Shopping at Hecht's

Last weekend I went clothes shopping for the first time since coming back from China. I hadn't gone before then because it's not like I need more clothes and with the high prices, I just couldn't bring myself to buy anything in the US.

We went to Hecht's, a department store, because it's pretty nice and they always have coupons. I bought a couple of pairs of shoes.

Today I read that the Hecht's name would be phased out over the next year. It seems its owner has been bought by the conglomerate that owns Macy's and they are changing all the store names to Macy's. This is quite sad for me. It sucks that all the independent stores are getting bought up by large national chain stores. Actually Hecht's was already part of a larger national chain, but at least the name was still local. It's getting harder and harder to know where you are in the US because every place has the same stores, same names, and no local flavor. The local hardware store, Hechinger's, was pushed out of business by Home Depot. Another local department store, Woodward & Lothrop, was pushed out by Macy's. Crown Books is gone, People's Drug is gone. Britches is gone. All pushed out by competitors that you can see across the country.