# Macy’s offering a new Thanksgiving Parade car for 2018



## Craignor (Jan 9, 2016)

Many of us love Thanksgiving, and watching the Parade is a part of the tradition. Thanksgiving kicks off the holiday season. Many of us love the Parade, and have bought one or more of these in years past.

It popped into my head today, I checked their website and boom there it was. It looks like this one won’t be available for 5-10 days, but I ordered one anyway, I will enjoy it for years to come. I will pick it up at my local Macy’s, need to do some Xmas shopping anyway. I hate to start all you guys up, but here goes:

https://www.macys.com/shop/product/...ar?ID=6702558&CategoryID=22672&cm_kws=6702558

This must be the best kept secret in O Gauge, if Macy’s or Lionel would have advertised it, they would of sold a lot more.

I like the new design. Each side is different.


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## PDDMI (Oct 25, 2015)

Bought one 2 years ago at the Macy’s on State Street in Chicago, liked that cars graphics too...pretty sure they were on sale then? Taking the Amtrak tomorrow morning into Chicago...going to a musical in the afternoon and then dinner. Thursday morning I have a VIP ticket and will be sitting right in front of Macy’s for the Thanksgiving Day Parade. Just checked and it appears as though Macy’s will be open from 5:00 pm through midnight after the parade...so hopefully they have these discounted a little when I get there!


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## Spence (Oct 15, 2015)

I never even knew that they had any train items.


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## PDDMI (Oct 25, 2015)

Spence said:


> I never even knew that they had any train items.


Spence...as I recall two years ago, there were some RTR sets and the Christmas cars? Last year when I looked, there were no trains anywhere in the Toy Department...


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## Lehigh74 (Sep 25, 2015)

The link in Craig’s post isn’t working at this time (a problem on Macy’s end). But the 2018 car is on eBay with a buy it now price of $98.50.

Before WWII, Macy’s would have Lionel make special sets for them like Pat’s Trains does now with MTH. Some of the Macy’s prewar sets are rare and worth big bucks.


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## Rocky Mountaineer (Sep 19, 2015)

Thanks for posting this, Craig! These cars are always fun, whimsically designed, and there's always a catch to getting them. Ironically, each year it's always a hit-and-miss affair to say the least.  And some years they weren't offered at all.  Here are some random thoughts over the years about these Macy's/Lionel gems:

First of all, the price of $85 for a 6464-sized boxcar today is a bit into nose-bleed territory for my blood -- especially when I couldn't even get $20 at the ATMA train show for my Lionel Century Club and Century Club II boxcars.  Really leaves me wondering why I ever paid the going street-price for traditional-sized Lionel boxcars at all. But nowadays, $85 MSRP and $60-ish street-price seem to be the going rate for brand new specialty Lionel 6464-sized boxcars. Of course, all is fair in love and war on eBay. So all bets are off in that environment. 

Secondly, the trick is to stack coupons if you can when making your purchase at Macy's directly. I learned years ago to never pay MSRP at Macy's, because there's ALWAYS some kind of promo floating around... but you need to dig for it. I tried a couple of promo codes in some Macy's emails I received in the past few days, but none of the codes worked on the Macy.com website for this item. Sometimes Macy's mail flyers have great promos too. So persistence typically pays off if you're so inclined and have the time to hunt around. If you're lucky, you "should" be able to get these boxcars down in the $40-$50 price range. $85? I just won't waste my time (and money) anymore.

Third, the marketing of these has ALWAYS been a mystery to me. If I recall correctly, the first few years these gems came out circa 2006-2009, these were only available at stores -- not online. And we had to call around to various local stores to see if they had them in stock. The real trick, however, was getting through to somebody who even had a clue what you were talking about. Different Macy's stores had them in different departments, and different stores had varying quantities available. I remember those days well.  

