(Excerpt) Downtown business districts have been losing customers to fast-growing suburban shopping centers, but a lively exception is Chicago's North Michigan Avenue. During the past decade, $2 billion worth of construction has risen on and near North Michigan, which Chicagoans call "the Magnificent Mile." California's Magnin has just opened a branch there, joining already established Bonwit Teller and Saks Fifth Avenue of New York, as well as such fashionable shops as Tiffany and Cartier. Soon they will be joined by Dallas' Neiman-Marcus.Two weeks ago came the biggest news of all. Chicago's retailing giant, Marshall Field & Co., whose main store in the Loop on State Street is scarcely a mile away, and New York's Lord & Taylor announced that they will both open branches in Water Tower Plaza, a $100 million shopping, hotel and apartment complex that will go up on the avenue.
Read the full article here.
"The rise of Michigan Avenue reflects the decline of State Street. More and more, State Street stores have been switching to budget-basement merchandise and catering to lower-income blacks, while North Michigan has been attracting higher-income whites by concentrating on high-fashion goods"
ReplyDeleteOuch. That's awfully racist of Time, isn't it?
And I don't know how accurate that statement was. I don't ever remember Marshall Field carrying 'buget-basement' merchandise. In fact, subsequent to this article, didn't they get rid of their bargain basement altogether?
That staement was pretty stupid in my opinion. I don't remember State Street ever being a bargain for anything whether that was then or now at Field's or any of the other stores.
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