Acquisition by Federated and conversion to Macy's
After yet another change in corporate ownership in 1992, the Bon ended up in the hands of Federated Department Stores, a Cincinnati-based company which also owns the Macy's and Bloomingdales chains. In 2001, The Bon Marché debuted a prototype store in Helena, Montana. The 65000 sqft store featured everything a typical Bon Marché had plus centralized checkouts.[10]
In August 2003, Federated rebranded The Bon Marché, turning it into Bon-Macy's.[11] Federated also tacked Macy's onto the names of four other regional chains under its umbrella (Burdines in Florida, Lazarus in the Midwest, Goldsmith's in Tennessee, and Rich's in the Southeast).[12] Customers had about a year to get used to that change when, in September 2004, Federated announced that all its regional chains would be renamed Macy's.[13]
As of 2004, Bon-Macy's consisted of 50 stores in Washington, Oregon, Idaho, Montana, and Wyoming. New store signs, reading simply Macy's, were in place by January 2005.[2] The former flagship store in downtown Seattle retains one small, original example of The Bon Marché signage; this can be seen above the north entrance of the store, at the corner of 4th Ave & Olive Way.
On February 6, 2008, Federated's chairman, president, and chief executive officer, Terry Lundgren announced the localization strategy and the company's plan to shed 2,550 jobs. This included laying off the Macy's Northwest headquarters and merging all of the former The Bon Marché stores under the Macy's West division.[14]
