Macy's

Macy's

Current logo
Formerly called	R. H. Macy & Co.
Type	Subsidiary
Industry	Retail
Founded	October 28, 1858 (1858-10-28) New York, New York, U.S.
Founder	Rowland Hussey Macy
Headquarters	Cincinnati, Ohio, U.S.
Number of locations	769[1] (2016)
Areas served	Nationwide
Key people	Jeffrey Gennette (President) Terry J. Lundgren (CEO)
Products	Clothing, footwear, accessories, bedding, furniture, jewelry, beauty products, and housewares
Parent	Macy's, Inc.
Subsidiaries	Macy's Furniture Gallery
Website	macys.com

Macy's, originally R. H. Macy & Co. (stylized as macy's), is a mid-range chain of department stores owned by American corporation Macy's, Inc. It is one of two divisions owned by the company, with the other being the upscale Bloomingdale's. As of January 2014, the Macy's division operates 789 department store locations in the continental United States, Hawaii, Puerto Rico, and Guam, including the prominent Herald Square flagship location in Midtown Manhattan, New York City.^[2]:35

Macy's is known for its niche in popular culture and the diversity of its merchandise. Competitors include Belk, Bon-Ton, Dillard's, Kohl's, JCPenney, Boscov's and Sears. Macy's has conducted the annual Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade in New York City since 1924 and has sponsored the city's annual Fourth of July fireworks display since 1976. Macy's advertises its flagship store on Herald Square as the largest store in the world, even after the record was actually broken in 2009 by the largest store of Shinsegae located in Busan, South Korea. Its flagship store covers almost an entire New York City block, features about 1.1 million square feet of retail space, includes additional space for offices and storage, and serves as the endpoint for Macy’s annual Thanksgiving Day parade. It is estimated that the value of Herald Square is under $3 billion to more than $4 billion.^[3]

As of 2015, Macy's is the largest U.S. department store company by retail sales and is the 15th-largest retailer in the United States in 2014 in terms of revenue.^[4][5]

History

Early history

Macy's was founded by Rowland Hussey Macy, who between 1843 and 1855 opened four retail dry goods stores, including the original Macy's store in downtown Haverhill, Massachusetts, established in 1851 to serve the mill industry employees of the area. They all failed, but he learned from his mistakes. Macy moved to New York City in 1858 and established a new store named "R. H. Macy & Co." on Sixth Avenue between 13th and 14th Streets, which was far north of where other dry goods stores were at the time.^[6]:1102 On the company's first day of business on October 28, 1858 sales totaled US$11.08, equal to $302.49 today. From the beginning, Macy's logo has included a star, which comes from a tattoo that Macy got as a teenager when he worked on a Nantucket whaling ship, the Emily Morgan.^[7][8]

As the business grew, Macy's expanded into neighboring buildings, opening more and more departments, and used publicity devices such as a store Santa Claus, themed exhibits, and illuminated window displays to draw in customers.^[9]:945–6 It also offered a money back guarantee, although it accepted only cash into the 1950s. The store also produced its own made-to-measure clothing for both men and women, assembled in an on-site factory.^[6]:1102

In 1875, Macy took on two partners, Robert M. Valentine (1850–1879), a nephew; and Abiel T. La Forge (1842–1878) of Wisconsin, who was the husband of a cousin.^[10][11] Macy died in 1877 from inflammatory kidney disease (then known as Bright's disease).^[12] La Forge died the following year, and Valentine died in 1879.^[10][11] Ownership of the company remained in the Macy family until 1895, when the company, now called "R. H. Macy & Co.", was acquired by Isidor Straus and his brother Nathan Straus, who had previously held a license to sell china and other goods in the Macy's store.

