Macy's

Macy's Review

In the fall of 2006 Marshall Field's, Chicago's most famous—and perpetually struggling—department store, became a Macy's. Some of the higher-end designers Field's carried are gone from the racks, but overall the store remains the same, still standing as a glorious reminder of how grand department stores used to be. Founder Marshall Field's motto was "Give the lady what she wants!" And for many years both ladies and gentlemen had been able to find everything from furs to personalized stationery on one of the store's nine levels. The ground floor and lower level are fashioned in the model of European department stores to include leased boutiques. These stores-within-the-store include national companies like Yahoo!, selling Internet service and computer equipment, and an Yves St. Laurent accessories boutique, as well as local retailers like Merz Apothecary, a pharmacy that opened on the North Side of Chicago in 1875 and specializes in homeopathic remedies. You can still buy Field's famous Frango mints (though they're no longer made locally), and the Walnut Room restaurant on the seventh floor is still a magical place to dine at Christmas. And, the famous Tiffany Dome—designed in 1907 by Louis Comfort Tiffany—is visible from the fifth floor.