Federated Department Stores (owners of Macy's and Bloomingdale's) is in merger talks with the May Co. (owners of Strawbridge's and Lord & Taylor).

http://olympics.reuters.com/newsArti...toryID=7383469

If they do merge, people expect Federated to rebrand the May Co. stores as "Macy's" or "Bloomingdale's" and close the duplicate stores down. They didn't say what will happen to "Lord & Taylor" which is a more distinctive brand but, given L&T's shortcomings as of late, I expect them to fold L&T into Bloomingdale's. In Center City, in the best scenario, I foresee strawbridge's becoming Macy's and L&T becoming Bloomingdale's. But what about King of Prussia where you have all four stores??? In KoP, I see the strawbridge's becoming Macy's and L&T becoming Bloomingdales and the old Macy's and Bloomingdale's closing down. This would effectively leave the "Court" part of the mall without any department store anchor. I expect the "Court" to close down then and probably be torn down in favor of more big box stores. Sad.

I read about this yesterday...very interesting. May Co. is an institution in St. Louis, as are the stores they own in their respective cities (Hecht's in DC, Strawbridge's in Philadelphia, Famous-Barr in St. Louis, etc.). I'd hate to see Federated streamline everything into Bloomie's and Macy's.

But IIRC, May was all set to buy Nordstrom not too long ago, and that fell through...we'll see.

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"If these walls could talk, I'd listen to the floor."--Rev. Horton Heat

Federated is already getting a headstart consdiering that they're renaming all their non-Macy's or Bloomingdale's stores as Macy's and Bloomingdale's. I esily see them pulling hte same stunt with the May Co. stores should they take them over.

That would have been disaster.

Given that Federated is often more conservative about its store locations than May, I can easily see smaller locations - like the strawbridge's in Ardmore - closing down.

And the light show and organ? Christmas would not be the same for most of us in Philadelphia.

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“Cities have the capability of providing something for everybody, only because, and only when, they are created by everybody.” - Jane Jacobs

Chris,

Strawbriges has "A Chrismas Carol"
Lord & Tayors in Wanamaker building has organ

Some days I am confused too.

I know that - Lord & Taylors originally was non-committal about continuing the Wanamaker Christmas Show - they later said they would try it and we, from all I can tell, quite happy with that decision.

Federated is a bit more conservative and tougher. If they change L&T to a Bloomies, there's no guarantee that the show will be continued.

We can all hope.

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“Cities have the capability of providing something for everybody, only because, and only when, they are created by everybody.” - Jane Jacobs

I was not happy about the Christmas show at Lord & Taylor - did you see it??? I didn't see it this year since I was out of town but we went last year (and the years before that...). It was awful. They've cut out most of the Christmas stuff (no Santa, yes snowman) and all of the fountains. At the end, there's a large US flag that unfurls with patriotic music.

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www.taxgirl.com

BTW, we wrote a letter about the revamped Christmas show. They called me and said that it was too expensive to continue the fountains and no Santa because their values were changing or some such nonsense.

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www.taxgirl.com

I found this on philly.com:

Posted on Sat, Dec. 13, 2003

A Christmas crime in the city

Santa's been booted from the Lord & Taylor light show. It's the latest indignity in the darkening of our town's holiday fun.

By Beth Gillin
Inquirer Staff Writer

This time, they've really gone too far.

First they chopped the giant tree and turned off the dancing waters.

Now they've knocked off St. Nick.

It saddens us to report that Santa's been zapped from a cherished Philadelphia holiday ritual - the annual light show at the landmark Center City department store occupied since 1997 by Lord & Taylor.

We couldn't believe it ourselves, and saw the show twice, just to make sure.

The jolly old gent was, like the rest of the cast - reindeer, snowmen, sugarplum fairies - made out of lightbulbs. In a brief but memorable cameo just before the finale, he would ring a bell and drive a train.

The 700-pound locomotive and two 500-pound cars outlined in lights would appear to chug across the very top of the display, four stories above the Grand Court of the former Wanamakers.

This year, the train was eliminated. There went Santa Claus.

It wasn't political correctness that did him in.

A source at the store said part of the train had been damaged and the store decided not to repair it. But LaVelle Olexa, a Lord & Taylor senior vice president, cited safety concerns, saying, "The system is antiquated, the train is mounted on old, dry wood, and it would have been irresponsible to reinstall it. The light show is aging, and a major decision is required about whether to repair it or take it in a new direction."

The bare-bones hourly show still has a retro charm, like many midcentury relics. And it's not the only holiday event in trouble.

SEPTA canceled its Magical Holiday Railway this year. It said it couldn't afford to put up the popular model-train display at its Center City headquarters.

And the Enchanted Colonial Village, which sprawled over a city block in Lit Bros. department store from 1962 to 1975, has been downsized. The good news is, this is temporary.

After Lits closed, the happy mechanized villagers performing their holiday chores bounced between museums and storage facilities, then found a home at the Please Touch Museum. It's now showing four of the original 18 village scenes.

All the inhabitants are getting face-lifts, with $845,000 from the Philadelphia Foundation.

Surely the light show deserves restoration, too. It was a technological marvel when it opened in 1955. There was magic in its 60-foot Christmas tree, covered with 23,500 lights, which stood in front of the animated display. The next year, six fountains were added, flanking the tree and spouting in time to the music.

Behind the tree and fountains, figures outlined in colored bulbs jerked their arms and danced in marvelous synchronicity to carols thundering from a giant pipe organ.

Crowds of parents and children (accompanied, in the 1970s, by more than a few stoners) would assemble in the Grand Court, where all would look up and lose themselves in color and sound. As late as 1985, each show drew 2,000 to 3,000 spectators at a time.

Now, the crowds are sparse. The music is canned, the narration tinny. The whole thing is over in less than 10 minutes, down from 15.

Lord & Taylor acquired Wanamakers in 1997, and in 2000 said it was upgrading the light show with state-of-the-art computer controls. The controls didn't work with the fountains, which were turned off in 2001.

The tree went too that year, replaced by a giant American flag that unfurls at the finale and always gets applause. At the time, store officials said this was done to honor 9/11. The flag is still there.

The tree, the train, the fountains and Santa are not. The light show is disappearing bit by bit.

We Philadelphians like our traditions, no matter how corny. Some of us are still peeved that Santa no longer climbs a fire-truck ladder on Thanksgiving and crawls into a window at Gimbels department store on Market Street. And the last time that happened was 1980.

Can't we at least bring back the electronic Santa and the rest of the candy-colored array that brightened our season?

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www.taxgirl.com