Effects of a name change

Federated Department Stores' decision to eliminate the names of local stores, replacing them with Macy's, may turn out to be a good plan in the long run. The idea is to create a national brand name, gaining effeciencies in advertising and merchandising.

In the short-term, however, the fallout has been negative. The Columbus Dispatch reports that eliminating the 150-year-old Lazarus name with Macy's has cut down on customer traffic.

In 2005, customer visits to Macy’s in the Columbus market declined 4.5 percentage points, or by more than 50,000 people, according to the independent marketresearch firm Scarborough Research.

The drop was steeper than Lazarus experienced during the previous five years combined.

Here in the Chicago area there is a strongly negative reaction to the elimination of the Marshall Fields name. How that will translate into traffic and sales will take time to see.

Update (Sunday): USA Today talks about Federated's plans in general, and comments on negative reaction to the name changes. It sounds like Federated's starting to get a bit testy on the subject:

Sosnick, like Lundgren, has grown weary of the naysayers: "Macy is a broad-line retailer that did $15 billion in business last year. People can say all these things, and it's true. You're not writing about nirvana, but it's a change and an improvement."