The NYC Herald Square store usually had the "mother lode" of Christmas boxcars (often several dozens of them), and they were always in the Macy's Santa-Land / Christmas department (where you'd expect them to be). But it was a real crap-shoot with other local Macy's stores: sometimes in their Christmas decorations department; other times in the Mens Department; and sometimes it was just easier to go to the store directly and hunt them down rather than calling around to different departments within a store. Some stores had as few as just half a dozen or so. I remember visiting my local Macy's store one year, and the sales lady was nice enough to print out a list of which stores throughout the country had them in-stock along with each store's quantity. And the big city downtown stores always had the larger quantities. 

Bottom line: there was often NO marketing of these novelty boxcars by Macy's or Lionel to either toy train enthusiasts or the general public.  It was strictly a word-of-mouth type of deal among those who'd be most inclined to buy them. And more than likely, random store employees usually never even knew anything about them. :dunno: So that was a bit of an uphill battle too in the early days. At least now, having them available through macys.com saves us on time and gasoline!!!  

Looking back... It's always been an interesting experience to say the least. And each year, the game was played a bit differently to keep us all on our toes. Nonetheless, I do have fond memories of tracking down these novelty boxcars -- especially the earlier versions.  And given all the craziness going on the world today, at least there's some fun to be had reliving some of the fun times we've experienced in our hobby. 

David


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## seayakbill (Jan 16, 2016)

I see the first ones selling for $20 on the auction sites so I will pass on this guy for what would be a hundred dollar traditional boxcar after taxes & shipping.

Bill


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## PDDMI (Oct 25, 2015)

Here are the 3 Macy’s cars that I currently have...

Lionel...2016








Lionel...2007








MTH...2004


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## seayakbill (Jan 16, 2016)

Nice Holiday cars. I can remember trying to acquire the first two Macy's cars at the local Macy's. It was an ordeal to say the least. One year the store clerks had no idea what the heck I was talking about, finally found the boxcar in the mens clothing section.

Bill


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## empire builder (Apr 12, 2014)

not to rain on your parade but to my eyes the word is tradition not teadition or are my eyes deceiving me?


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## Guest (Nov 21, 2018)

When I read the thread title, I thought for a moment that "car" referred to an automobile. Thinking about that thought, what a great idea to have a car head a parade.

Not to be.


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## highvoltage (Apr 6, 2014)

Lehigh74 said:


> The link in Craig’s post isn’t working...


Try this:

https://www.macys.com/shop/product/...ar?ID=6702558&CategoryID=22672&cm_kws=6702558


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## Guest (Nov 21, 2018)

If you buy the Macy's boxcar in-store at a Macy's that isn't in your home State they will give you a 10% discount as long as You show an out-of-State ID. The discount is valid for anything they sell, but You have to ask for it.

Emile


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## towdog (Oct 2, 2015)

When I bought the 2016 one, I believe the price dropped on either Thanksgiving or Black Friday. So keep on eye on the price over the next several days.

While this year's design is kind of ho-hum to me, I'll still probably get it. The more I think about it, the more that the white is kind of different and will stand out.


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## Rocky Mountaineer (Sep 19, 2015)

towdog said:


> ....
> 
> While this year's design is kind of ho-hum to me, I'll still probably get it. The more I think about it, the more that the white is kind of different and will stand out.


We're lucky to have any offering along these lines at all this year, since the production of boxcars out of Lionel's US facility has been lack-luster at best. The only situation worse is Lionel can't get ANY of its Milk Car products out of Romania (and tooling is reportedly a lost cause there as well now -- but that's a whole other story). 

Last year, Lionel catalog'd FOUR traditional size Coca Cola WWII-era, "pin-up" style boxcars. And for no good reason one of the cars was delayed, while the other 3 shipped. We heard all kinds of excuses, the most plausible one being the paint machine in Lionel's US facility broke down... so production was delayed from 3Q2017 until Feb 2018. Well... February came and went, and very quietly one of my Charles Ro shipping invoices this past Summer indicated the car was finally cancelled. 

No big deal in the grand picture, but it's just an example of some of the nonsense going on at Lionel these days. So the fact that this Macy's car doesn't have the most intricate of designs doesn't surprise me one bit. But at least the design sorta coordinates with the graphics used in this year's print ads and email graphics. 