In 1902, the flagship store moved uptown to Herald Square at 34th Street and Broadway, so far north of the other main dry goods emporia that it had to offer a steam wagonette to transport customers from 14th Street to 34th Street.^[6] Although the Herald Square store initially consisted of just one building, it expanded through new construction, eventually occupying almost the entire block bounded by Seventh Avenue on the west, Broadway on the east, 34th Street on the south and 35th Street on the north, with the exception of a small pre-existing building on the corner of 35th Street and Seventh Avenue and another on the corner of 34th Street and Broadway. This latter 5-story building was purchased by Robert H. Smith in 1900 for $375,000 (equivalent to $10.7 million in 2016) – an incredible sum at the time – with the idea of getting in the way of Macy's becoming the largest store in the world: it is largely supposed that Smith, who was a neighbor of the Macy's store on 14th Street, was acting on behalf of Siegel-Cooper, which had built what they thought was the world's largest store on Sixth Avenue in 1896. Macy's ignored the tactic, and simply built around the building, which now carries Macy's "shopping bag" sign by lease arrangement.^[13]

The original Broadway store was designed by architects De Lemos & Cordes, was built in 1901–02 by the Fuller Company and has a Palladian facade, but has been updated in many details. There were further additions to the west in 1924 and 1928, and the Seventh Avenue building in 1931, all designed by architect Robert D. Kohn, the newer buildings were increasingly Art Deco in style.^[13][14] In 2012, Macy's began the first full renovation of the iconic Herald Square flagship store at a reported cost of US$400 million (equivalent to $412 million in 2016).^[15][16] STUDIO V Architecture, a New York-based firm, was the overall Master Plan architect of the project. STUDIO V's fresh design of the department store raised controversy over the nature of contemporary design and authentic restoration.^[17]

The building was added to the National Register of Historic Places as a National Historic Landmark in 1978.^[18][19] The store has several wooden escalators still in operation.

Expansion and bankruptcy

The problem of pre-existing buildings also presented itself when Macy's built a store on Queens Boulevard in Elmhurst, in the New York City borough of Queens. This resulted in an architecturally unique round department store on 90 percent of the lot, with a small privately owned house on the corner. Macy's no longer fully occupies this building, which now contains the Queens Place Mall, with Macy's Furniture Gallery as a tenant; instead it moved its full outlet to the nearby Queens Center. This relocation was the result of Macy's merger with Federated Department Stores, the parent company of Abraham & Straus, in 1994, which led to the latter being absorbed by the former.

More distant acquisitions included Lasalle & Koch (Toledo, 1924), Davison-Paxon-Stokes (Atlanta, 1929), L. Bamberger & Co. (Newark, 1929), O'Connor Moffat & Company (San Francisco, 1945) and John Taylor Dry Goods Co. (Kansas City, 1947). O'Connor Moffat was renamed Macy's San Francisco in 1947, later becoming Macy's California, and John Taylor was renamed Macy's Missouri-Kansas in 1949. Stores in Toledo retained the Lasalle's name until 1981, joining the Missouri-Kansas stores to become Macy's Midwest. The Toledo stores were sold to Elder-Beerman in 1986.

Macy's New York began opening stores outside of its historic New York City–Long Island trade area in 1983 with a location at Aventura Mall in Aventura, Florida (a suburb of Miami), followed by several locations in Plantation, Florida (now relocated from the Fashion Mall to the Broward Mall since the Burdine's acquisition), Houston, New Orleans, and Dallas. Davison's in Atlanta was renamed Macy's Atlanta in early 1985 with the consolidation of an early incarnation of Macy's Midwest (former Taylor and LaSalle's stores in Kansas City and Toledo, respectively), but late in 1985, Macy's sold the former Midwest locations. Bamberger's, which had aggressively expanded throughout New Jersey, into the Greater Philadelphia Metropolitan area in the 1960s and 1970s as well as into Nanuet, New York (southern Rockland County), and into the Baltimore metropolitan area in the early 1980s, was renamed Macy's New Jersey in 1986.

