The Bon Marche is changing its name. This isn't really a big deal since the store has been owned by one national chain or another since the Depression, but through all those corporate dealings the store has retained that odd local name. It was a Seattle name. It didn't make sense in Missoula, MT or all those other places where the name replaced local brands, but it did belong to Seattle.

That name is part of what made downtown Seattle just a bit different than downtown Denver or Pittsburgh. It provided something unique rather than yet another example of carefully modulated national branding. A shopper visiting from somewhere else would have to investigate a bit in a Seattle-area mall to discover what this "The Bon" thing was all about. They'd probably soon recognize its similarity to whatever their local Federated store was called, but the investigation would at least provide a brief hint of the exotic.

No more. It takes a name that lets anyone from anywhere recognize it as part of what happens everywhere else in just the same way. It is just a small sign of the dimming of local-ness in our localities. A name-change like this is less significant than the corporate ownership that has long made The Bon focus mostly on the needs of its eastern parent, but the brand at least reflected back on a Seattle history rather than someone else's meaningless history. As a unit of a national chain, The Bon has never defined the city in quite the way that Nordstrom has. The pervasive political and social influence of the extended Nordstrom family could never be matched by corporate middle-managers sent to town by The Bon's Cincinnatti headquarters. The Bon has long been local in name only, but at least it retained that bit of localness.

And then there's the logo itself. I really like The Bon's current logo. It dates from about 10 years ago and was adopted in conjunction with a major refurbishment of the subtly splendid Art Nouveau downtown store. The logo is an homage to an historical logo that was returned to the downtown building's facade during the remodel. There's no reason the three typefaces should work together, but to my eye they do work. The current Macy's logo, on the other hand, is among the uglier retail logos out there. Let us hope that Federated at least uses their national rebranding campaign to dump the current Macy's logotype in favor of something -- anything -- more adult and dignified.