It’s happening again! The arrogance of the Eastern Establishment is invading Chicago and trying to "New Yorkize" it. A few years ago, an exclusive New York clothier was preparing to open an establishment in Chicago. As they were constructing a building at Rush and Oak streets, they painted a sign on the construction barricade which said, in effect, "Now, you won’t have to travel 962 miles to get to Barney’s." They assumed that everyone wanted to get their clothes at Barney’s and they were condescending to let us have the opportunity of buying their very high-priced merchandise. The company went into bankruptcy because, they explained, volume in their Chicago unit "did not meet expectations."
In another example of this sort of arrogance, a few years ago, the media giant Viacom opened a store on Michigan Avenue near Ohio St. At an opening press conference, their CEO, the famous Sumner Redstone, fielded questions from reporters. I was there and asked the well-manicured executive whether the store would be operated as a conventional retail outlet with seasonal merchandise and regular sales. "No," he told the group, brushing off my question like he might flick off an offending crumb of breakfast Danish, "we’re Viacom. We don’t have to be concerned with things like that. In fact, our brands will bring people into the store." Several months later, the store closed, the lease was renegotiated and Viacom went out of the retail business. Once again, Chicago didn’t buy arrogance with high price tags and limited value.
There are many other instances where Chicago has been promised that "there will be no job losses for the city as a result of this merger." Companies such as Standard Oil which became BP Amoco, and Illinois Bell Telephone which is now SBC (letters standing for Southwestern Bell Company), as well as many other small examples of corporate wanderlust, all represent a change in the Chicago that once was a blue collar town in the rust belt but which now earns its living with computers.
Perhaps I’m out of sync with the rest of the world, but it seems to me that having an industrial base or at least a financial services base in Chicago serves the interests of the city and its people. The Mayor would like to think that new jobs are coming to Chicago. That may be true, but there’s not enough emphasis on the old jobs that are leaving or on how to retain them.
I mention these changes because recent reports indicate that the sale of Chicago’s largest bank, now known as Bank One, will be completed later this year and the "Bank One" brand will disappear in favor of the name of the buying company, J. P. Morgan Chase.
The people at Chase are not foolish and as a result of an earlier merger tried to position their company as a national brand. They eliminated the word "Manhattan" from their logo. But they will spend untold millions on changing signage and stationary and in advertising their presence to a Chicago which isn’t starved for banking affiliations. But we will have to get used to another name for the bank that started out being known as The First National Bank of Chicago.
This is not to indicate that Bank One or First National or First Chicago Bank or one of other names that have been associated with the bank have all had Chicago origins, but at least they tried to retain a Chicago identity. In fact, for a while, the bank was controlled from Columbus, OH, not a city known for its powerful financial presence. At another time, headquarters were in Detroit.
Contrast all these events and changes with another corporate buyout that’s currently taking place—the sale of the Marshall Field stores to the May Company. If any retail store epitomizes Chicago more than Field’s, I can’t imagine what it is. When the sale was announced, the May Company—which has a major presence in New York known as Macy’s and another in Los Angeles known as the May Company—was quick to state that no local jobs would be lost and that the stores would continue under the brand name of Marshall Field. In fact, there’s even rumor that Field’s brand names will be extended to other May Company outlets in order to give an aura of class to them. That’s smart merchandising.
While we know in our hearts that Field’s will continue to be controlled by out of town interests (headquarters are now in Minneapolis), at least we can continue to cling to some vestige of civic pride in knowing that "our" store will continue to be a presence in "our" city. Meanwhile, while J. P. Morgan Chase or whatever they prefer to be called is trying to Manhattanize Chicago and make it another suburb—a little like Port Jefferson, NY, or Bayonne, NJ, the people of Chicago will have their own options—such as banking locally. |