In 1986 Edward Finkelstein, Chairman & CEO of R. H. Macy & Co., Inc., led a leveraged buy-out of the company and subsequently engaged in a takeover battle for Federated Department Stores, Inc., in 1988 that he lost to Canada's Campeau Corporation. As part of its settlement with Campeau, Macy's purchased Federated's California-based, fashion-oriented Bullock's and its high-end Bullocks Wilshire and I. Magnin divisions. It followed with a reorganization of its divisions into Macy's Northeast (former Macy's New York and Macy's New Jersey), Macy's South/Bullock's (Macy's Atlanta stores plus Macy's New York's operations in Texas, Florida and Louisiana), and Macy's California, the latter including a semi-autonomous I. Magnin/Bullocks Wilshire organization. The Bullocks Wilshire stores were renamed I. Magnin in 1989.

Subsequently, R. H. Macy & Co., Inc., filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection on January 27, 1992, after which point its banks brought in a new management team, which shut several underperforming stores, jettisoned two-thirds of the luxury I. Magnin chain, and reduced Macy's to two divisions, Macy's East and Macy's West.

Macy's East, New York City was a division of Macy's, Inc. It is the operating successor to the original R.H. Macy & Co., Inc. and operates the Macy's department stores in the northeast U.S. and Puerto Rico. Over the years it has been known as Macy's New York and Macy's Northeast. On February 1, 2006, Macy's East assumed operating control over the Filene's, Strawbridge's, many of the Kaufmann's stores in upstate New York and the Hecht's stores in Pennsylvania, Maryland, D.C. and northern Virginia. These locations assumed the Macy's moniker officially on September 9, 2006. In 2008 Macy's East took over the small Macy's North division.

In May 1993, Macy's announced the planned fall 1994 launch of TV Macy's, the retailer's own home shopping channel, in conjunction with Don Hewitt, Thomas Leahy and Cablevision.^[20]

Merger with Federated Department Stores

At the start of 1994, Federated began pursuing a merger with Macy's. After a long and difficult courtship, R. H. Macy & Co. finally merged with Federated Department Stores on December 19, 1994. Following the merger, the reorganized Macy's moved its headquarters to Cincinnati, Ohio under the name Federated Department Stores. Federated promptly shut down the remainder of the I. Magnin chain, converting several to Macy's or Bullock's and selling four in Carmel, Beverly Hills, San Diego and Phoenix to Saks Fifth Avenue. Federated also merged its Abraham & Straus/Jordan Marsh division with the new "Macy's East" organization based in New York, renaming the Abraham & Straus stores in metropolitan New York with the Macy's nameplate in 1995, and then erasing the Jordan Marsh moniker in New England in early 1996.

Federated followed that by leading a bid in mid-1995 to acquire the bankrupt Woodward & Lothrop/John Wanamaker organization in the mid-Atlantic region, a bid it lost to rival group led by long-time rival and future acquisition target The May Department Stores Company. Instead Federated soon agreed to purchase Broadway Stores, Inc. (owner of The Broadway, Emporium and Weinstock's stores in California, Arizona, Nevada and New Mexico), from its majority shareholder, Sam Zell, thereby gaining a leading position in Southern California and a dominant one in the Northern California marketplace. In early 1996 Federated dissolved Broadway Stores, incorporating the majority of its locations into Macy's West, rebadging them as Macy's and using the opportunity to retire the Bullock's name. Several of the redundant Broadway locations were used to establish Bloomingdale's on the West Coast, while many other were sold to Sears.

In 2001 Federated dissolved its Stern's division in the New York metropolitan area, with the bulk of the stores being absorbed into Macy's East. Additionally, in July 2001 it acquired the Liberty House chain with department and specialty stores in Hawaii and Guam, consolidating it with Macy's West.

In early 2003 Federated closed the majority of its historic Davison's franchise in Atlanta (operating as Macy's since 1985), rebranding its other Atlanta division Rich's with the unwieldy name, Rich's–Macy's. The downtown location—formerly the Davison's flagship store at 180 Peachtree Street – was shuttered at this time as well. The original Macy's Lenox Square and Perimeter Mall locations were extensively remodeled and opened in October 2003 as the first Bloomingdale's stores in Atlanta. The company rapidly followed suit in May 2003 with similar rebranding announcements for its other nameplates, Burdines in Florida, Goldsmith's in Memphis, Lazarus in the lower Midwest, and The Bon Marché in the Pacific Northwest.

