Marshall Field's History



Address:
700 Nicollet Mall
Minneapolis, Minnesota 55402-2040
U.S.A.

Telephone: (612) 375-2200
Fax: (612) 375-2795

Division of Target Corporation
Incorporated: 1901 as Marshall Field & Company, Inc.
Employees: 26,000
Sales: $2.58 billion (2003)
NAIC: 452110 Department Stores; 454110 Electronic Shopping and Mail-Order Houses

Company Perspectives:

At Marshall Field's stores, the guest is always first. This guest-focused approach has inspired millions of shoppers across the Midwest and beyond to look to Marshall Field's for fashion leadership, superb guest service and a commitment to community involvement.

Key Dates:

1852:
Potter Palmer opens a retail dry goods store called P. Palmer & Company on Lake Street in Chicago, soon finding success creating an upscale emporium catering to women.
1865:
Marshall Field and Levi Z. Leiter buy into Palmer's enterprise, which is renamed Field, Palmer & Leiter.
1867:
Field and Leiter buy out Palmer, renaming the firm Field, Leiter & Company.
1868:
Field and Leiter move their store to State and Washington Streets.
1871:
The store is destroyed in the Great Chicago Fire; three weeks later, it reopens at a temporary site.
1873:
The retail store reopens in a new building at State and Washington.
1877:
Another fire burns the store to the ground, forcing another temporary relocation.
1879:
Field, Leiter & Company returns once again to State and Washington.
1881:
Field buys out Leiter and renames the firm Marshall Field & Company.
1885:
Field's retail store opens its bargain basement area.
1901:
The company is incorporated as Marshall Field & Company, Inc.
1906:
Marshall Field dies, leaving ownership of his company to a complex family trust; John G. Shedd takes over as president.
1917:
Field family trustees sell 90 percent of their company shares to the firm's officers and managers.
1929:
The Frederick & Nelson department store in Seattle, Washington, is acquired.
1930:
The company finishes construction of the mammoth $35 million Merchandise Mart, new home of the wholesale and manufacturing divisions; Marshall Field & Co. offers shares to the public for the first time; the Field family retains a 10 percent stake.
1932:
At the height of the depression, Marshall Field & Co. posts a net loss of $8 million.
1935:
James O. McKinsey is brought in from the outside as chairman and CEO to direct the liquidation of the wholesale division.
1945:
The Merchandise Mart is sold to Joseph P. Kennedy for $12.9 million.
1953:
Marshall Field completes the divestment of its manufacturing operations, selling Fieldcrest Mills.
1956:
The company leads the development of Old Orchard, a new shopping center in Skokie, Illinois, featuring a Marshall Field's store.
1965:
The Field family sells its last remaining holdings in Marshall Field & Co.
1976:
Water Tower Place, half-owned by the company, is completed on Chicago's North Michigan Avenue and includes a new Marshall Field's store.
1977:
Carter Hawley Hale Stores, Inc. launches a takeover bid that is rejected by Marshall Field's board.
1979:
The first Marshall Field store outside the Midwest opens in Houston, Texas.
1982:
To fend off a takeover bid led by Carl Icahn, Marshall Field sells itself to BATUS Inc., a division of B.A.T. Industries PLC, for $367.6 million.
1987:
A $110 million, five-year renovation of the flagship State Street store is launched.
1989:
To fend off a hostile takeover led by James Goldsmith, B.A.T. Industries announces that it will sell off its U.S. retailing operations.
1990:
Dayton Hudson Corporation acquires Marshall Field's for $1.04 billion.
1996:
Marshall Field's exits from the Texas market, selling its four stores there.
2000:
Dayton Hudson changes its name to Target Corporation.
2001:
Target rebrands its Dayton's and Hudson's department stores under the Marshall Field's banner.
2004:
Target announces that it will explore a possible sale of Marshall Field's.

Company History:

Further Reading:

  • Baeb, Eddie, "Field's a Smaller Department for Target: As Chain Grows, Local Retailer Becomes Less Important," Crain's Chicago Business, July 24, 2000, p. 1.
  • Barmash, Isadore, "BATUS Bid Is Accepted by Field," New York Times, March 17, 1982, p. D1.
  • Berg, Eric N., "Marshall Field Deal by Dayton," New York Times, April 20, 1990, p. D1.
  • Berner, Robert, "Dayton Hudson's Once-Fashionable Stores Tread Water," Wall Street Journal, August 1, 1996, p. B4.
  • Blackburn, Tom F., "Hard Times Nurtured Marshall Field," Nation's Business, February 1932, p. 55.
  • Chandler, Susan, "Target Corp. Makes Field's Day: Renaming Ends Era of Dayton's, Hudson's Stores," Chicago Tribune, January 13, 2001, p. 1.
  • ------, "Under the Gun at Dayton Hudson," Business Week, May 20, 1996, pp. 66+.
  • Dayton, George Draper, II, Our Story: With Histories of the Dayton, McDonald, and Winchell Families, Wayzata, Minn., 1987.
  • Fallon, James, "Now It's Saks and Field's Up for Sale," Women's Wear Daily, September 27, 1989, p. 1.
  • Fass, Allison, "Marshall Field's Decides It's Time for a Big Branding Effort," New York Times, September 11, 2001, p. C8.
  • "Field's and Its Foe Go Their Own Ways," Business Week, March 6, 1978, p. 33.
  • Gallun, Alby, "The Targeting of Field's," Crain's Chicago Business, April 15, 2002, p. 1.
  • Gill, Penny, "Macke Maps Plan for Dayton Hudson," Stores, November 1991, pp. 28+.
  • Goff, Lisa, "Bringing Back Field's Glory Days," Crain's Chicago Business, December 15, 1986, p. 1.
  • Griffin, Dick, "Marshall Field: Is Independence Worth It?," Fortune, February 12, 1979, pp. 106-09.
  • Heller, Laura, "Frango Fracas Peeves Chicago," Discount Store News, April 5, 1999, pp. 3, 47.
  • Hull, Hamilton, Marshall Field & Company: The World's Greatest Merchandiser, Chicago: Marshall Field & Co., 1907.
  • Jones, Sandra, "Pressure to Dump Field's," Crain's Chicago Business, November 17, 2003, p. 3.
  • ------, "Target: Fresher Field's," Crain's Chicago Business, November 3, 2003, p. 3.
  • Koehn, Nancy F., "Marshall Field, 1834-1906," in Brand New: How Entrepreneurs Earned Consumers' Trust from Wedgwood to Dell, Boston: Harvard Business School Press, 2001, pp. 91-130.
  • Levy, Melissa, "An Old Firm, a New Name: Target Corp.," Minneapolis Star-Tribune, January 14, 2000, p. 1A.
  • Madsen, Axel, The Marshall Fields: The Evolution of an American Business Dynasty, New York: Wiley, 2002.
  • "Marshall Field & Co.," Fortune, October 1936, pp. 78-87+.
  • "Marshall Field: Seeking New Markets in the South and West," Business Week, March 23, 1981, p. 125.
  • "Marshall Field, the Store," Fortune, December 1945, pp. 142-47+.
  • Merrick, Amy, "Field's Lures New Brands to Polish Image," Wall Street Journal, July 8, 2003, p. B1.
  • Moin, David, "Marshall Field's Newest Dream," Women's Wear Daily, October 9, 2003.
  • Moore, Janet, "The Store Formerly Known As Dayton's: Dayton's and Hudson's Department Stores to Use Marshall Field's Name," Minneapolis Star-Tribune, January 13, 2001, p. 1A.
  • Nazem, Susie Gharib, "Marshall Field's Too Successful Strategy," Fortune, March 22, 1982, pp. 81-82, 84.
  • Palmer, James L., The Origin, Growth, and Transformation of Marshall Field & Company, New York: Newcomen Society in North America, 1963.
  • "Professor's Purge," Time, December 27, 1937, p. 42.
  • Prokesch, Steven, "British Conglomerate to Sell Off Saks and Marshall Field Chains," New York Times, September 27, 1989, p. A1.
  • "Putting Some Pizazz into Marshall Field's," Business Week, August 22, 1983, p. 87.
  • Rutberg, Sidney, "Dayton Hudson Win Marshall Field's," Women's Wear Daily, April 20, 1990, p. 1.
  • Salmans, Sandra, "Behind the Slippage at Marshall Field," New York Times, March 17, 1982, p. D1.
  • Tebbel, John William, The Marshall Fields: A Study in Wealth, New York: Dutton, 1947.
  • Turner, Melissa, "Field's Hopes Restructuring Will Pay Off," Women's Wear Daily, July 8, 1995, pp. 1+.
  • Twyman, Robert W., History of Marshall Field & Co., 1852-1906, Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1954.
  • ------, "Potter Palmer: Merchandising Innovator of the West," Explorations in Entrepreneurial History, December 1951.
  • Veverka, Mark, "The Battle Field's: Fighting for a Focus," Crain's Chicago Business, November 28, 1994, p. 1.
  • ------, "A Down Field's Heads Upstream," Crain's Chicago Business, November 13, 1995, p. 1.
  • Webber, Oscar, J.L. Hudson: The Man and the Store, New York: Newcomen Society in North America, 1954.
  • Wendt, Lloyd, and Herman Kogan, Give the Lady What She Wants! The Story of Marshall Field & Company, Chicago: Rand McNally, 1952.
  • "Why Profits Shrink at a Grand Old Name," Business Week, April 11, 1977, pp. 66+.
  • Wieffering, Eric J., "Refashioning Dayton's," Corporate Report Minnesota, April 1994, pp. 60+.
  • Williams, Alfred Harry, No Name on the Door: A Memoir of Gordon Selfridge, London: W.H. Allen, 1956.
  • Wilson, Anamaria, "Through the Years," Women's Wear Daily, October 9, 2003.
  • Wilson, Beth, "Dreams of Field's: Famed Chicago Store Embarks on Overhaul," Women's Wear Daily, June 30, 2003, p. 1.
  • Zuckerman, Gregory, and Ann Zimmerman, "Target Indeed: Unhappy Investors Take Aim," Wall Street Journal, February 4, 2004, pp. C1, C3.

Source: International Directory of Company Histories, Vol.63. St. James Press, 2004.

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