give the lady what she wants

so, marshall fields is now officially macy's in chicago.

i wish i had the energy to go into this in detail, because it's been a hilarious week. i'll give highlights... as expected, the resistance to macy's was present, and as CSz partnered with marshall fields before, macy's has decided to continue to partner with us for promotional work. essentially, CSz not only sells street teams to do things (which a lot of people can do), but they sell our product of being amicable and fun as much as anything else (something other people don't necessarily use). they needed that amicable nature this week, as we dealt with angry, angry people mad about the name change on state and randolph.

mostly, we handed out flyers and prepared people the day before - that was the hardest day, because people (thought they knew it was coming for about a year) were not prepared or excited about the change. if you'd ask me as a chicagoan if i was happy about macy's, i'd certainly say no back then. but apparently, MFs is closed everywhere else now - it isn't surprising, and it certainly is a part of corporate america, which i hate (look at camera, a la ricky gervais). but, they've employed all the old MF workers, made the building a national landmark, and changed nearly nothing. i don't really know what to care about here.

still, people were mixed - and they'd take a flier and be psyched (25%), take a flier and not care (40%), take a flier and feel guilt (15%), or punch us in the trach (20%). it was all really funny, so no one cared. we got some "macy's can suck one"-ish sentiments, but only until the next day. all weekend long into monday, macy's had random acts of kindness days - giving out umbrellas in the rain, paying for people's parking garage fees, giving them free CTA cards, or handing them krispy kremes - all proving that people, yes, are willing to be bought. everyone seems just fine with macy's now.

sad? maybe. i don't know. change is scary. but marshall field made his scrilla off captialism too. is the horde correct? well, as the man said "right or wrong, the customer is always right." we'll see what they believe, then declare it right.

p.s., he also said the quote "freedom is more than a word" (fair enough), and the title of this post, one of my favorite things to say on dates as a bit.