8-K

               SECURITIES AND EXCHANGE COMMISSION
                     WASHINGTON, D.C.  20549



                            FORM 8-K

                         CURRENT REPORT

             PURSUANT TO SECTION 13 OR 15(d) OF THE
                 SECURITIES EXCHANGE ACT OF 1934


                DATE OF REPORT:  OCTOBER 16, 2000


                FEDERATED DEPARTMENT STORES, INC.

           151 West 34th St., New York, New York 10001
                         (212) 494-1602

                              -and-

          7 West Seventh Street, Cincinnati, Ohio 45202
                         (513) 579-7000


   Delaware                  1-13536             13-3324058
  (State of            (Commission File No.)    (IRS Id. No.)
Incorporation)


Item 5.  Other Events

         On October 13, 2000, Federated Department Stores, Inc.
(the "Company") issued a press release, a copy of which is filed
as Exhibit 99.1 hereto, announcing plans for downsizing the core
catalog operations of Fingerhut, a subsidiary of the Company.



Item 7.  Financial Statements, Pro Forma Financial Information and Exhibits.


(a) and (b)     Not applicable.


(c)             Exhibits.

99.1            Press release of the Company issued on October 13, 2000.




                FEDERATED DEPARTMENT STORES, INC.


                            SIGNATURES



Pursuant to the requirements of the Securities Exchange Act of
1934, the registrant has duly caused this report to be signed on
its behalf by the undersigned hereunto duly authorized.





                                        FEDERATED DEPARTMENT STORES, INC.



Date  October 16, 2000                  /s/ Dennis J. Broderick
                                            Dennis J. Broderick
                                       Senior Vice President, General Counsel
                                                 and Secretary




                        EXHIBIT INDEX

Exhibit
Number

 99.1      Press release of the Company issued October 13, 2000

EX-99.1

FEDERATED ANNOUNCES PLANS FOR FINGERHUT DOWNSIZING
Steps taken to increase cash flow and earnings of Fingerhut core
catalog operation

                                      Contacts:
                                           Media - Carol Sanger
                                           513/579-7764
                                           Investor - Susan Robinson
                                           513/579-7780

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

        FEDERATED ANNOUNCES PLANS FOR FINGERHUT DOWNSIZING
  Steps taken to increase cash flow and earnings of Fingerhut core
  catalog operation

     CINCINNATI, OHIO, October 13, 2000 -- Federated Department
Stores, Inc. announced today a significant downsizing of its
Fingerhut core catalog operations in order to increase earnings
and cash flow from this business.

     Ronald W. Tysoe, Federated vice chairman, said "We believe
the best strategy for us to pursue at this time is to make the
Fingerhut core catalog a smaller, profitable and financially
more viable business. Extending credit more selectively will
reduce sales, so expenses must be reduced significantly."


FINGERHUT RESTRUCTURING

     Approximately 550 positions will be eliminated in the
restructuring, some by the end of October and the remainder in
January.  Reductions in staffing will occur across all functional
areas, and will represent about 24 percent of the approximately
2,300 positions located primarily at Fingerhut's headquarters in
Minnetonka, MN, its data center in Plymouth, MN and its
e-commerce operation in Edina, MN.  This restructuring is
expected to save approximately $40 million annually in overhead
expenses, starting in 2001.

     "The team at Fingerhut is committed to executing their
restructuring plan," said Jeffrey Sherman, chairman of the
Federated Direct division that encompasses Fingerhut and the
company's other direct-to-customer catalog and e-commerce
businesses.  "In this process, we will be de-emphasizing all
aspects of the Fingerhut operation that are not directly focused
on supporting the primary Fingerhut catalog and the
fingerhut.com website."

     Sherman noted, however, that the Arizona Mail Order, Figi's and
Popular Club catalog operations, which are wholly-owned
Fingerhut subsidiaries, will continue operating with minimal
impact from the Fingerhut downsizing.