On March 6, 2005, the Bon-Macy's, Burdines-Macy's, Goldsmith's-Macy's, Lazarus-Macy's, and Rich's-Macy's stores were renamed as simply "Macy's", the first two as the new Macy's West and Macy's Florida divisions respectively and the later three as part of the Macy's Central division. As of July 2005, Macy's had 424 stores throughout the U.S.^[21]

Acquisition of May Department Stores

On February 28, 2005, Federated agreed to terms of a deal to acquire The May Department Stores Company for $11 billion (equivalent to $13.3 billion in 2016) in stock, creating the nation's second largest department store chain with $30 billion (equivalent to $36.3 billion in 2016) in annual sales and more than 1,000 stores.

On July 28, 2005, Federated announced, based on the success of converting its own regional brands to the Macy's name, its plans to similarly convert 330 regional department stores owned by the May Company (as May Department Stores was generally referred to) to the Macy's nameplate. This included May's Marshall Field's (which had just been purchased by the May Company from Target in 2004), Kaufmann's, Famous-Barr, Filene's, Foley's, Hecht's, The Jones Store, L. S. Ayres, Meier & Frank, Robinsons-May, and Strawbridge & Clothier chains, pending approval of the merger by federal regulators.

The rebranding of the May stores was disliked in Chicago and elsewhere because the stores were regarded as beloved local institutions. The renaming of Filene's, Marshall Field's, and Kaufmann's, which were well known for their downtown flagship stores and local traditions provoked the most outrage. For example, Kaufmann's operated the Kaufmann's Celebrate the Season Parade which was traditionally broadcast live throughout the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania on television. Many customers publicly vowed to never again shop at the renamed May stores and to switch to competitors. Prominent film critic Roger Ebert voiced the grief of many Chicagoans at the loss of Field's when he wrote in his column on September 21, 2005:

I thought the day would never come. I am looking at my Field's charge card, which I have cut up into tiny pieces. They look like little tears the color of money.^[22]

On January 12, 2006, Federated announced its plans to divest May Company's Lord & Taylor division by the end of 2006 before converting and closing seven stores. On June 22, 2006, Macy's announced that NDRC Equity Partners, LLC would purchase Lord & Taylor for US$1.2 billion (equivalent to $1.41 billion in 2016),^[23] and completed the sale in October 2006.

2006–present: Operations as Macy's, Inc.

By September 9, 2006, after renaming the former May Company stores, Macy's operated approximately 850 stores in the United States. To promote its largest and most recent expansion, Macy's used a version of the Martha and the Vandellas hit song, "Dancing in the Street", in its advertising. Also, the company took props from its annual Thanksgiving Day parade to various re-labeled stores throughout the nation, in what the company marketed as its "Parade on Parade".

In October 2006, Federated Department Stores entered into an agreement with Zoom Systems to test more than 100 stores within retail giant Macy's. Terry Lundgren, CEO of Federated, raved about the ability to provide consumers with a convenient means to purchase iPods and other consumer electronics, saying "This is exciting because it brings most-wanted merchandise into stores in a unique new way.... How cool is that?" Today, Macy's has converted its entire Electronics section in every store to (over 400) eSpot ZoomShops.

Macy's significantly increased its use of television advertising and product placement in 2006 and 2007, using branding spots that featured the new Macy's star logo. Macy's television commercials are produced primarily by New York Production Services, a New York-based commercial and independent film production company. During two episodes of the popular ABC television series Desperate Housewives ("I Remember That" and "Now You Know"), a Macy's location in the fictional city of Fairview was featured, rare instances of product placement promoting a department store chain in a scripted series. Nearly two years prior to the first episode, one of the first national commercials for Macy's had aired during Desperate Housewives, shortly after the conversion of Rich's, Lazarus, Goldsmith's, The Bon Marché and Burdines.

On February 27, 2007, Federated Department Stores announced plans to change its corporate name to Macy's Group, Inc.^[24] By March 28, the company further announced plans to convert its stock ticker symbol from "FD" to "M", and revised its name change to Macy's, Inc.^[25] The change in corporate names was approved by shareholders on May 18, 2007, and took effect on June 1, 2007. The company continues to operate stores under the Macy's and Bloomingdale's nameplates.

