Macy's offends Catholics

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I received an email for Catholics to boycott Macy’s. Here’s why:

“MACY’S OFFENDS CATHOLICSCatholic League president Bill Donohue comments on how Macy’s department store is offending Catholics:
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Why Macy’s would want to pick a fight with Catholics during the Lenten season is not known, but that it has is certain. Here’s the background.
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This weekend, Showtime will begin airing a series, “The Borgias,” a corrupt Spanish family, one of whose members became pope. Everyone, including devout Catholics, agrees this is a sordid story in Catholic history. That Macy’s has chosen to celebrate this ugly chapter is another matter altogether.
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On the 7th Avenue side of the Macy’s Herald Square store (between 34th and 35th Street), there is a large window display of manikins dressed as the pope, bishops, et al. In plain letters it says, “The Borgias: The Original Crime Family”; it advertises the season premiere, with the Showtime logo off to the side. To see a picture of it, click here.
On Tuesday, Catholic League vice president Bernadette Brady called one of Macy’s media managers, Alyssa Bendetson, registering our concerns, as well as those of our members who contacted us; she was also sent a copy of our release from March 18 on the series. She pledged to get back to us with a response. It is now obvious that Macy’s is taking this matter lightly.
*
The series was written by an atheist who hates the Catholic Church, Neil Jordan. Macy’s knows this. We are approaching the heart of the Easter season, yet Macy’s has decided that offending Catholics is worth the risk. We’ll see.”

What do you all think about this?
 
I think Macy’s isn’t interested in offending Catholics at all. I think Macy’s is interested in bringing more in more business by attracting people who enjoy Showtime’s original series’ such as the Tudors, Nurse Jackie, etc. These are very popular programs.
 
Macy’s doesn’t give two poops about anything but their ego and “the bottom line.” The company is headed by an arrogant man who thinks very highly of himself and the store he oversees.

Since I am a staunch Midwesterner, and Marshall Field and Company meant a lot to many of us here in the Chicago Metropolitan area, I’m not alone in my disgust for Macy’s and their entire corporate business. Macy’s decided to buy out the prestigious Marshall Field company, which was a 150 year-old Chicago institution, and renamed the stores as Macy’s. (Compare the buy-out to Hyundai buying out Mercedes-Benz, and calling all Mercedes-Benz automobiles a Kia.)

People protested vehemently, and the Macy’s Kingfish simply said “Just get used to it.” Macy’s sent me a glowing sales brochure with discount coupons, along with a Macy’s Preferred Credit Card to replace my 40+ year-old Marshall Field credit card, but I was P.O.'d enough that I just marked it “Refused” and sent the package back to them. Customer service at the renamed stores plummeted, because the existing courteous and helpful sales people left in droves; the few sales clerks added were insolent and contemptuous, and the quality of merchandise declined. As have sales at the stores.

Okay, my Macy’s rant has ended. My opinion is that Macy’s isn’t concerned one whit about offending anybody at all, and probably couldn’t care less… and they might even welcome the controversy as free newsprint ink. To Hades with the bunch of illegitimates.
 
Ponyguy said:
Since I am a staunch Midwesterner, and Marshall Field and Company meant a lot to many of us here in the Chicago Metropolitan area, I’m not alone in my disgust for Macy’s and their entire corporate business. Macy’s decided to buy out the prestigious Marshall Field company, which was a 150 year-old Chicago institution, and renamed the stores as Macy’s. (Compare the buy-out to Hyundai buying out Mercedes-Benz, and calling all Mercedes-Benz automobiles a Kia.)
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Interesting. If you replace Macy’s with Marshall Fields and Marshall Fields with Dayton’s, you have this exact same scenario here in Minnesota, except your beloved Marshall Fields is the villian. Dayton’s was the most beloved store here for decades. Such is life in a world of corporate takeovers 😛
 
Wampa said:
Interesting. If you replace Macy’s with Marshall Fields and Marshall Fields with Dayton’s, you have this exact same scenario here in Minnesota, except your beloved Marshall Fields is the villian. Dayton’s was the most beloved store here for decades. Such is life in a world of corporate takeovers 😛
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Yes, I remember that. Except it was really the Dayton-Hudson Corporation which bought Marshall Field’s, to get the highly-respected name. The Minneapolis Dayton Corporation merged with Detroit’s J.L. Hudson Company forming Dayton-Hudson, which begat the Target stores group. Along the way, D-H purchased the preeminent Chicago jeweler C.D. Peacock Co., modestly-priced clothier Mervyn’s of California, some Jordan-Marsh stores, and some Lord & Taylor stores as well.