The toughest pill to swallow is knowing that these novelty items draw practically ZERO resale potential as collectors items -- not that I'm looking at these trains as an investment. Lord knows we all realize that's a pipe dream nowadays. But the fact that passers-by won't even jump at like-new (or even MINT) versions of them for $20 -- nearly 1/4 the MSRP -- at train shows oughta give us all pause to think about plunking down even $60 for them today. Nonetheless we're all guilty of doing it more than we should, because the "shiny new product -- this new stuff is HOT" line of thinking is a powerful and addictive habit.  

David


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## seayakbill (Jan 16, 2016)

* But the fact that passers-by won't even jump at like-new (or even MINT) versions of them for $20 -- nearly 1/4 the MSRP -- at train shows oughta give us all pause to think about plunking down even $60 for them today.*y's 

Yep, to all of that. Instead of plunking down $90 for the Lionel Macy's's boxcar I ordered the Menards Saskatchewan grain hopper for $20 plus a free Pepsi diecast truck. Just seemed like a better deal.

Bill


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## towdog (Oct 2, 2015)

Rocky Mountaineer said:


> The toughest pill to swallow is knowing that these novelty items draw practically ZERO resale potential as collectors items -- not that I'm looking at these trains as an investment. Lord knows we all realize that's a pipe dream nowadays. But the fact that passers-by won't even jump at like-new (or even MINT) versions of them for $20 -- nearly 1/4 the MSRP -- at train shows oughta give us all pause to think about plunking down even $60 for them today. Nonetheless we're all guilty of doing it more than we should, because the "shiny new product -- this new stuff is HOT" line of thinking is a powerful and addictive habit.
> 
> David


But how is this different from any other boxcar sold at trainshows? Got to any show and see the tables and tables of boxcars that just sit. The market is flooded with them and novelty or not, it's hard to push them even at heavily reduced prices. Most of the cars I've bought at shows are $30 or less, and many of them are brand new.

But yes, most things with a year on them are worthless in the future. The reason a person buys something like this is for one of the following;

1) To continue their collection of always buying a Macy's boxcar.
2) They pick one up in the NYC store to commemorate the fact that they were indeed there.
3) To support Lionel and Macy's in continuing to carry train items out in a retail store where the masses can see them.
4) Because it's fun to actually buy something related to our hobby out in the real world. I remember the excitement on the forums a few years ago when Target carried an O-gauge and G-gauge start set actually in store.

In short, a boxcar like this is a unique item that people buy for various reasons, despite the price and despite its worth down the line. It's not a logical purchase like you make when buying out of a catalog. It's a fun impulse buy.

Back to the design though, I would think that Macy's would be the one who made, or at least approved the design. While it's neat that each side looks different, I wish the design was a bit more inspiring.


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## Rocky Mountaineer (Sep 19, 2015)

towdog,

Can't argue with anything you mentioned above. None of these purchases are "rational" per se. And it wasn't my intent to rain on anyone's parade either. Just mentioning the irony that we tend to plunk down dollars "in the moment" with little care about the ramifications down the road. AND THAT'S OK. Just making the observation.

As I mentioned in my earlier post on this subject, I have lots of "fun"  memories trying to track down the earlier versions of these Lionel Macy's cars back in the mid-2000's. We can look back on it now as a waste of time vs. the convenience of buying online today. Nonetheless, it makes for some fond reminiscing now.  And in that regard, the price paid becomes (almost) irrelevant, because we all gotta enjoy what we're doing -- otherwise we shouldn't be doing it. 

David


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## PDDMI (Oct 25, 2015)

Stopped at Macy’s in downtown Chicago this evening and made a cursory attempt at locating the new Christmas offering...by looking where I have found them previously. No luck...lots of LEGO stuff, but no trains. Will be checking again before I leave on Friday...its possible that Customer Service might be able to find them...if in fact, they are actually there?


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## Craignor (Jan 9, 2016)

I got a confusing email from Macy’s a few minutes ago, seems like the car was cancelled. Can’t find it on their website now either.

