FOXNews television crews and reporter Steve Brown at Woodfield Mall about 9:45 a.m. covering sales slump/municipal property tax report.
For years the village doesn’t charge property tax because it has relied on sales tax, especially from Woodfield Mall. A shopping slump is blamed for a deficit over $17.5 million that could lead to a municipal property tax in Schaumburg. Of a 10 percent sales tax, 2 percent goes to the Village of Schaumburg.
Village Manager Ken Fritz reports that Schaumburg went into the recession with a $20 million surplus, which is expected to run out next year. A municipal property tax is expected to be required to run municipal services, such as police, fire and public works departments.
Woodfield Mall is the fifth-largest shopping mall in America.
Many real estate professionals and business leaders, as well as major university professors in the business field, all agree that when Macy’s, Inc. bought out Marshall Field’s, the retail sales sank drastically. Macy’s was no match for Field’s. Macy’s became a “same-same cookie cutter” type of national department store. Why would visitors and residents alike make a special efforts to go to Woodfield Mall when the local icon Marshall Field’s was no longer there. There was no compelling reason to go to Woodfield’s Macy’s when there are 800_ Macy’s across the nation. It would be like making a special effort to travel to a JCPenney, Sears, Kohl’s or Target (no offense to any of them), when the visitor had one of their own back home.
I know of many international travelers and U.S. tourists alike who no longer make the day-long side trip to Woodfield Mall because the acclaimed Marshall Field’s is no-more, and because Macy’s has turned the stores into mass merchandised, downgraded stores reflecting nothing of the special adventure Marshall Field’s offered.
Most agree that there was no wise and valid reason to destroy the Marshall Field’s traditions and loyalties known around the World! The absence of Field’s is one primary reason for the slump in sales at major Chicagoland malls, such as Woodfield.
We are in an absolutely horrible recession that is getting worse instead of better. To lay the decrease in sales tax at Macy’s door is preposterous. What was written in the previous comment is pure propoganda. The Woodfield Mall store is one of Macy’s highest volume stores in the country (as are Oakbrook, Old Orchard, Water Tower Place and State Street.) If I lived in Cook county, I would shop outside of it. A 10% sales tax is horrific.
We are in an absolutely horrible recession that is getting worse instead of better. To lay the decrease in sales tax at Macy’s door is preposterous. What was written in the previous comment is pure propoganda. The Woodfield Mall store is one of Macy’s highest volume stores in the country (as are Oakbrook, Old Orchard, Water Tower Place and State Street.) If I lived in Cook county, I would shop outside of it. A 10% sales tax is horrific.
How would you know such things if Lundgren himself has insisted that same-store sales records for individual locations are not kept. You claim to know Macys in Chicago is doing well but you provide no real data to justify your statement. The data either exists or it does not, but if Macys wanted to completely discredit Marshall Field’s loyalists they would have to start giving out real data for stores in the Chicago region. Without that, do they expect us to simply believe without evidence, on blind faith?
Macy’s problems cannot be totally blamed on the recession because they were doing poorly immediately after the 2006 conversion of all May Company Stores. The recession began in late 2007 and early 2008.
First of all, let me state outright that I am not a member of the Field’s Fans group. As a retail analyst however, I would not call James Wright’s comments to be propaganda as was stated by a pro-Macy blogger. (By the way, Mr. Lundgren’s CFO, Ms. Karen Houget HAS stated that Macy’s Inc does not break down sales figures individually for individual stores, which I question.) Mr. Wright is correct that one of the reasons for Woodfield mall’s sales revenue to be down is because customers are not drawn to Macy’s as much as the former Field’s store, since there are more than 800 macy stores in the U.S. It’s a logical fact. Just take a look at how filled…or unfilled…the parking lots are at Macy stores and at other stores for comparison. How could macy’s be a destination store and compell people to stop and shop when they have one Macy’s or more back home? Based upon various conference calls by Macy’s Inc, it’s clear that sales revenue could be so much higher if the iconic Marshall Field’s department stores were left intact. It has always been a curious point with me why macy’s would not want to maximize its sales figures in these lean times. Chicago is a world-class destination city and deserves to retain the famous stature of Marshall Field’s name recognition especially in lean recessionary times where every dollar is critical. Field’s made shopping a compelling adventure and the Marshall Field’s stores brought people in from all over the U.S….and the world! By antagonizing the loyal Field’s shoppers, plus shoppers of other venerable retailing names in the nation, macy’s has cut-off a sizeable potential customer base. Nordstrom would never have handled the merger in such a way. As with any reputable retailer, every shopper is important, and a “missed guest sale” is taken seriously. Macy’s did not listen, and is paying dearly, as a result—recession or no recession.