In March 2009, Macy's opened a one-level, 120,000-square-foot (11,000 m²) concept store in Gilbert, Arizona, a Phoenix suburb, that was designed to better fit open air lifestyle malls.^[26] Additional stores with the new format have opened in Fairview, Texas; Lee's Summit, Missouri; and Nampa, Idaho. The stores are designed to be compact and meet current demands for more convenient shopping similar to Kohl's and newer J. C. Penney stores.^[27] Lifestyle stores feature Starbucks Coffee Cafés with wireless web and fitting rooms designed to feel like lounges with sofas and Plasma TVs. Ceilings in the center areas are higher to be reminiscent of older department stores. The format was the culmination of 18 months of research to create stores for the "My Macy's" initiative that allows stores to be merchandised differently in markets across the country to meet local demands.^[28][29]

On October 28, 2014 Macy's, Inc. announced an extension of the lease-operation agreement with Al Tayer Group LLC that would bring the first Macy's store overseas to Abu Dhabi, anchoring a new mall with its corporate-sister Bloomingdale's, which will open its second overseas store (the first was located at The Dubai Mall); both are slated to open in 2018.^[30]

In January 2015, it was announced that Macy's would close 14 stores nationwide and shift 830 workers from Macy's and Bloomingdale's stores.^[31][32] Unrelated to the store closings, on July 13, 2015 Macy's announced it had sold the former flagship store of Kaufmann's in Downtown Pittsburgh for redevelopment and close the location after 128 years.^[33]

In May 2015, Macy's joined the new American Express-backed Plenti rewards card, which it shares with AT&T Mobility, Direct Energy, Enterprise Rent-A-Car, ExxonMobil, Hulu, Nationwide Insurance, and Rite Aid.^[34]

On September 9, 2015, Macy's announced it will close 35 to 40 under-performing stores by early 2016.^[35] The retailer’s struggles continued into the holiday season in 2015. The company announced that it experienced same store sales declines of 5.2% in November and December – typically busy months. Macy’s announced that it will be laying off up to 4,800 employees.^[36] Four of the previously announced 40 stores have closed. The remaining stores will close by spring 2016. The company said that these closings would experience cost savings to the tune of $400 million.^[36] The company currently has 770 stores in total.^[37]

Controversy

In July 2003, then-New York State Attorney General Eliot Spitzer launched an investigation of the private policing system Macy's has used to deal with suspected shoplifters. The investigation was prompted by a civil rights lawsuit and an article in The New York Times, which reported on many of Macy's tactics, including private jails and interrogations.^[38] Spitzer's investigation found many of Macy's actions, from ethnic profiling to handcuffing detainees, to be unlawful. In 2005, Macy's settled the civil rights complaint for US$600,000 (equivalent to $727 thousand in 2016), claiming to have put the illegal tactics to an end while maintaining the security system itself.^[39]

On June 6, 2006 Macy's downtown Boston store (formerly the Jordan Marsh flagship) removed two mannequins and the Web address of the AIDS Action Committee from a window display promoting Boston's annual gay pride celebration. The removal was apparently in response to pressure from MassResistance, a local group opposed to same-sex marriage, whose members complained the mannequins were "homosexual". The removal of the mannequins was controversial and Boston mayor Thomas Menino was quoted as saying:

I'm very surprised that Macy's would bend to that type of pressure. Macy's was celebrating a part of our community, gay pride, and they should be proud of the gay community, and I'm proud of the gay community and gay pride.^[40]

Macy's responded by publishing an apology by the Macy's East chairman, Ron Klein, in In Newsweekly, a Boston-area weekly with a large gay readership. Klein's description of the incident as "an internal breakdown in communication", further stated it was regrettable some would doubt Macy's commitment to diversity as a result.^[41] The Web address was later restored—the mannequins, however never made a reappearance.

