Marshall Field and Customer Service

I wrote this blog article for work and decided to post it here as well.

Summer is always an exciting time in Chicago! There are street festivals every weekend, fireworks at the lakefront, and events in the parks almost non-stop. I live in the city of Chicago giving me convenient access to a variety of museums, shopping, and the lakefront. After living in this city for over eight years, I'm still a tourist at heart, taking every opportunity to soak in its sights and sounds.

Most people don't know this, but on the seventh floor of the Macy's department store on State Street in downtown Chicago, there is a museum that is devoted to the legacy of Marshall Field and the history of Chicago. Macy's, from New York, bought Marshall Field and Company department stores in 2005, but they put a number of old Field’s catalogs and artifacts on display to pay tribute to their history.

While walking through the exhibit, it's hard not to make the connection between Marshall Field’s and the success of Chicago. Several factors conspired to make Field the greatest merchant in Chicago, but none more important than customer service. When Marshall Field spoke of customer service, he spoke about going the extra mile, going above and beyond what's required, treating the customer like family. He would give customers anything they wanted and promised money back if they were not satisfied.

"Right or wrong, the customer is always right!" - Marshall Field

During last month’s PFLC, we were able to enjoy lunch with some of our customers. I was fortunate enough to sit with a buyer from Rockwell Automation, but everyone we spoke with echoed the same thing: Newark stands for superior customer service. What we sell is not just electronic components. We sell service that is unparalleled in the industry. In the past, I've had concerns that our prices are not always competitive, but my concerns were laid to rest by heaps of praise for our superior service. Our Rockwell buyer said, "We are happy to pay extra for the customer service we receive."

All of us deal with customers, even if it isn't immediately apparent. In GIS the customer is on the other side of the screen when we deploy new functionality our competitors don’t offer or make the website faster for our customers to quickly find the components they need. These customers deserve the same exceptional service our Rockwell Buyer spoke so highly of, and we aim to provide it. We spend time tracking down performance bottlenecks, constantly striving to improve customer experience around the globe while delivering the latest features to keep ahead of the competition. As long as we are working for the customer, we can never go wrong!

"Good will is the one and only asset that competition cannot undersell or destroy." - Marshall Field

Riding the Lincoln Service to St. Louis

I love train travel! I recommend Amtrak to everyone considering a regional trip in the states. Last month, my cousin Melissa got married in St. Louis and I thought this was a perfect opportunity for a train ride. There are a few Amtrak routes that travel between Chicago and St. Louis and I decided to ride the Lincoln Service on my way there.

The train has a snack car where drinks and snacks are served. They have breakfast sandwiches, chips, wine, beer, and a bunch of other things for sale. We upgraded our seats to business class and enjoyed the giant soft leather seats. I brought my laptop with me and took advantage of the wall outlet at our seats. I tethered my phone to the USB port and was able to surf the web and chat with friends.

 

The trip is only five and a half hours and we arrived right on schedule. We got a free drink with our business class upgrade and we both had coffee. When we got off the train, my parents were at the St. Louis Gateway station waiting for us. They drove us over to the famous "Gateway Arch" so we could do some sightseeing before heading back to the hotel to get ready for dinner.







Inside the base of the Arch is a museum that celebrates the US expansion to the west. The whole park is formally called the Jefferson National Expansion Memorial and was built to reflect St. Louis and Thomas Jefferson's role in the westward expansion of the United States. In 1903 Thomas Jefferson purchased the Louisiana Territory from France (and Spain) and sent the Corps of Discovery (aka the Louis and Clark Expedition) to find a route to the Pacific Ocean.



We shot some photos inside the museum but the wait was too long to get up inside the Arch. The temperature outside was over 100 degrees F so we took a taxi to the hotel in Kirkwood and spent the rest of the afternoon relaxing in the air conditioned room.

Black-crowned Night-Heron

Black-crowned Night-Heron, originally uploaded by zuctronic.

Lincoln Park along Chicago's Lake Michigan shoreline is Chicago's collective "back yard" and also host to a surprising diversity of wildlife. This black-crowned night heron was sitting on a log in North Pond right in front of the North Pond Restaurant. Next to it, on a neighboring log, was a red-eared slider turtle basking in the sun.

North Pond is currently home to over 195 species of bird and it's common to see people with impressive photography gear and binoculars just to view the birds. I'm always grateful to have this great park within walking distance from where I live.

The night heron eats small fish, water insects, mice, and other creatures small enough to fit in its mouth. Seeing a top predator like this is a sign of a healthy ecosystem. I'll return to North Pond soon to get more photos of the wildlife I find there.

Ashland and Belmont

Ashland and Belmont, originally uploaded by zuctronic.

Saturday night in Chicago, walking back to Kevin's from Ashland and Belmont after seeing Clutch play at the Kuma's Corner block party.

