why not spend the cash on advertising?” They always thought that spending money on advertising was a “waste” and never seemed to realize just how much cash was spent on pointless name changes…

And then I look at a company like Westfield: they own malls. They bought one in CT years ago and changed it’s name from Trumbull Shopping Park to Westfield Mall. Cha-ching. After a year, they admitted defeat – people kept driving past the place – and it took them over 20 years before they could change the name to Westfield Shopping Town Trumbull… and that was only possible because four other malls did it at the same time and I still don’t know that it stuck.

The thing that will be interesting to see is how long it takes for people to starting “going to Macy’s” instead of “going to The Bon”. The Bon has a long, long history here in WA. In fact, when the stores were officially renamed to Bon-Macy’s, half of them missed a bunch of their signs… I considered it to be a silent protest against the name change.

I just don’t get why companies bother with this at all. Bon-Macy’s is just as big a shift as Macy’s is. Either way it’s not “the Bon”. If there’s this burning desire to change the name to Macy’s – which I think is a silly thing to do, but whatever – why not just go all out and do the damned thing. Doesn’t it cost a shit load more money (like twice as much) to make a change like this twice over? Building signs, mall signs, newspaper ads, and TV spots are obvious things to change. But then there’s things like fixture signs, price tags, employee name tags, paychecks, register receipts, bags… even carpets, if they’re branded. Twice! And for what? I just don’t get it, I guess…

I’m just glad I don’t own stock in FDS, even if I did just buy a mattress from them…