Farewell Kaufmann's

Elena was talking about the closing of Robinson-May in her area, due to the merger of the May Company and Federated Department Stores.

Well, yesterday saw the closing of two Kaufmann's stores that were close to my heart. South Hills Village actually closed on Sunday. That was the first store I worked at. I was employed there for 2 years after college. It was a fun and often aggravating experience, but one I wouldn't trade for the world. Everyone should work at a department store once in their life, and it should be over a Christmas holiday. I worked there for 2 Christmases. I'm sure I'll be up for sainthood for not killing anyone during those two seasons.

I adored that Kaufmann's store. It was big and beautiful, ok, not beautiful, but it was big and you could always find a deal there. Plus all the people that worked there were nice, associates and management alike.

These closings are the first step in switching over of all the stores to the Macy's name. I'm not thrilled by that. Macy's doesn't have quite the appeal to me as Kaufmann's did, and it's not that I'm feeling loyal to the home store. It's the May Company brands that I'm going to miss.

Shopping just isn't going to be the same when this merger is complete.

R.I.P. Kaufmanns.

Thank you for the debt!