2005年NPR美国国家公共电台三月-business report

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The nation's biggest department store chain Federated is buying its No.2 rival--May Department Stores in a deal valued at 11 billion dollars.The combination forms a chain with nearly a thousand retail¹ outlets² and as NPR's Scott Hosley reports, the move comes at a time when department stores are getting a dwindling³ share of the retail trade.

San Diego's Fashion Valley Mall is anchored by a Robinson's May Department store at one end of the food court and Macy's at the other. The acquisition of the May company by Macy's parent Federated brings these two retailers⁵ together along with other venerable chains like Marshall Field's ,Bloomingdale's, Lord & Taylor and Firelings. The big stores are magnets for customers like NB and CN. They are here today on the lookout⁶ for a variety of merchandise.

Clothes,shoes,purses,jeans,anything,everything...I like department stores because there's a more variety and you can get all the brands other than just like one or two.

Yeah and that's the products and the service so good.

Department stores in general have taken a beating, though, as more and more consumers turned to specialty⁷ retailers and discount stores.While Federated and May have nearly 30 billion dollars in combined annual sales,ten times that amount flows to the cash registers of Wal-Mart.Marilyn Hanson is browsing⁸ at Fashion Valley but said she does more of her shopping these days at specialty stores.

Sometimes at Christmas, I'll do, you know, a lot more shopping,but most of the time I just (stood) stay out of the department stores.

Federated Chairman Terry Lundgren acknowledged the challenges facing department stores today in a web-cast news conference,but he said the acquisition of May will help make Federated a premier⁹ national retailer⁴ with the strong presence in all but one of the nation's major markets.
We believe passionately¹⁰ that department stores have an important place in the ever-changing and very competitive broad retail environment.I think we are proving that the department store can be a vibrant,very much alive form of retailing¹¹.This combination will further strengthen our leading position in the sector¹².

The merger¹³ is expected to give Federated more clout¹⁴ in negotiating with suppliers and landlords. Analysts¹⁵ say antitrust concern should be limited since there are fewer than 100 shopping malls where the two chains compete head to head.Retail consultant¹⁶ George Willon agrees with Lundgren that department stores are not facing extinction¹⁷ in the retail business,but he said the chains do have to do a better job before appealing to young people and ever more value-conscious shoppers.

Many department stores rely on this sale of week mentality,start at one price and then the next week it's a different price , the next week it's different price.I think consumers are smarter in that today.And they figured that out so they wait until it goes on sale.

Lately ,Federated has been more successful than May in drawing additional business to its stores and it has been more focused with its Macy's brand name.Unlike May ,which operates stores under an assortment¹⁸ of regional names,Federated says many of those regional stores would be converted to Macy's or Bloomingdale's.But the combined company may continue to operate stores under the Lord &Taylor and Marshall Field's names after listening to customers.

Scott Hosley, NPR news.