Three of the four corners of the store had small "The Bon Marche" signs installed in addition to the large Macy's signs, installed sometime after 2004 when the branding was fully changed over to Macy's. I have to wonder if this store ever had the short-lived "Bon Macy's" branding used from 2003 to 2004 -- I swear I remember at least some stores having that branding, but I can't find any pictures of it anywhere online... and I would have been 5 or so when that branding was in use, so it's not like my memories can be trusted. I have to say, it was interesting to see the giant Macy's signs still in place long after the majority of this store had been sold off.
Do you think this was to appease the community, or for trademark reasons like we've discussed so many other times before? Related -- Macy's does sell T-shirts on its website with their "brand heritage" logos... and while it's already disappointing that they use the ugly plain Goldsmith's logo instead of the famous script one, it would be even worse if the shirts actually arrive as horribly off-centered as they are in the rendering! https://www.macys.com/s/brand-heritage/goldsmiths/
ReplyDeleteDid a little more digging here, and found an interesting series of lawsuits from four to five years ago in which a known resurrectionist of zombie brands began using the Macy's "heritage marks" in the production of T-shirts on its website, Retro Department Stores. The end goal is apparently actually to reopen physical stores under those names; Macy's, of course, sued to protect their trademarks.
DeleteThe court found in favor of Macy's for several of the marks, but Macy's settled with the Retro people for several others, giving up their rights to those marks. Very interesting stuff. I've included a handful of links for you below, including the full court judgement on the former case (where they found in favor of Macy's). Lots of interesting tidbits in there, but the major takeaway: "Simply because a store has ceased operations does not mean that its proprietor or owner does not maintain a valid interest in the registered trademark of the business. A trademark can still exist and be owned even after a store closes. If an accused infringer uses the mark, a consumer may still be confused as to whether the owner of the trademark authorized or licensed the infringer."
https://consumerist.com/2015/02/26/macys-tries-again-to-win-back-trademarks-from-man-who-resurrected-astro-pops-and-hydrox/
https://casetext.com/case/macys-inc-v-strategic-marks-llc
https://www.wcpo.com/news/insider/macys-inc-m-gives-up-zombie-brands-to-settle-trademark-dispute
https://www.techdirt.com/articles/20160301/06153133767/macys-settles-with-strategic-marks-gives-up-brands-it-killed-off-through-acquisition.shtml
https://lizerbramlaw.com/2015/04/21/zombie-trademarks-macys-legacy-brands/
That's all very interesting stuff, and to be honest, I'm not particularly confident I understand it all! 🙂 As much as I talk about these parked trademarks, I have only the most superficial understanding of legal issues, so I'm not sure how much of an educated discussion I can have on that. (An embarrassingly large part of my knowledge of that came from the Chevron/Standard Oil ad we've discussed!) In this specific case, I suspect that the signage was more a tiny effort to placate locals who weren't (and still aren't) exactly happy about Macy's taking over the Bon Marche. Those shirts and bags that Macy's is (theoretically) selling seem like blatant trademark parking, though, with the apparent low quality, minimal design, and relatively high pricing. Reminds me a lot of this post I recently read.
DeleteHa, fair enough -- and I probably can't say I'm an expert in any way, shape, or form on this, either :P Regardless, it all is certainly interesting to read about! That post you linked to is fun, too...
DeleteHa, yeah, I love Lowering the Bar!
DeleteWhile its sad Macy's decided to retire the legacy brands, I never knew they had that page on their website detailing all the legacy brands. I know lots of people in Florida are still bitter that Burdines was absorbed into Macy's, but that feeling seems to hold true throughout the country for the other brands as well. Burdines only has the bag available on Macy's website - however, I don't need to spend $24 on one of those, as I have a few authentic Burdines bags lying aroud!
ReplyDeleteI never knew about that page either -- it certainly seems like they aren't trying to draw attention to it. And I'm kind of jealous of your Burdines bag -- I was hoping to find something from the Bon Marche at this store's closing, but no luck.
DeleteThat reminds me, AFB -- that Mallwalkers blog that Anonymous from Houston shared with me recently, has this post that you'd surely be interested in (if you haven't already seen it): http://mallwalkers.net/burdines-florida
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