Goodbye Foleys

[Subdude]

March 1, 2005, 12:55AM

Macy tag may fit Foley's

Longtime local brand is likely to fade by 2006

By DAVID KAPLAN

Copyright 2005 Houston Chronicle

The Federated-May merger most likely means that Foley's, one of Houston's oldest and best-known retail brands, will become Macy's.

Will customers care?

Margaret Harlin has shopped at the downtown Foley's for 37 years. Although disappointed to hear Foley's will disappear, she said she'll give Macy's a try.

"As long as there's still a store here, I'll still come unless prices go up," she said.

graph

Many longtime Foley's shoppers have emotional ties to the department store, but in an age when change is a given and shopping options are plentiful, consumers tend to keep an open mind.

"Department stores are losing loyalty anyway

[Subdude]

Article 2:

A century of shopping history

Macy's could change the face of Foley's, but it can't erase our memories

By JEANNIE KEVER

Copyright 2005 Houston Chronicle

Chronicle

Macy's currently has only one store in the Houston area, at the Galleria, while Foley's has a Galleria location plus 15 others.

Forget Wall Street. In Houston, Federated Department Stores' takeover of rival May Department Stores will reverberate most strongly on Memory Lane.

May Department Stores, after all, includes Foley's.

And while we may do much of our shopping at big-box discounters in the suburbs nowadays, most longtime Houstonians have a nostalgic story about Saturday shopping trips to the downtown Foley's.

It might involve a bus ride with their parents or their girlfriends, their first suit, a fancy party dress, a visit with Santa.

For women of a certain age, it even involves white gloves.

"In Houston, Foley's is a department store icon," says Suzette Brimmer, associate chairwoman of fashion merchandising at Houston Community College.

Foley's has been a Houston institution for more than a century, since its founding as a dry goods store on the banks of Buffalo Bayou in 1900.

If the $10.4 billion deal is completed, Foley's will become just another line item in the Federated Department Stores' portfolio. Generally, Federated has absorbed regional department store chains and remade them in the image of one of its best-known brands, Macy's.

That is expected to happen here, too.

Foley's, with 16 Houston-area stores and 69 stores in five states, will go the way of so many of its predecessors.

Remember Joske's?

Beall's? Weiner's? Battelstein's?

A vanishing heritage

Whether the city's retail heritage was usurped and renamed by a new, more powerful owner or simply vanished, much of it is gone.

From his own small vantage point in the Heights, in the independent department store his grandparents founded in 1913, Martin Kaplan has watched the changing retail landscape.

As ever larger chains consumed their rivals, Kaplan's Ben-Hur remained on Yale Street, serving its small but steady base of customers.

"Just thinking about an organization that large is amazing," Kaplan says of the Federated-May deal. "With Sam's, Costco, Best Buy, they have just one model that they replicate and it works pretty well everywhere."

Competitive pressures encourage mergers to survive against Wal-Mart and other mega-corporations.

"It seems like all the big guys are buying up the smaller guys, so eventually we may just have one department store if it keeps up," Brimmer says. "We've got Wal-Mart all over the world. Now what are we going to have

[Guest danax]

Hopefully they'll use historically appropriate signage.

[2112]

This is depressing.

[Subdude]

Downtown Foleys opening day, 1947:

[Sunstar]

This is very sad indeed, but if the downtown Foley's becomes a Macy's it will be better for downtown overall, especially if Macy's puts some money into the location. A nation-wide retailer of their caliber will definitely draw other retailers and hopefully start a boom.

[Subdude]

Hopefully they'll use historically appropriate signage.

You mean on the downtown store? I would imagine not. Standardization of brand, and image is part of the rationale for the re-naming.

[citykid09]

So Lord And Talor is Closing in the Galleria, and now Foley's. That mall is going to go down. Mabe Bloomingdales will take the place of Foley's and Marshal Feilds in Lord And Talylor?

[kzseattle]

So Lord And Talor is Closing in the Galleria, and now Foley's. That mall is going to go down. Mabe Bloomingdales will take the place of Foley's and Marshal Feilds in Lord And Talylor?

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

I would think that Macy would instead vacate it current location and occupy Foley's. After all, that is a much better location. Also, just because Foley's has been taken over and L&T is not doing well doesnt mean that Galleria isnt doing well.

[Parrothead]

The Galleria will never "go down". It survived the 80's intact, it can certainly survive this.

[Guest danax]

You mean on the downtown store?  I would imagine not.  Standardization of brand, and image is part of the rationale for the re-naming.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Yes, the downtown store. I fear you are correct on that. Those FOLEY'S letters exude the 40s. You would think someone at Macy's would pause to consider the building that it will be occupying and maybe come up with something periodish, for example whatever Macy's used back then. It would be a great way to greet our citizens and show respect for our history.

I know, I'm dreaming.

[Subdude]

Well, nice dream anyway.

The Galleria won't be "going down", but assuming Macy's moves to the current Galleria Foley's location, Galleria 3 will be in for a world of hurt. Is there a chance that the Foley's at Sharpstown will be closed, since it's relatively close to the Galleria?

[tw2ntyse7en]

...

[citykid09]

The first time I ever went to the Galleria I went through the old part with my family. It looked really old. Every other time I went to the Galleria I had forgotten about that part, Because I did not know how to get to it. I think back then there was a lot of high class stores in that section.

[tw2ntyse7en]

...

[713 To 214]

First Compaq, now this. . .Too bad for Houston. Somehow, though, I don't think it will be such a big deal a couple of years from now.