Ultimately, to consolidate operations, the Dayton-Hudson Corporation chose the Marshall Field name for its upscale department store name, changing all (or most) of the Dayton’s and the Hudson’s stores to the much more well-known and prestigious Marshall Field and Company name; Mervyn’s catered to the moderate-priced soft goods stores, and Target competed head-to-head with the “Mart Siblings” (Kay and Wal). Target was the D-H corporate money machine, and generated the corporate profits; the board decided to spin off Target as its own company to enhance the book value of its stock and watch its profits soar. This left the upper-class Marshall Field store group and the Mervyn’s of California group of stores to fend for themselves. Mervyn’s was not able to compete in the ultra-competitive low-to-moderate price market and soon folded. The Marshall Field’s stores group were borderline insolvent, in spite of their long and distinguished history as THE store on State Street in Downtown Chicago. Macy’s purchased the Chicago area stores and promptly turned them from a high-class store to a much-lower grade operation… when Macy’s arrived, they wiped all hints of “class” from the stores.

I don’t know what happened to the Dayton’s/Marshall Field stores in Minnesota, but we here in Chicago feel a definite loss… Our beloved Marshall Field’s is gone; Our Sears Tower has been renamed the Willis Building by another arrogant big-mouth Insurance CEO from London, England because he demanded the naming rights as part of the lease he finagled; and Chicago’s reply to the Washington Monument, the Standard Oil Building, was sold off to Aon Insurance in preparation for the Chicago-Based Amoco Corporation to sell out to BP (a BIG MISTAKE, as we have come to realize).

It’s one thing to purchase a company and take it up a level or two in class. But it’s quite another thing to take a high-fallutin’ store and reduce it to a Dollar Store. If you go up in perceived class, people will follow; if you decline in the eyes of the buying public, the public will seek better services, quality and merchandise elsewhere. Study the corporate history of the Packard Motor Company some time; Packards were without peer; “Ask the man who owns one”! Cadillac had to work hard and sweat the details to compete with Packard. But times got tough, and Packard had to offer a low priced 6 cylinder car to stay afloat in the depression years. They were nice cars, sold well, saved the company, but they were not a PACKARD… merely a shadow of what a Packard should have been. Once the depression and the war was over, Packard wasn’t ready to compete again with Cadillac… people remembered the cheap cars, and never forgave Packard. Actually, the 1954, 55 & 56 Packards are a few of my favorite vehicles today. But Packard died after the 1958 models (which were carp-faced Studebakers).
 
Ponyguy said:
I don’t know what happened to the Dayton’s/Marshall Field stores in Minnesota, but we here in Chicago feel a definite loss… Our beloved Marshall Field’s is gone; Our Sears Tower has been renamed the Willis Building by another arrogant big-mouth Insurance CEO from London, England because he demanded the naming rights as part of the lease he finagled; and Chicago’s reply to the Washington Monument, the Standard Oil Building, was sold off to Aon Insurance
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The changing of names of iconic fixtures can take some time to adjust to. However, when such a name change brings an influx of cash and renovations, and returns a building to profitability is it such a bad thing?

Certainly Marshall Fields was a storied name in Chicago. However, the flagship store on State Street was hemorrhaging money. Polls showed that Chicagoans like the idea of shopping there, but the percentage who actually did in a given year was much lower. Macy’s may not be as classy, but the company returned the downtown building to profitability and is now used by more shoppers. Similarly, the Willis Tower sale unburdened Sears of a white elephant and brought the building some much needed renovation. I’m not familiar with the situation of the Standard Oil/Amoco/Aon building but would note that name changes aren’t unprecedented for it.

As for this thread, I think the Catholic League is getting desperate for attention to be complaining that the Borgias window display is anti-Catholic.
 
So no on is supposed to make a show about anything in history that might make SOME members of the Catholic Church look bad? Ridiculous.
 
Ponyguy, interesting history lesson. I had totally forgotten that Dayon’s was the buyer.

Regardless, people still here have the same feeling as the one your described: we lost our beloved Dayton’s. which got replaced by something else. Once we barely got used to Marshall’s Fields, it changed again to Macy’s. I think most people here have never quite liked Marshall Fields or Macy’s the way they loved Dayton’s.
 
agnes_therese said:
So no on is supposed to make a show about anything in history that might make SOME members of the Catholic Church look bad? Ridiculous.
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Read it again, it is less about the show and more about the store dispaly
 
agnes_therese said:
So no on is supposed to make a show about anything in history that might make SOME members of the Catholic Church look bad? Ridiculous.
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Hi,
I believe our country frowns on religious, racial, and sexual discrimination in all its forms. Would they dare to make a scandalous series about Martin King in their windows?
I would ask the Black community to help us out on this one and anyone else who feels this is out of line with our constitution. We send our boys over there to fight and die and this is what we get back, dispect!!! I ask our Protestant brothers to help us out and send a message to everyone that this is not right to do this to any religious, racial, or sexual community. This is positively disgusting!!! A smire on any decient institution is a smire on everyone. And who will they target next!
 
Yes, the window display is anti-Catholic and Macy’s is thumbing their nose at the Catholic Church. Would they put a display like this in their window of Muslim Caliphs that were known to be crooked and say “the original criminals?”

