Kelly, The Bon is a great example of Macy's actually having a positive influence on a company. Before they became a part of Federated, they were kind of sad and gross: The downtown Bon Marche, which is a gorgeous store btw, was dirty and run-down with low-end merchandise (although their restaurants were really good)
Federated cleaned up the stores and bought in some better quality stuff, although they did close the restaurants :-( . But I still haven't gotten used to the name change. Bon Marche sounded classy. Macy's is blah.
Gene, Nordstrom got that weird merchandising idea from Bloomingdales, and I wish they'd knock it off. They have gotten better in recent years, however.
For pure class and service in Seattle, you couldn't beat the late, great Frederick & Nelson. Nordstrom learned everything they know from them (and then moved into their beautiful store and removed any vestige of charm) Too bad it was a victim of 1980's corporate greed.