Sorry folks.


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## Traindiesel (Sep 8, 2015)

Fake news from Macy’s!


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## Rocky Mountaineer (Sep 19, 2015)

Interesting but not totally surprised by the news. As I mentioned earlier, product coming out of Lionel's US boxcar production facility has been a hit-or-miss affair lately.

Last night, I bookmarked a link to this 2018 product offering. So for those interested, here's the product offering page -- although if you search on "Thanksgiving parade boxcar", nothing shows up in the search-results anymore. 

https://www.macys.com/shop/product/2018-macys-thanksgiving-day-parade-boxcar?ID=6702558

Nice when decisions get made for us like this.  Now go spend the money you would have spent here over at Nassau Hobby. They're having a HUGE Black Friday 15% discount sale plus free shipping on just about everything (except pre-orders and already-on-sale items) -- and that's a price-point that is better than ANYONE's pre-order pricing months ago -- even the new product they just got in the store this week.  Unbelievable!

David


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## Bill S (Nov 21, 2015)

That got the ebay sales going! The one person on ebay that had these for sale has not sold ANY. The seller had dropped the price. They now have disappeared from Macy's site, seller raised the price and as of this writing has sold 2 in one hour!


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## Big Jim (Nov 17, 2015)

Using Dave's link above, I see the words "currently unavailable". I don't see anything about "cancelled".


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## Rocky Mountaineer (Sep 19, 2015)

Bill S said:


> That got the ebay sales going! ....


That's a good point. These were NOT officially cancelled as a production item, because the eBay seller has pictures of the car on display. So that begs the question was the run so small that Macy's has already sold out of them? As of last night, I know the website was showing the cars (on the link I posted above) priced at $84.99, and from the sounds of things some folks placed an order but are now receiving "confusing" emails indicated the product is not available.

So do we take those email alerts to imply Macy's is now COMPLETELY SOLD OUT? Or are the cars just no longer available online -- with plans to only have select stores carry them? I tried to go a step further online just for fun, because the website "remembered" I placed one of these in my shopping cart when I was trying different promotion codes. But now I see a message saying, "The product is no longer available", when I view my shopping cart.  Interesting that it doesn't say "temporarily not available" -- but rather a more gloomy "no longer available", if we take those words on face value.

One would think that in 2018, there wouldn't be so much ambiguity about a simple thing as the availability of this little novelty boxcar. But the plot always thickens. 

See folks.... I mentioned back in my first post about these cars.... EVERY year there's ALWAYS been a "catch" to securing one (or more) of them!!! Gotta admit... it does make a cool conversation icebreaker of sorts when visitors see them on your layout or on the display shelf in the train room.  

David


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## seayakbill (Jan 16, 2016)

Probably very few left at the stores, not enough for the internet hassle.

Bill


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## Panther (Oct 5, 2015)

empire builder said:


> not to rain on your parade but to my eyes the word is tradition not teadition or are my eyes deceiving me?


The 'e' is right next to the 'r' on the keyboard, so an honest mistake. Also You failed to capitalize the "n" in not, and you left out the ',' after 'but'. Just saying.

Dan


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## Rocky Mountaineer (Sep 19, 2015)

Just when I thought I had a decent understanding of the why's and wherefore's behind Lionel's distribution channels (yeah, right!!!), guess what popped up in one of my browser window ads tonight here on MTF???

That's right... *a Macy's ad WITH none other than the 2018 Thanksgiving Parade box car featured.* At first, I thought something might have been left-over in my browser from prior viewing of the Macy's website weeks ago. So I checked the website directly, and sure enough... the boxcar is back in-stock. And I even successfully went as far as viewing the shopping cart (without actually clicking the proceed-to-checkout button) -- which leads me to believe this is the real deal.

So for those of you who thought you missed out, you now have a chance at snagging one of these without going to eBay. But who knows for how long this time.  

