It will always be Burdines to some of us

I read with consternation but admittedly with some amusement on another blog site about Federated Department Store's decision to rename Marshall Fields long a Chicago institution Macy's. Marshall Fields was the original Chicago department store and has been further imortalized in the recent PBS series, Chicago: City of the Century.

Here in Florida we can relate. Burdines, the original Miami department store was renamed Macy's by the same bad guys at Federated earlier this year. I was convinced at the time (and still have some suspicion) that it was a plot to strip us Floridians of our identity, but now that it is happening in the mighty city of Chicago, i'm slightly more at ease. After all for me growing up, Burdines itself was a synonym for large department store. Burdines specialized in clothing and accessories that made the Florida lifestyle so unique and even if the corporate offices of Federated (which is based in Ohio) try and strip our identity, it'll always be Burdines to some of us.