Why I Oughta...

The downfall of large department store shopping along Chicago's State Street is well documented.  Marshall Field's becoming Macy's occurred during my lifetime - in 2006 .  That's long enough to kind of forget what Marshall Field's was like, but recent enough to still feel the outrage.   But that outrage really only returns during the Christmas season.  And...that is likely *why* all the changes have been made.  Not enough shoppers have been visiting department stores and not enough are shopping on State Street. Before I talk about what is going on right now, during Christmas 2024, I suppose I should say that we all *should* be grateful that Macy's on State Street still exists at all.  I've covered Marshall Field's (and now Macy's) on State Street in Chicago over the years.    Here's a whole collection of posts .    More on that below the photos.   Macy's calls their State Street Christmas setup 'Santaland ' and it includes...

I walked by Marshall Field's Macy's this week and noticed that they've converted their State Street windows to the usual 'Pardon our appearance.  Something Magical is in store.' signage covering up the soon-to-be-revealed Holiday Christmas windows. One big flag to me is that they've only covered up the State Street side and not the one or two windows on the Randolph Street side.  In year's past, they've used those two windows to do something a little bit history-oriented like this one in 2017 .   Hopefully there will be a little Uncle Mistletoe in the windows and we don't get NYC's sloppy seconds again . 

If you look closely at the Marshall Field's Macy's State Street windows you'll notice a little bit of corporate synergy showing.  Or corporate strategy at least.  In one of the window scenes you that you can see above, you'll see Santa in the midst of his North Pole glory with what I think is an Elf and a bunch of presents.  Right next to the center 'tube' is a little dog.   Zoom in and you'll see his collar.  Says "F. A. O. Schwarz".  Struck me as odd. So, off I went into the Web to find out why.  Does Macy's own F.A.O Schwarz?  The answer?  Nope.  But they're working together.  This NYTimes story from 10 years ago points to the partnership .  Apparently, I haven't been paying any attention. Two of New York’s most venerable retail brands, Macy’s and F. A. O. Schwarz, are teaming up for a risky experiment: bringing toys back to the department store.  F. A. O. Schwarz will open shops inside 685 Ma...

Looks like Marshall Field's Macy's is once again prepping their annual State Street window display, but this year, it seems that they're ONLY going to be using windows *on* State Street.  And that means that they're NOT going to be using the theme for this year's story on the windows on Randolph Street.  Here's my post including a photo of the 'reveal' windows at the State Street store - but you'll note that the window in the photo is actually on Randolph Stree t. The folks at Macy's already have the three windows on Randolph Street dressed up for the holidays - in a tinsel-strewn vintage-inspired way, too.  Which is really nice, right?  We always make a trip down to the Walnut Room, so with our three kids - who will press their noses up to the glass - we'll be sure to take them in. Can I guy dream about an Uncle Mistletoe-themed story this year?  Please?

Just last week, I posted the most recent Marshall Field's Walnut Room Christmas mug that I came across at an antique mall up in Wisconsin .  That made it five in the collection here on the blog. Here's the list of posts on the topic here on "Why I Oughta...": 1980 -  Tree with Bear tall glass . 1981 -  Contortionist Santas glass mug . 1983 -  Uncle Mistletoe tall glass . 1986 -  Greetings from Mistletoe Bear Red outline 2000 -  Mr. and Mrs. Santabear Marriage glass mug with multiple colors . But, you'll note that sometime between 1983 and 1986, Marshall Field's moved from using Uncle Mistletoe to someone called Mistletoe Bear.  And then by 2000, the bear had gotten married and his name changed to Santabear. That set me down on an eBay rabbit hole to see if I could piece together the full list of mugs.  Here's the fruits of that effort:  The Definitive Guide to Marshall Field's Christmas Mugs.  I have been able to document ev...