Thank God for the Catholic League! I support their efforts. 👍
 
fred_conty said:
Hi,
I believe our country frowns on religious, racial, and sexual discrimination in all its forms. Would they dare to make a scandalous series about Martin King in their windows?
I would ask the Black community to help us out on this one and anyone else who feels this is out of line with our constitution. We send our boys over there to fight and die and this is what we get back, dispect!!! I ask our Protestant brothers to help us out and send a message to everyone that this is not right to do this to any religious, racial, or sexual community. This is positively disgusting!!! A smire on any decient institution is a smire on everyone. And who will they target next!
Click to expand...
Making a series about a sordid period in our past is not necessarily a bad thing.
 
HNA444 said:
I received an email for Catholics to boycott Macy’s. Here’s why:

“MACY’S OFFENDS CATHOLICSCatholic League president Bill Donohue comments on how Macy’s department store is offending Catholics:
*
Why Macy’s would want to pick a fight with Catholics during the Lenten season is not known, but that it has is certain. Here’s the background.
*
This weekend, Showtime will begin airing a series, “The Borgias,” a corrupt Spanish family, one of whose members became pope. Everyone, including devout Catholics, agrees this is a sordid story in Catholic history. That Macy’s has chosen to celebrate this ugly chapter is another matter altogether.
*
On the 7th Avenue side of the Macy’s Herald Square store (between 34th and 35th Street), there is a large window display of manikins dressed as the pope, bishops, et al. In plain letters it says, “The Borgias: The Original Crime Family”; it advertises the season premiere, with the Showtime logo off to the side. To see a picture of it, click here.
On Tuesday, Catholic League vice president Bernadette Brady called one of Macy’s media managers, Alyssa Bendetson, registering our concerns, as well as those of our members who contacted us; she was also sent a copy of our release from March 18 on the series. She pledged to get back to us with a response. It is now obvious that Macy’s is taking this matter lightly.
*
The series was written by an atheist who hates the Catholic Church, Neil Jordan. Macy’s knows this. We are approaching the heart of the Easter season, yet Macy’s has decided that offending Catholics is worth the risk. We’ll see.”

What do you all think about this?
Click to expand...
Let’s just boycott Macy’s and send letters to their marketing dept. and executive management.
Does anyone have their email and postal mail addresses.
 
AmbroseSJ said:
Would they put a display like this in their window of Muslim Caliphs that were known to be crooked and say “the original criminals?”
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Unless a mini-series on the caliphs were being run which highlighted that feature about them, it seems unlikely.

But c’mon, the caliphs were not part of Western civilization, and are pretty much unknown to us. Yet anyone who has taken a class in Western Civ has heard of the Borgias. And their infamy precedes even the classroom. I heard about Lucrezia Borgia and her poisonous ways as a sophomore or junior in high school.
 
I guess a lot of history is now off-limits for TV & movies. Can’t cover any period of American history when we had slavery (including the Revolution)-- makes the U. S. look bad. Or the “Jim Crow” age afterward. No historical movies about the Crusades (there goes “Kingdom of Heaven”). Nothing on the English occupation of Ireland. Or India. Movies about the Holocaust would make Germany look bad, so they’re out. Nothing on the expansion of the US westward; the treatment of the native Americans is certainly nothing we want seen. And Russia & China – probably can’t do ANYTHING historical there. No movies about Salem, makes the Protestants look bad. Ban “Cleopatra,” the Egyptians had slaves . . .
 
Alexander VI was not the only Borgia Pope. You also had Callistus III(Reigned 1455-1458). Unlike Alexander, Callistus was a pious man(although never canonized). It was Pope Callistus who rescinded Joan of Arc’s conviction of heresy. He also called for a crusade to retake Byzantium, of course, the kings of Europe didn’t listen to him. Although, by appointing two of his family members to the College of Cardinals, he did give us probably the worst pope in history.

As far as Macy’s, ignore them.
 
StTommyMore said:
Do you suggest that we just pretend that it didn’t happen?
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No, I’m talking about the fictional series “The Borgias”. If Showtime were offering an honest historical documentary, with nothing but the facts, then I would probably agree that it would’nt necessarily be a bad thing, but that’s not the case here. What can we really expect to see after what Macy’s has just given us a taste of…? “The Borgias: The Original Crime Family”.

So again, how can a fictional series based on a sordid period in Church history actually prove to be a good thing for the Catholic Church…? It really can’t.
 
TEPO said:
No, I’m talking about the fictional series “The Borgias”. If Showtime were offering an honest historical documentary, with nothing but the facts, then I would probably agree that it would’nt necessarily be a bad thing, but that’s not the case here. What can we really expect to see after what Macy’s has just given us a taste of…? “The Borgias: The Original Crime Family”.

So again, how can a fictional series based on a sordid period in Church history actually prove to be a good thing for the Catholic Church…? It really can’t.
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So then let as ban all fictionalizations. Taking your logic to its conclusion, then such movies as Patriot, Midway, any movie about Robin Hood, Gettysburg, A Man for all Seasons etc. Should also be banned. Films are not for education, but entertainment. There is lots of entertainment that misrepresent history (American Outlaws and Young Guns come to mind.) As Christians we should expect to be persecuted in some way. Just ignore the series, encourage others to do the same. The worst thing we can do is draw attention to it. Shows like this thrive on the attention generated by controversy.
 
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