Shut Up and Shop Gail Heriot

“Give the lady what she wants.”–Marshall Field

“The lady must be crazy if she doesn’t want what we tell her she wants.”–Federated Department Stores, Inc.

Well perhaps Federated didn’t state it quite that baldly, but that’s been the upshot of its public relations strategy since its disastrous sales in October. We’re told that Macy’s is just as good as Marshall Field’s and that we’re just being obstinate for refusing to buy. It’s our fault. We should shut up and shop.

Let’s leave aside the fact that it’s simply false that Macy’s and Marshall Field’s are equal.  Instead, let’s assume for the sake of argument that Marshall Field’s customers are simply being sentimental. Even if it were true, so what?  Of course, Chicagoans take a certain sentimental pride in being the home to the most historic and arguably the best department store in the world. That’s what real flesh and blood human beings do. They love their local baseball team, their alma mater, and yes, some love their local department store. Many of them will prefer to shop anywhere than at the store owned by the company that destroyed the department store they love. You can call people like that irrational if you like, but if that’s what it means to be irrational, then we’re all irrational in one way or another. (And it’s a good thing we are too, but that’s another topic.)

Real merchants like Marshall Field know and understand their customers’ sentimentality. It’s a given. They deal with their customers the way they are, not the way they would like them to be. They are not foolish enough to regard it as inconvenient that their customers have their own tastes and loyalties.  Federated, on the other hand, seems to think it can get ahead by railing against its customers’ sentimentality. If that’s indeed what they’re thinking, the folks there are being … well … irrational. They’re following a loser’s strategy.