In any event, you just gotta wonder some days what the heck is going on with Lionel and Macy's as far as these boxcars are concerned every year! If you're like me, I feel completely clueless.  First, the stores know nothing about them. Then the boxcars are only available briefly online -- just for a couple of days -- before showing "no longer available"... leading some folks to think the whole product was canceled before anybody received one. But wait... then a few started showing up on eBay... with one seller having 6 or more of them for $100+. And now close to 3 weeks later, they're "back in stock" at macys.com again at the regular $84.99!!!  So what the heck happened in those 3 weeks? Lionel sure didn't make more of these little gems, because they have enough trouble pumping out too many other catalog'd items that haven't seen the light of day yet. So I'm totally lost.

If anybody knows the details here, please entertain us with the inside scoop. Otherwise, I guess we'll just write this off to the "story" behind THIS year's Macy's Thanksgiving boxcar!!! Yes... for as many years as these cars have been issued, there's ALWAYS a different story to tell. 

David


*Photo1: The macys.com website product description, showing "in stock":*










*Photo2: The boxcar successfully added to the shopping cart, ready to proceed to checkout...*


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## seayakbill (Jan 16, 2016)

For the folks that are into the Christmas theme trains I can see why they would add the Macy's boxcar to their accumulation. For $85 plus shipping I would have to pass on this guy. 

I do have a few Christmas cars from the LCCA, they get run for a couple weeks and are put away for another year. Guess its time to round them up and get them on the layout for when the Grand kids are here for the Holidays.

Bill


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## DeltaPapa (Dec 19, 2016)

I wish they had used the graphics for the car based on their Herald Square store window displays of Sunny the Snowpal astronaut. I think she was also a balloon in the parade.
https://www.space.com/42521-macys-thanksgiving-day-parade-astronaut-snowgirl-balloon-2018.html


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## empire builder (Apr 12, 2014)

okay I asked this before is the word teadition a real word? I would think they meant tradition or has once again lionel messed up the image supplied or misspelled the word or?


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## highvoltage (Apr 6, 2014)

It's the type of font they are using. They used a small capital R instead of a lower case r, which, in their font, would have looked like an "n".


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## Guest (Dec 8, 2018)

EB, HV is right. I made the photo as big as I could and it's a small R so the word is Tradition. I wondered about it myself since it does look like Teadition in the small photo.


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## Bill S (Nov 21, 2015)

David, I also noticed last evening it was back in stock. They still have no discounts that apply, so for $95.94 with shipping they can keep it. Nice that they had them in stores in the NY area, it made one person in Hollis, Ny a few extra dollars.


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## Booly15 (Aug 16, 2017)

In my running around today I will pass two Macy's stores so get to pass on shipping, hmmm
Of course if my some miracle they appear.


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## Rocky Mountaineer (Sep 19, 2015)

Bill S said:


> David, I also noticed last evening it was back in stock. They still have no discounts that apply, so for $95.94 with shipping they can keep it. Nice that they had them in stores in the NY area, it made one person in Hollis, Ny a few extra dollars.


Agreed. 

In so far as the paint scheme goes, this wasn't the most elaborate for sure -- especially compared to the ones in the 2006-2008 era. The all-white rooftop, boxcar ends and door doesn't help much either. But I suspect it may still call those who want the "complete" Macy's Thanksgiving boxcar roster -- which is the gotcha point for many a collector. A bit like a license to print money.  

Yet there's the harsh reality that you can't give these away at train shows. So we're paying a premium for what we like to enjoy for the moment, which has gotta be enough since there's virtually no after-market for these -- not even at $45 much less $90.

David


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## Rocky Mountaineer (Sep 19, 2015)

This comment here is more about retail shopping in general rather than the Macy's Thanksgiving Parade boxcar. Last night (Wednesday evening) I visited one of our local Macy's retail stores to return something I had ordered online at macys.com. It was a winter coat that looked nice online but seemed rather ho-hum when I unboxed it at home. I could have shipped it back, but thought I'd save a few dollars shipping by visiting the local store I hadn't been to since I can remember. 

On a Wednesday evening in the middle of December, the store was DEAD.  The only thing more astounding was the line at the online returns department: only one person working, so I spent over 30 minutes in line before my return was processed.  Every other department where there was a customer service checkout center was practically a ghost-town.  