FINANCIAL IMPACT ON FEDERATED

     As a result of the restructuring plan, Federated expects
to incur one-time, pre-tax costs of $75-100 million related to
the downsizing, which will be incurred in the third and fourth
quarters of the fiscal year ending February 3, 2001.  The company
also will take a non-cash write down of goodwill and other
assets that will total approximately $740 million on a pre-tax
basis ($680 million after taxes) in the third quarter, which
ends October 28, 2000.  Included in that write down estimate is
$60 million related to Fingerhut's Internet investments.

     James M. Zimmerman, Federated's chairman and chief executive
officer, noted that excluding these restructuring charges, the
company continues to expect operating losses of $20-70 million
in the direct-to-customer segment for the fall season.
Additionally, he said that the company's department stores,
which produce about 90 percent of Federated's annual revenues,
are financially and operationally strong and continue to
outperform key competitors in most markets.

     "We are expecting significantly improved earnings performance
for Federated in 2001, with earnings in the range of $4.00 to
$4.25 a share," Zimmerman said, "and our longer term growth
objective continues to be earnings-per-share growth of 13-15
percent."

     A fact sheet with further details on today's announcement is
included as part of this release.

     Federated, with corporate offices in Cincinnati and New
York, is one of the nation's leading department store retailers,
with annual sales of more than $17.7 billion.  Federated
currently operates more than 400 department stores in --33
states under the names of Bloomingdale's, The Bon Marche,
Burdines, Goldsmith's, Lazarus, Macy's, Rich's and Stern's.
Federated also operates the Fingerhut, Bloomingdale's By Mail,
Macy's By Mail, macys.com and bloomingdales.com
direct-to-consumer catalog and electronic commerce subsidiaries.

     All forward-looking statements contained in this release involve
risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to
differ materially from those contemplated by those statements.
Factors that could cause such differences include the risks
associated with retailing generally, the sales impact of credit
tightening and downsizing, the ability of the company to
decrease credit defaults and reduce expenses, and transactional
effects and other investment considerations described from time
to time by the company in its filings with the Securities and
Exchange Commission.

(NOTE: A FEDERATED CONFERENCE CALL WILL BE AVAILABLE ONLINE AT
WWW.FEDERATED-FDS.COM.  THE LIVE WEBCAST WILL BEGIN AT 10:45 A.M.
(ET) TODAY.  PARTICIPANTS ARE ASKED TO PRE-REGISTER THROUGH THE
FEDERATED WEBSITE.  THE EVENT WILL BE ARCHIVED AND AVAILABLE FOR
REPLAY BEGINNING APPROXIMATELY TWO HOURS AFTER THE COMPLETION OF
THE LIVE CALL.)

FACT SHEET

WHAT FINGERHUT EMPLOYEES WILL SEE

- -   About 550 positions will be eliminated, primarily at
    Fingerhut's headquarters in Minnetonka, MN, its data
    center in Plymouth, MN, and the e-commerce building in
    Edina, MN.  The result will be about 350 layoffs
    occurring in October 2000 and January 2001. The
    remainder is open positions that will go unfilled.

- -   Current employees will be evaluated for positions in
    the downsized organization through a Peer Group
    Analysis (PGA) process that will begin immediately.

- -   Employees being laid off will be eligible for
    separation packages that include severance pay, career
    transition services and a two-month continuation of
    medical benefits at employee rates.

- -   Fingerhut's management also is being restructured under
    President Michael Sherman.  Fingerhut credit
    functions and call centers are reporting to Federated's
    Financial Administrative and Credit Services Group
    (FACS), as previously announced.  Fingerhut systems are
    reporting to Federated Systems Group, and distribution
    centers to Federated Logistics and Operations.

- -   Going forward, Fingerhut will focus on increasing cash
    flow primarily from catalogs and e-commerce
    under the Fingerhut brand name.


WHAT FINGERHUT CUSTOMERS WILL SEE

- -   A smaller Fingerhut catalog and e-commerce site, with
    significantly fewer mailings and a more targeted
    approach that concentrates on Fingerhut's better customers.

- -   The Fingerhut core catalog will continue to focus on
    the lower- to moderate-income customer, but with
    tighter credit standards.