Environmental record

Like most industrial processes, the manufacture of textiles has a number of negative environmental effects, including water, energy, and raw material consumption. In addition, regular marketing of new clothing items fosters a throw-away mindset in customers, which exacerbates these problems.^[42] Macy's has initiated a campaign to lessen their company's impact by promoting environmental causes. For instance, Macy's stores now sell reusable cotton tote bags for customers to use in place of plastic shopping bags, and the company is replacing synthetic packing peanuts with loosefill material created from corn and potato starch.^[43]

Store divisions

Prior to acquiring the May Company, Macy's was organized into five divisions. Incorporation of properties from six May Company divisions occurred in February 2006, when existing Macy's and May stores were organized into seven divisions. The stores were in 45 states, Washington, D.C., Puerto Rico and Guam^[21] and as of January 2014, the only states without a Macy's store were Alaska, Arkansas, Iowa, Mississippi and Nebraska.

On February 6, 2008, Macy's Inc. announced consolidation of its Macy's store locations into four primary geographic divisions. From that date, three of the divisions each had approximately 250 locations each as a result of the reorganization, while its Florida-based division remained unaffected, as did its Bloomingdale's division.^[44]

• Macy's East, was headquartered in New York City, with locations ranging from the eastern to north-central United States. Prior to the consolidation of May Company properties into the division in February 2006, the division contained 216 stores and 29,100 employees in Connecticut, Delaware, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Vermont, portions of Virginia, and the city of Washington, D.C.. In addition to Macy's, this division formerly operated Filene's stores in New England, the majority of Kaufmann's stores in upstate New York, and Strawbridge's and Hecht's stores in the mid-Atlantic region. After announced divestitures and store closures were completed by late 2006, this division contained 185 locations until acquiring Macy's North.
  • Macy's North, headquartered in Minneapolis, Minnesota from February 2006 until February 2008, was absorbed by Macy's East. Prior to its consolidation, the division included 65 stores in Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, Minnesota, North Dakota, Ohio, South Dakota, and Wisconsin. Most stores had operated as Marshall Field's, which in turn included many former Dayton's, Gimbels and Hudson's locations. Macy's North also included the former L. S. Ayres location in Merrillville, Indiana, and Macy's at Mall of America in Bloomington, Minnesota. After the division became part of Macy's East, the local offices moved from Minneapolis to Chicago, Illinois.

• Macy's Central, which was headquartered in Atlanta, Georgia, was the second incarnation of the division name within what is currently Macy's Inc., with stores throughout the midwestern and southeastern United States. The current Macy's Central consolidates the following locations:
  • Macy's South, which was also headquartered in Atlanta, operated from February 2006 until February 2008. The Federated/Macy's Inc. division itself was a consolidation of May Company properties with the first incarnation of Macy's Central – a renaming of Federated's RLG division, which had included Rich's, Lazarus, and Goldsmith's. As of March 2007, the division contained 136 stores and 22,500 employees in Alabama, Georgia, Kentucky, Louisiana, North Carolina, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas & Virginia. Macy's South as operated by Federated/Macy's Inc. was created by consolidating former Rich's and Goldsmith's locations with several stores from the Foley's chain. (Lazarus stores were transferred to Macy's Midwest.)

From 1988 to 1992, R. H. Macy & Co., Inc.'s Macy's South division was also headquartered in Atlanta, Georgia, with stores in Alabama, Georgia, Virginia, South Carolina, Florida, Louisiana and Texas operating as Macy's, while stores in California, Arizona and Nevada operated as Bullock's. The former South division was formed following Macy's acquisition of Bullock's, incorporating Macy's Atlanta (the former Davison's stores renamed in 1985) with the Florida, Louisiana and Texas locations of Macy's New York and Bullock's. It was dissolved in 1992 and its stores were assigned to Macy's East and Macy's West.