In the words of actor Gary Busey -

"You only get to see a sunset like this for the first time once."

Sneaky Sound System in Chicago

Sneaky Sound System in Chicago!!! I brought my camera and recorded some of the show. They don't get by here very often. I was a little disappointed that there were so few people there, but I guess the only reason I really know about them is because I've been to Oz a few times. Enjoy the show!

pictures

kansas city

miss connie dancing

sweet dreams

UFO

Bertha Palmer in Sarasota

In a previous blog post, I described the life (and death) of Potter Palmer through a series of news clippings from the turn of the century. Many of Chicago's historical paths lead back to Potter Palmer and his legacy. I'd like to turn some attention to his wife, Bertha Honoré Palmer. After Potter's death, Bertha continued to increase the family fortune through real estate development on the Gulf Coast of Florida. When I learned of her connection to Sarasota, I wanted to see it all for myself and learn as much as I could about this fascinating person.

Potter Palmer married Bertha Matilde Honoré when he was 44 and she was 21, so it should come as no great shock that he died while she was still relatively young. In 1902, the widowed Mrs. Bertha Palmer maintained homes in Chicago, Paris, and London. She spent a considerable amount of time throwing parties in London during the "Belle Époque" (Beautiful Era) of Europe. King Edward VII (the son of Queen Victoria) reigned during this fashionable time but when he died in 1910, most considered the party to be at an end. Powerful forces were afoot in Europe as the chess board was being set for WWI. Four years later, the young Archduke Franz Ferdinand and his pregnant wife were gunned down in Bosnia, detonating a powder keg of turmoil still smoldering almost 100 years later. I digress...

Seeing that the good times were over in Europe, Bertha moved back to Chicago. However, she'd had quite enough of our winters. She invested in 80,000 acres of land in and around Sarasota, Florida where she built a winter home, orchards, gardens, a cattle ranch, and a hunting preserve. She began developing the land and selling property to wealthy friends from the north. By this time, Mrs. Palmer was internationally known for her parties and her extravagant lifestyle. She could spend over $200,000 in a day of shopping. She spent so extravagantly that Potter allegedly left money for Bertha's "future husband" in his will. When people asked him why he would leave money for his replacement he said, "because he will need it!"

Mrs. Palmer called her Sarasota home "The Oaks" ... so that's what I was searching for on maps, on the internet, and all around Sarasota. Well, I never did find The Oaks because the home by that name was torn down. There is now some sort of gated community or country club there by the same name. Instead, the remnants of her private winter estate is named Historic Spanish Point. It was here that I expected to find some interesting history about the area with respect to the Spanish discovery and exploration of Florida. Surprised was I upon bumbling into Bertha Palmer's gardens, guest houses, and a guided tour of the property!!

I parked my car and went into the visitor's center. The park is officially named Historic Spanish Point and there is an admission fee. I paid the fee and got a map of the park and drove to the main trail head. After walking past some open lawn, I encountered a tour group being led by a woman who was very knowledgeable about the property. Our first stop was the Duchene Lawn which features a classic style portal. The lawn was meant to be Mrs. Palmer's front yard, but the mansion was unfortunately never built. The portal was meant to frame a view of the cove and Sarasota Bay, but the land leading from the lawn to the waterfront was never cleared.



After the Duchene Lawn, we walked through a thicket of swamp plants and came out to another large lawn that had once been an attempted lychee orchard. Bertha's grandson Gordon Palmer tried to grow lychee trees here so he could sell the fruit to Americans. Unfortunately the climate in Florida is just a little too cool in the winter for the trees and most of them died. There were a couple left on the far side of the field.



We went past a butterfly garden and a "jungle walk" to arrive at the Guptill House, the original home on the property. The tour took a short break here and then we went inside the house. I took some pictures inside the house before continuing on the tour.



We walked over a footbridge and then spent a few minutes inside an ancient midden. There was a small museum built inside the midden and we could see a cross section of the shell heap. We watched a short video about the property and then moved on to the area of Mrs. Palmer's sunken garden and pergola.





The whole experience was really exciting for me just because I'm fascinated with the gilded age, the Palmer family, and the whole Chicago link to Sarasota. I always try to see the things that are highlighted by the brown "parks and rec" signs that I see on the sides of the road and this time I was definitely not disappointed.

Chicago Mayfest!

I went to the Chicago Maifest on Saturday and Sunday in Lincoln Square, once known as Germantown Chicago. It's a Germanfest with brats, leberkase, thueringers, saurkraut and potato salad. Oh yeah... and beer! HUGE steins of Hofbrau Munchen! There were also a few bands playing and lots of silly hats and dancing.



You can see the Western Avenue "el" station in the background. The music and "revelry" were so loud, you couldn't hear the train go bye.

Leberkase is my new best friend! It's sort of like spam, if you've never had it you should go look for some at a German butcher near you!