- -   Total inventory, as well as SKU counts, will be reduced
    in accordance with the anticipated new levels of business.

- -   Arizona Mail Order, Figi's and Popular Club catalogs
    will continue with minimal impact.

- -   Ancillary e-commerce sites wholly owned by Fingerhut either
    will be integrated into fingerhut.com or discontinued.
    These include myjewelry.com, outdoorspirit.com,
    atomicliving.com and andysauction.com. The andysgarage.com
    web site will be retained in the short term for liquidating
    close-out Fingerhut merchandise.

- -   Fingerhut will continue to de-emphasize non-retailing
    activities, such as Fingerhut Business Services Inc.
    (business-to-business fulfillment services), affiliated
    web sites and its e-commerce equity investment strategy.


FINANCIAL IMPACT - 2000/2001

2000
- -   A non-cash write down of goodwill and other assets
    totaling approximately $740 million pre-tax ($680
    million after tax) in the third quarter of 2000.  This
    estimate includes $60 million for the write down of the
    value of Fingerhut's Internet investments.  While we do
    not expect it to change materially, the amount of the write
    down of goodwill and other assets is still being finalized.

- -   The write down of Fingerhut goodwill and other
    intangible assets will reduce amortization expense by
    approximately $7 million in the fourth quarter of 2000
    and $28 million in fiscal 2001, of which $4 million
    and $15 million, respectively, is non-deductible for tax
    purposes.  Going forward, annual amortization of
    goodwill and other intangibles for total Federated after
    this write down will be $57 million on an annual
    basis, of which $25 million is non-tax-deductible.

- -   One-time restructuring costs of $75-100 million related
    to Fingerhut restructuring, to be taken in the third
    and fourth quarters.

- -   Approximately half of this amount will come in cost of
    sales associated with the downsizing of inventories
    consistent with anticipated lower sales.

- -   Approximately 40 percent are expected to be cash costs
    and the remainder non-cash.

- -   Approximately $45-55 million of the total is expected
    to be booked in the third quarter, with the remainder
    in the fourth quarter.

- -   The Fingerhut credit delinquency trend currently is
    better than anticipated, appearing to have stabilized at
    around 21-22 percent.  It is hoped that credit delinquencies
    will be at this level at year end versus earlier expectations
    of 24 percent, however, it is still too soon to know
    definitively.  Additionally, the corrective actions that have
    been taken are more significant and so will have a more
    negative impact on the busines than originally anticipated.
    Therefore, expected operating losses for the direct-to-customer
    segment before the one-time restructuring charges continue to
    be in the range of $20-70 million for the second half of 2000.

2001

Direct-to-Customer Segment:
- -   Fingerhut core catalog sales are expected to be $850
    million to $1 billion, compared to $1.4 billion for all
    of 1999.  Total Fingerhut sales in 2001 are assumed to be
    $1.6 to $1.75 billion, which reflects double-digit
    growth anticipated at Arizona Mail Order, Figi's and
    Popular Club, and double-digit declines in the
    Fingerhut core catalog.

- -   Bloomingdale's and Macy's combined catalog and
    e-commerce sales are planned at $200 to $250 million.

- -   Earnings before interest and taxes (EBIT) in this
    segment are estimated to be between $25 and $100
    million.  This includes $40 million in overhead expense
    savings from the Fingerhut downsizing.

Department Stores:
- -   2-2.5 percent comp-store sales increases, reflecting an
    anticipated slower economic growth rate.

- -   A total of nine new store openings, including the
    following eight announced locations:  Macy's East in
    Willow Grove, PA; Macy's West in Montebello and Redding,
    CA; a Lazarus department store and a Lazarus furniture
    store in Easton, OH; Rich's in Stonecrest, GA; Burdines
    in Wellington, FL; and a Bon Marche in Wenatchee, WA.

- -   The segment EBIT as a percent of sales is expected to
    be relatively flat compared to 2000 levels.

Total Federated:
- -   Earnings of $4.00 to $4.25 per share.

- -   Capital expenditures of $975 million, of which $875-900
    million will be allocated to department stores.