Brand New

As previously expected, Federated has decided to rebrand almost all of its stores to the Macy's name:

In addition to converting 330 stores to the Macy's name, Federated will sell 68 sites where it already has competing stores, beginning next year. The Westfield Group, the owner of shopping malls, said yesterday in a statement that it was in talks to buy 12 of the stores in California, Connecticut, Ohio and Maryland.

Locally, Southern California's The Oaks mall, where I served a stint from 1988-1994 as a mallrat, will now have 4 Federated anchors, 2 Macy's and 2 Robinsons-May. My assumption is that one Robinsons-May will be sold off and the other will be demolished to faciliate a mall expansion and the addition of a Nordstrom. And over the grade, at Topanga Plaza, the loss of Robinsons-May could result in the addition of a Bloomingdales, as a new building for Nordstrom and the construction of a Neiman Marcus are in the works, as the two Westfields of Woodland Hills evolve.

In the Midwest, Federated seems stuck on what to do with the venerable Marshall Fields name, which enjoys a higher profile and better reputation than, say, Hecht's or Foley's. But I'm not sure what possessed them to retain the Lord & Taylor brand, which doesn't seem to have much market differentiation, from my perspective.