P.O. Box 1041

                                                                                                Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania 15230-1041 U.S.A.

                                                                                                Telephone: 412-561-7876

                                                                                                Electronic Mail: < gawalsh@planetarium.cc >

                                                                                                Internet Web Site: < http://www.planetarium.cc >

                                                                                                2005 December 2

 

By Certified Mail, Return Receipt Requested

 

Terry J. Lundgren, Chairman,
President, and Chief Executive Officer

Federated Department Stores, Inc.

7 West Seventh Street, Suite 1100

Cincinnati, Ohio 45202-2471

 

Dear Mr. Lundgren:

 

Last week, I watched on television the annual Macy’s holiday parade in New York City, and later that day the classic movie Miracle on 34th Street. Macy’s truly has a very rich tradition, loved by New Yorkers.

 

Nearly every major city has similar traditions. Here in Pittsburgh, the shopping tradition continues with our major department store, Kaufmann’s. At one time, Pittsburgh had six major department stores: Kaufmann’s, Joseph Horne Co., Gimbel Brothers, Rosenbaum’s, Frank and Seder’s in the Downtown Golden Triangle and Boggs and Buhl on the Lower North Side. Today, Kaufmann’s and Saks Fifth Avenue continue to reside Downtown, along with some smaller clothing stores.

 

Regrettably, Pittsburgh has lost a lot of tradition with the passing of the other five department stores. Now, Federated Department Stores proposes to remove the historic Kaufmann name from our last traditional department store. There has been much discussion in the local media about this change, as well as on radio call-in shows, and among people shopping Downtown.

 

With this letter, I wish to urge you to reconsider the complete removal of the historic names of traditional downtown department stores owned or to be inherited by Federated Department Stores. A historic department store name may be one of the intangible variables that marks the difference between success and failure for a store located in a traditional downtown district.

 

The rapid suburbanization of America after World War II, prophesized by the tail-end of Miracle on 34th Street, has made it much more difficult for the traditional, historic downtown department store to compete. Many of the people who continue to patronize these stores often go out of their way to do so. In many cases, a suburban store might be more convenient for them, but they choose to come downtown anyway.

 

Often, they come downtown for that special shopping experience in a store that has become like an old friend. In other cases, it could be for nostalgia, as they remember coming there as a child. And, others, such as me, shop there because of the significant history of the store to the city.

 

A store such as Kaufmann’s has already had several changes over the years. The original, magnificent first floor [which, regrettably, I never had the chance to see] was “modernized” in the 1950s. Recently, a lot of office workers were laid-off, as Kaufmann’s administrative jobs moved to Boston. However, shoppers have still had that historic Kaufmann name to rely upon.

 

With the loss of the original name to a historic downtown department store, I fear that customer loyalty to that downtown department store will greatly suffer. With all of the “big-box” retailers, and now even the Internet, these people will no longer have a reason to go out of their way to patronize a Federated downtown department store.

 

 

Terry J. Lundgren                                                2005 December 2                                  Page 2 of 2

 

 

 

You do not want to lose these customers, because they will not automatically start to patronize Macy’s or other Federated stores. And, you do not have to completely change your plans to keep these customers.

 

Now, I understand the desire to create one nationally recognized chain, under the banner of Macy’s.  I agree that this makes a great deal of sense from a marketing perspective.

 

So, I would suggest a compromise, one which has been implemented in the past by Federated Department Stores. Solely for the historic department stores in the traditional downtown districts, I suggest that a hyphenated name be used; here are a few examples:

 

Pittsburgh’s Golden Triangle:            Kaufmann-Macy’s

Philadelphia’s Center City:                 Strawbridge-Macy’s

Chicago’s Loop:                                   Marshall Field-Macy’s

 

This pattern could be replicated for all of your historic department stores in the traditional downtown districts. This would continue historic traditions in those cities, while cementing the marketing connection with the national Macy’s chain.

 

Now, for Downtown Columbus, it could be Kaufmann-Macy’s as well. However, the Lazarus name is of such great significance to the history of Columbus, as well as to the history of Federated Department Stores. So, maybe in Columbus it would make more sense to restore the historic name as

Lazarus-Macy’s—and, if the original Lazarus building is still available, perhaps it would make sense to relocate the store to the first few floors of that historic and more centrally located building.

 

I, respectfully, request that you consider this alternative prior to implementation of the Macy’s name change on all of Federated’s historic department stores in traditional downtown districts.

 

 

Sincerely yours,

 

 

 

 

Glenn A. Walsh

 

gaw

 

Copy:     Neil Penz, Downtown General Manager, Kaufmann’s Department Store, Pittsburgh

Dr. Audrey Guskey, Associate Professor of Marketing, A.J. Palumbo School of Business

Administration, Duquesne University