A four star success route for Federated?

It appears, for now, that the only chains that Federated has acquired from May Dept stores that have no immediate name change in store are Marshall Field's and Lord & Taylor.

Lord & Taylor will not be converted to Macy's; no realease yet on what will happen to Marshall Field's.

Now I'm no expert on department stores, but as the last remaining super-chain of department stores, Federated might well consider keeping all four of its premere chain lines....and not just because of a Chicago rebellion if Field's becomes Macy's.

Four chains, each with its own niche, working together to garner as much of that highly shrunken department store market by giving customers more choices:

Here's my thinking:

MACY'S: the traditional department store, the one most capable of openning in the widest range of locations. Generic enough to take over most chains and incorporate them into the Macy's organization with minimal disruption. Could penetrate Chicago market without dropping Field's name by converting some stores to Macy's name or openning others in shuttered dept. store locations.

BLOOMINGDALE'S: upscale and trendy. Location in cool urban (and suburan) spots in select US locations. Far more reflective of exporting a NYC life style than is Macy's

MARSHALL FIELD'S: solid as a rock high end department store. Personality and distinctiveness of its own. No reason why this one couldn't open a New York store that will find its own niche in Manhattan. No reason why, on a far more selective basis than Macy's, be expanded nation wide.

LORD & TAYLOR: More a specialty shop that a full department store, but certainly a possible Federated attempt to compete with stores like Neiman Marcus or SFA.....although Neimans and Saks would have better individual stores while L&T would make up with more extensive locations.

Four chains, each with its own special niche, each capable of national penetration where appropriate, and nothing in the scenerio that prevents Macy's from carrying out Federated's ubber-strategy of a giant cross country chain under the Macy's name.>