[Subdude]

True. The store hasn't been locally owned for years; it really just amounts to a change of name.

[jmancuso]

So Lord And Talor is Closing in the Galleria, and now Foley's. That mall is going to go down. Mabe Bloomingdales will take the place of Foley's and Marshal Feilds in Lord And Talylor?

well, they did open a popeyes, mcdonalds and taco hell with in the past few years, so you maybe on to something. people who shop at versace, armani or nordstroms do not order fried chicken at popeyes.

[ssullivan]

I'm really sad to see this happen. I was hoping a few weeks ago when merger talks were publicly announced that it would go the way of the proposed May-Federated merger that died a few years ago. Unfortunately that doesn't seem to be the case this time.

Macy's does have a history of more than one store in Houston. The first Macy's in Houston was actually the Deerbrook Mall store, which is now a Dillard's. Macy's also operated stores at Willowbrook and Baybrook. Those three stores were sold to Dillard's around 1997. I think at one time they may have also been at West Oaks -- when it first opened it was trying to be a second Galleria with stores like Saks but within a couple of years had refocused to a suburban mall with the current slate of anchors.

Ideally, Federated will keep the Foley's name. They've certainly had a much better track record in Houston than Macy's ever has. However, if consolidation of the brands does occur, I would hope that Macy's would move in the Galleria to the Foley's store, which is 100 times nicer and in a much better location. I don't shop in Macy's at the Galleria mainly because it's inconvenient to get to and because I can't stand the way the store looks. As for the Lord & Taylor store, May had already announced plans to close it. It would be great to see Federated put a Bloomingdale's in that space. Or could we possibly see the return of Marshall Field's to Houston? Talk about a huge market share if Federated managed to fit all three of its brands into the three spaces in the Galleria it will now have access to.

As for downtown, they better keep that store open! While it's definitely not as nice as the newer Foley's -- and could use some updating -- I do like shopping there because it's not as crowded, and it's an easy ride on MetroRail from my home. Losing that store would be a major blow to all efforts to redevelop downtown's retail scene. And yes, Macy's could use historic signage appropriate to the building's architecture. Their flagship store in New York does not use the same signage that is on their modern stores, and it's not hurting their brand one bit. People will know the Macy's name and recognize the store as part of the chain regardless of the font and style of the signage used.

There are a few area stores I'd expect to see as candidates for closure within two or three years as a result of this. I would not expect to see the Northwest Mall location survive, and Sharpstown may be a candidate for closure as well. Less of a possibility, but still a candidate would be Greenspoint, although I think that mall has stabilized and doesn't seem to be bleeding stores like it was ten years ago.

Not only is this whole merger a big loss for Houston, but for other parts of the country. In other areas, names like Filene's, Famous-Barr, Hecht's, Robinson's-May, and others are just as big of an institution as Foley's. This past weekend in Boston I thought about this as I walked down Washington St. past the flagship Filene's store, which is directly across the street from their downtown Macy's location.

[kzseattle]

True.  The store hasn't been locally owned for years; it really just amounts to a change of name.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

A couple of years ago, Macy bought Bon Marche stores. In Seattle, nothing really changed except that they renamed Bon Marche to Bon Macy. Macy didn

[Astro]

Article 2:

A century of shopping history

Macy's could change the face of Foley's, but it can't erase our memories

By JEANNIE KEVER

Copyright 2005 Houston Chronicle

..................

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Did you see the great 1956 photo of the old Joske's store which accompanied this article? I'm curious where this store was located and where the other original Joske store locations were.

[MidtownCoog]

There was a Joske's at Gulf Gate and also where the Galleria Dillards is located.

[Astro]

OK, the pic must have been the Gulfgate store then. It didn't look like the Galleria Dilards building at all.

[MidtownCoog]

I wonder if they were ever downtown?

You can still see their logo on the Dillards in SA.

[Talbot]

Isn't federated the one that closed one of the tallest department stores in the U.S. that was in Detroits downtown so that they could open up a shopping mall in the suburbs?

If so, hopefully that doesn't happen here.

[ssullivan]

I wonder if they were ever downtown?

You can still see their logo on the Dillards in SA.

For many years after the Dillard's acquisition, the door pulls at the Post Oak store featured the Joske's logo. When the doors were replaced, the last visible sign of Joske's at that particular location went away.

I'm not sure if they were ever in downtown Houston or not. I kind of think they may have been before opening the Post Oak store, but not 100% positive about that.

[tw2ntyse7en]

...

[rhettsky]

I wonder if they were ever downtown?

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Yeah, although most people don't know it. Joske's occupied the former Foley's store on Main between Preston and Prairie after Foley's moved to its current Main Street store and before Joske's moved to the 'burbs (or what were then the 'burbs, anyway).

The store was a 10-ish-story T-shaped building with a narrow frontage on Main and arms that reached out to Preston and Prairie. It's not there anymore, but you can tell where it was if you look at the block -- it wrapped around the Scanlan Building at Main and Preston, and it filled the gap between the Scanlan and Republic buildings on Preston.

You see the old "Foley Bros." sign that was on the front of that store often in old pictures. It was enormous. I've only seen one picture where the sign was changed to Joske's, but it happened.

[Lowbrow]

I'm rather worried about the 2500 Foley's employees downtown. Administrative staff are prime targets for redundencies.

[MidtownCoog]

I am worried about my lunch time shopping.

Downtown Foley's may not be posh, but it sure works for me.