Just for grins, I decided to see if I could find the Lionel boxcar, but I couldn't even find the Christmas decorations department!!! Seemed like the Christmas stuff was scattered throughout the store in various related departments.  I eventually found a few things that resembled Christmas decorations and a few places in the store that had items that would lead one to believe you might find the Lionel boxcar there, but no luck. At which point, I just decided to exit the store and drive home (shaking my head as I walked to the car). 

And we wonder why brick-and-mortar stores are becoming a thing of the past??? The answer should be painfully clear: we've managed to make the ONLINE shopping experience so much better than the local retail store experience... there was just no comparison. Even in a department (like shoes or coats) where you'd think the need to try something on is important? Nope! It's still easier to order the item online in the size you think will fit. And if it doesn't, you can have UPS pick up the item and have another one delivered to your house within a few days -- all without leaving the comforts of our home and/or dealing with crowds (if you happen to attempt a visit to the store on a crazy shopping weekend).

I actually can't REMEMBER when I had last visited a brick-and-mortar Macy's store -- a couple of years at least. So perhaps this is why I was so shocked/saddened by the stark change I had experienced. And all of this coming from a person who once lived in the shadow of one of the biggest malls in America (King of Prussia in PA) back in the late 1980's thru mid-1990's. Now THAT was an entirely different era for retail.

Given what I experienced last night, I wouldn't be surprised if we never even see another Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade boxcar again. Heck, the store I visited last night might not even be there (as a Macy's store) in a couple more years -- let alone carry something as trivial as a Lionel boxcar!!!

Just sayin'.....

David


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## seayakbill (Jan 16, 2016)

For next year, Menards should do a few Christmas Boxcars and have them at the store before Black Friday. At $20 a pop I bet they would sell a bunch of them. Also have Lionel or MTH put together a Menards exclusive Christmas train.

Bill


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## Jeff T (Dec 27, 2011)

Macy's bought the Marshall Field stores in Chicago. Talk about a mess, they now look like K-Mart. No service, dirty, unorganized...

Just my two cents...


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## towdog (Oct 2, 2015)

I notice that these boxcars are still available on Macys.com, which is not normal as in past years, they quickly sold out.

A large part of it is likely because these did not reappear on the site until, I believe, mid-December, far after Thanksgiving. But other factors maybe an underwhelming design and the price.

I still wonder what happened to the roll out of these because they sure missed it by not being available when they should've been.


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## Rocky Mountaineer (Sep 19, 2015)

Indeed, I think it's quite fair to say the roll-out of this car for 2018 was a complete disaster -- definitely the worst in the 12-year history of these whimsical cars. Of course, the lack-luster graphics didn't help either -- looked like the designer stopped half way through the design. In retrospect, the whole project seemed like an afterthought that somebody who couldn't even give a hoot was tasked to do. It's amazing the car was manufactured at all.

Somebody really dropped the ball on this in so many ways. First it was on the website for a few days... then it was unavailable for a couple of weeks -- which prompted a short feeding frenzy on eBay. Then it was available on the website again... but the few times I checked, it was never eligible for any coupon discounts like other years. 

Most likely handled by somebody who was either clueless to this market, had too much else on his or her plate, or flat out just didn't care. 

David


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## ogaugeguy (Feb 3, 2012)

Rocky Mountaineer said:


> Indeed, I think it's quite fair to say the roll-out of this car for 2018 was a complete disaster ...
> Most likely handled by somebody who was either clueless to this market, had too much else on his or her plate, or flat out just didn't care.
> 
> David


I don't think this should be unexpected by any of us, David, considering the way Macy's, in general, has been on the downslide recently. What with the closing of some of their mall site stores in even our own area, I wouldn't be surprised if within 5 - 10 years max this chain goes the way of Sears, K-mart and numerous other once iconic chains.
It's sad seeing these icons of past generations such as Lionel and now Macy's become a shadow of what they once were. hwell:hwell:hwell:


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