Bon voyage

This holiday shopping season will present consumers a final opportunity to bid farewell to The Bon Marche.

The chain of stores isn’t going anywhere, but it is changing its name.

The chain that first entered the Spokane market in 1946 was officially renamed Bon-Macy’s last summer. Now it’s taking the final step by dropping the “Bon” and becoming Macy’s. Starting in January, the Bon Marche signs that remain on the downtown Spokane store and those at NorthTown, in Spokane Valley and in Coeur d’Alene, will be replaced with Macy’s signs.

The chain’s corporate parent, Federated Department Stores, decided Monday to complete the chain’s transformation into Macy’s by dropping the “Bon” to capitalize on a retail brand that is known nationwide, if not worldwide, said Bon-Macy’s CEO Dan Edelman.

The same change will occur at Federated’s other department stores — Burdines-Macy’s in Florida, Goldsmith’s-Macy’s in Tennessee, Lazarus-Macy’s in the Midwest and Rich’s-Macy’s in the Southeast. The 184 stores converting to Macy’s will join 239 department stores that already operate under the name in 19 states, Guam and Puerto Rico. The changes will not affect Bloomingdale’s stores, also owned by Federated.

“It will give Federated the ability to do national advertising under one brand name, which we haven’t had before,” Edelman said.

The change also will give Federated an additional weapon in the tightly competitive retail market. Federated’s annual reports show sales have dropped from $16.6 billion in 2000 to $15.2 billion last year. However, quarterly reports since the beginning of 2004 show sales beginning to climb.

New Macy’s signs will go up and Bon-Marche signs will come down beginning in January. Around the same time or slightly before, credit cards, shopping bags and other materials bearing company logos will also change.

The Macy’s brand logo will begin appearing in store advertising in late January. Changing to the Macy’s name will give all the stores the added exposure of national television advertising campaigns, while continuing with newspaper advertising in local markets like Spokane, Edelman said.

“The national advertising will be layered on top of that,” he said.

After adding the Macy’s name last summer, the chain did extensive market research to determine how customers felt about dropping the Bon Marche name, Edelman said. The majority of customers felt the change would either be an advantage or were neutral about it, he said.

Though some customers may feel nostalgic about the name, the benefits of changing to Macy’s are extensive, Edelman said. Customers will be able to use store credit cards at 400 Macy’s stores nationwide, making using registries, returning items and buying gifts easier. Management of the Northwest stores will still be based in the Seattle office.

Edelman said the change to Macy’s would not affect prices. “There’s a clear legacy here,” he said. “We will perpetuate all the things customers like about our stores.”

Bob Smith, manager of the River Park Square shopping center in Spokane, where the downtown Bon-Macy’s is located, said he didn’t expect much reaction to the name change.

“I think the Macy’s name has always garnered a level of respect within the retail industry,” Smith said.