• Macy's Midwest, headquartered in St. Louis, Missouri from February 2006 until February 2008, was folded into Macy's South to form the more recent Macy's Central division. Prior to its consolidation, this Macy's Midwest division included 95 stores throughout the midwestern United States. There was a prior division of R. H. Macy & Co., Inc. named Macy's Midwest that was headquartered in Kansas City formed from a consolidation of two Macy's divisions, Lasalle's and Macy's Missouri-Kansas, in 1981. It was merged with Davison's to form Macy's Atlanta on February 1, 1985. Its former Lasalle's stores were sold to Elder-Beerman later that year and its former Kansas and Missouri stores were sold to Dillard's in 1986. Macy's Midwest incorporated former The F&R Lazarus & Co., Shillito's, Rike Kumler Co., William H. Block Co., Horne's, Famous-Barr, L. S. Ayres, The Jones Store, Kaufmann's, May Company Ohio, O'Neil's and Strouss department stores. St. Louis became a regional management outpost for a portion of Macy's Central. Another of the region's local headquarters is in Cincinnati. In 2009 Macy's announced the downsizing of the former Famous-Barr flagship store in Downtown St. Louis from seven stories to three.

• Macy's West was headquartered in San Francisco, California, had locations throughout the western United States, and was founded upon store locations that first operated as O'Connor, Moffat & Company in San Francisco's Union Square and other sites. Prior to the February 2006 inclusion of May Company properties, the division included 232 stores and 31,100 employees throughout Arizona, California, Colorado, Hawaii, Nevada, New Mexico, Texas and Guam. In addition to Macy's stores, the division operated former Foley's locations in Colorado, New Mexico, and El Paso, Texas, as well as Robinson's-May stores. After divestitures and store closures were completed by late 2006, this division operated approximately 190 stores until taking over Macy's Northwest.
  • Macy's Northwest, headquartered in Seattle, Washington from February 2006 until February 2008, became part of Macy's West. It included many former The Bon Marché and, later, Meier & Frank stores (some of the latter were previously ZCMI locations). The division included 71 stores and 7,200 employees prior to the February 2006 inclusion of May Company properties. The division's stores were located throughout Idaho, Montana, Oregon, Utah, Washington, and Wyoming. Seattle remained a Macy's West local headquarters.

• Macy's Florida was headquartered in Miami, Florida and included 61 stores and 9,800 employees in Florida and Puerto Rico. The majority of the stores were formerly Burdines; the San Juan, Puerto Rico, store was transferred from Macy's East in August 2007.

In conjunction with these geographic divisions, the New York-based Macy's Home Store division was responsible for buying, planning and marketing home-related merchandise sold in all Macy's stores. There are also some Macy's Furniture Galleries scattered throughout the country, often located away from a Macy's store.

All of Macy's regions were served by two administrative divisions, prior to February 2009:

• Macy's Corporate Marketing headquartered in New York, responsible for overall activity on initiatives implemented to support the company's focus on marketing.
• Macy's Merchandising Group, headquartered in New York, responsible for conceptualizing, designing, sourcing, and marketing private label and private branded goods sold at Macy's and managing core vendor relationships in the domestic branded market.

In Puerto Rico

The Macy's in the Plaza Las Américas mall in San Juan opened its doors in 2000 and was the first Macy's outside of the continental United States. 15 years later, a second store was opened in November 2015 in Plaza del Caribe, in the city of Ponce.

In Guam

Macy's opened a store on the island in the Micronesia Mall in Dededo in July 2001. It was a Liberty House store before joining Macy's West.

Private brands

Macy's has a large portfolio of private brands that it produces for exclusive sale within its stores. These brands, which are advertised in store as "Only at Macy's", account for 20% of the company's sales. The merchandise in each brand is designed to appeal to different demographics and customers. Bar III, the most recent addition to the company's portfolio, was launched in Spring 2011.^[45] Some of Macy's private brands are sold internationally in non-competing department stores.^[46]

Macy's private brands include:

