Macy's Food Court Shut Down

Macy's Food Court Shut Down.

Chicago Tribune wrote:The inspection of the MarketPlace food court was a follow-up to a report phoned in to the city's 311 center by a customer who complained of illness after eating a salad at the food court, according to a release from the Chicago Department of Public Health.

The lower-level food court at 111 N. State St. was found to have a fruit-fly infestation, a leaking three-compartment sink, waste water backing up from a clogged floor drain, and a poorly maintained inside trash area, where grease and food debris were found on the floor and walls around a receptacle, according to the release.

Wish I knew somebody that worked there so I could find out how long that water was backing up. It would say a lot about management if that was a long term everyday problem.

Maybe the next chapter in this sad saga will be when they shut the whole store down for an infestation of really crappy merchandise.

The worst part is, I can imagine Macy's execs in New York (or Ohio, or wherever they are), rather than taking responsibility for this mess, going "Boo hoo, Chicago doesn't love us--now even their Public Health Dept. is picking on us." An article in the business pages of the Trib some months ago reported TPTB at Macy's scratching their heads in bewilderment that sales had fallen compared to when the store was Marshall Field's. They just don't get it.

Ugh, One less place to get a salad in the loop....

On NPR Macy's said they hope to have everything back up certified in a day or two.

nicinchic wrote:Ugh, One less place to get a salad in the loop....

no fear, you can still get salmonella salad on the 7th floor if you want. i think they'll charge you $3 more though just because it's the 7th floor and not the crappy basement.

Geez, I already pay between $8-$10 for fricking salad.... They shut the Mac Kellys down around the corner, and if I eat under 55 or corner bakery one more time yuk...

nicinchic wrote:Geez, I already pay between $8-$10 for fricking salad.... They shut the Mac Kellys down around the corner, and if I eat under 55 or corner bakery one more time yuk...

This is the sad reality of lunch in the North loop . . .

Macy's is closing the Lake Forest store, too.

Griping about the whole Marshall Fields issue is pointless- the last few years of Field's were horrible anyway. I'm only 27, but I remember when it was a great store. Dayton Hudson buying them was the beginning of the end.

I can complain because I just went in there. The merchandise is cheap and poorly displayed. But the red flag that makes this food court shutdown no surprise is that there were hardly any employees in the store. Through vast expanses of upper floors, the vistas were void of humans, store clerks too. It is no surprise that they are cutting corners and you've got to think sanitation in the kitchens was another corner they cut.

vervante wrote:It is no surprise that they are cutting corners and you've got to think sanitation in the kitchens was another corner they cut.

With all the free time the kitchen staff has since they have no customers to feed, you'd think they would use it to tidy up the place.

When I heard this story this morning I thought to myself, who actually shops at Macys, let alone wants to eat there.

jimswside wrote:When I heard this story this morning I thought to myself, who actually shops at Macys, let alone wants to eat there.

...if you work in the area, their food court *was* one of the better options for a non-sit down priced meal.

in their basement they used to have really great fish and chips, now they're just mush half the time and the pieces of fish are really skimpy. also they used to have a great bbq chicken pizza w/ jalopenos and other stuff. they got rid of that and now its a plain cheese pizza to which you add toppings, so it would cost about 3x as much to get the same pizza the way it used to be, and it still probably tastes lousy now. they also have a "homestyle" food section where you can get mom's meat loaf, pork loin, and various sides that are usually pretty decent. i can't think of any other place in the area that has anything like that, save for the sit down places which A) would like cost more $, and B) take too much time...

on the 7th floor, the 7 on 7 or whatever has various options and you can get a decent hamburger made to order, turkey burger, etc... (and there's a fronterra express that seems to have stuff people like)

I don't shop at department stores at all - with the exception of the "discount" stores like JC Penney's and Kohl's.

I liked Marshall Field's foodservice operations in the main store as they offered great variety and great food (albeit at a pretty steep price). Since the Macy's takeover, the service at the State St. store has been horrible. It should not take fifteen minutes to be approached in the Frango Cafe and 45 minutes to be served ... although it has the last two times.

The quantity and quality of the food in the food court has diminished greatly in the last year.

I'm not sure what all I can say here considering that these are health code violations...

A friend/roommate worked at the Noodles "restaurant" a Seven on State for quite some time. Recently he's only been coming in once a week to prep, help out, etc. He doesn't watch the news much, so I mentioned to him last night this story about the health code violations. When I told him about the waste water backing up, he was completely unsurprised and said that's been going on for a short while now. From what I hear, the entire place has been going quite sharply downhill for the past few months.

In a city like Chicago and in a building that has a full time staff of operating egineers there is no excuse for water to be backing up more than a day. Even if they had to power rod it daily or something.

Can only suspect what other corners were cut.

I had a really lousy stir fry from the basement about a month ago. On the other hand, I've found the Ramen noodle bar and the Frontera express to be consistently good. I went to Frontera twice last week (8 months pregnant and having mexican cravings) and was pleased with the quality of the food. However, I don't know whether Frontera is managed by Macy's or by the Frontera organization.

I hate Federated (owner of Macy's), though. As a native of Columbus, Ohio, I worked at one of their stores (Lazarus) for a while. Marshall Field's was so superior in terms of merchandise and service.

in their basement they used to have really great fish and chips, now they're just mush half the time and the pieces of fish are really skimpy.

I have walked down into the food court at times and all you can smell are the fish and chips and that is not a good thing. If it was a ruse on the part of Macy's to get you to hit the 7th floor and spend an extra $3-$4 on lunch, it usually worked for me.

I got a chicken salad at Macy's in the basement at Old Orchard and I actually returned it for my money back because it was inedible, something akin to cat food. The manager offered a substitution, but I had lost my appetite. Luckily, I didn't lose my cookies afterward.