• Alfani (women's): wear-to-work clothes, sportswear, intimates (underwear), jewelry, shoes, and accessories
• Alfani (men's): sportswear, tailored clothing, shoes, and accessories
• American Rag: denim and separates (tops and bottoms)
• Bar III: contemporary women's and men's clothing and bedding
• Belgique: cookware
• Charter Club: women's ready-to-wear, home goods
• Club Room: business casual menswear, sportswear, tailored clothing, furnishings, shoes, and accessories
• Epic Threads: urban and edgy clothing designed for tweens
• First Impressions: clothing for newborns and infants
• Giani Bernini: handbags, small leather goods, shoes, and jewelry
• Hotel Collection: luxury linens and mattresses
• Ideology: activewear (sports wear)
• I.N.C. International Concepts: fashion-forward modern clothing for women and men
• Jenni by Jennifer Moore: women's intimates, pajamas, loungewear, and lingerie; children's pajamas and loungewear.
• JM Collection: work-to-weekend women's clothing
• Style & Co.: women's sportswear, shoes, jewelry, handbags, accessories, and bedding
• Tasso Elba: European-inspired menswear

Macy's distinguishes its "private brands" from its "labels". The company has said the difference is "subtle but important", in that Macy's "private brands" are claimed to have fully developed brand profiles targeted to specific consumers and supported with national advertising and branded in-store environments, whereas a "label" is just a name attached to a category of merchandise that fills a niche in Macy's assortments.^[2]:15

Macy's private labels include:

Greendog John Ashford Morgan Taylor The Cellar Via Europa

Holiday Lane Karen Scott Studio Silver Tools of the Trade

In popular culture

• Miracle on 34th Street, a 1947 Christmas film written and directed by George Seaton, takes place in New York City following the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade, as people are left wondering whether a department store Santa might be the real thing.
• The final chapter of the Latin American literary classic Empire of Dreams (1994) by Giannina Braschi takes place at Macy's Herald Square flagship store in New York City, where the heroine Mariquita Samper works at a makeup counter and dreams of becoming a star.

References

Notes

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Macy's.

• Official website
• The Romance of a Great Store by Edward Hungerford Early History of Macy's 1922
• Straus Historical Society

Macy's, Inc. Bloomingdale's Bluemercury Macy's Key people Terry J. Lundgren Fred Lazarus, Jr. Simon Lazarus Rowland Hussey Macy Isidor Straus Nathan Straus Events Glamorama Macy's Great Tree Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade My Macy's Holiday Parade Related Macy's Herald Square Miracle on 34th Street

Store conversions to Macy's and predecessors 2006 Famous-Barr The Jones Store The Famous Clothing Store (1911) The William Barr Dry Goods Co. (1911) The Jones Store added to division in 1998 Filene's Steiger's (1994) G. Fox & Co. (1993) Foley's Maison Blanche (1998) May D&F (1993) Sanger-Harris (1987) Hecht's Strawbridge's Castner Knott (1998) Wanamaker's (1995) Woodward & Lothrop (1995) Hess's (1994) Thalhimers (1992) Miller & Rhoads (1990) Strawbridge's added to division in 1996 Kaufmann's Hess's (1995) McCurdy's (1994) May Company Ohio (1992) Sibley's (1991) Strouss (1986) Marshall Field's Dayton's (2001) Hudson's (2001) Robinsons-May Meier & Frank May Company California (1993) J. W. Robinson's (1993) Goldwater's (1989, to May Company California, J. W. Robinson's and May D&F) Meier & Frank added to division in 2002; Zions Cooperative Mercantile Institution (2001, to Meier & Frank) L. S. Ayres Pogue's (1983) Stewart Dry Goods (1985) 2005 Lazarus Horne's (1994) Block's (1987) Herpolsheimer's (1987) Shillito-Rike's (1986) Burdines Maas Brothers (1991) Jordan Marsh Florida (1991) Other regional stores The Bon Marché Goldsmith's Rich's 1996-2001 Bullock's (1996) The Emporium (1996) The Broadway (1996) Jordan Marsh (1996) Weinstock's (1996) Liberty House (2001) Stern's (2001) 1947-1995 O'Connor, Moffat & Co. (1947) John Taylor Dry Goods Co. (1949) Lasalle & Koch (1984) Bamberger's (1986) Davison's (1986) Abraham & Straus (1995) See Also: Allied Stores * Associated Dry Goods * The May Department Stores Company * Macy's, Inc.