article

Macy's is a mid-range chain of American department stores with its flagship store in Herald Square, New York City, which has been billed as the "world's largest store" since completion of the Seventh Avenue addition in 1924. The company also operates three other flagship stores—one at San Francisco's Union Square, one in downtown Miami, on Flagler Street, and another, as of September 2006, on Chicago's State Street, formerly Marshall Field's).

The company is also well-known for sponsoring Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade, a parade held on the streets of New York City annually since 1924.

The company is part of Federated Department Stores and competes on an average price level in the middle of all department stores, competing above Belk, Dillard's, J.C. Penney and Sears. However, the company competes below Bloomingdale's, Neiman Marcus, Nordstrom and Saks Fifth Avenue.

History

Macy's was founded in 1858 by Rowland Hussey Macy, who in 1851 established a dry goods store in downtown Haverhill, Massachusetts, after moving to New York City and establishing a new store named "R.H. Macy & Company" on the corner of 14th Street and 6th Avenue, which later moved to 18th Street and Broadway on the "Ladies' Mile", the 19th century elite shopping district, where it remained for nearly forty years.

In 1896, Macy's was acquired by Isidor Straus and his brother Nathan, who had previously sold merchandise in the store. In 1902 the flagship store moved slightly uptown to Herald Square at 34th Street and Broadway. Although the store initially consisted of just one building, it expanded through new construction and merging, eventually occupying almost the entire block bounded by 7th Avenue on the west, Broadway on the east, 34th Street on the south, and 35th Street on the north. The only exception is one small brownstone on the corner of 34th and Broadway, which remains a separate property. Macy's rents it annually for a legendary sum and camouflages it with giant signs.

The same problem presented itself when Macy's built a store on Queens Boulevard in Elmhurst, Queens, New York. This resulted in an architecturally unique round department store on 90 percent of the lot, with a small privately owned house on the corner.

Guinness World Records lists Macy's Herald Square flagship as the world's largest department store building, with 198,500 m² (2,150,000 ft²) of selling floor. However, some claim that other stores are larger, such as the GUM store in Moscow, Russia, or Tobu's Ikebukuro branch in Tokyo.

Expansion

Macy's underwent a period of expansion during the 1920s and 1930s. The company went public in 1922 and began to open up branch stores. Acquisitions were also made outside of the New York region. Department Stores in Toledo, Ohio (LaSalle & Koch 1924), Atlanta, Georgia (Davison-Paxon-Stokes 1929), Newark, New Jersey (L. Bamberger & Co. 1929), San Francisco, California (O'Connor Moffat & Company 1945), and Kansas City, Missouri (John Taylor Dry Goods Co. 1947) were purchased during this time. O'Conner Moffat was renamed Macy's California in 1947. Macy's 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 Houston, Texas; New Orleans, Louisiana; and Dallas, Texas. Davison's in Atlanta, Georgia, was renamed Macy's in early 1985 with the consolidation of Macy's Midwest (former Taylor and LaSalle's stores in Kansas City and Toledo, respectively), but late in 1985, Macy's turned around and sold the Ohio stores to Elder-Beerman of Dayton, Ohio, and the Missouri and Kansas stores to Dillard's of Little Rock, Arkansas. Bamberger's, which had aggressively expanded throughout New Jersey, into the Greater Philadelphia Mero Area in the 1970s, and into the Baltimore Metro 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 Corp., which walked away with the purchase of 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 operations in Texas, Florida and Louisiana), Macy's California and I. Magnin–Bullocks Wilshire, with the Bullocks Wilshire stores renamed I. Magnin in 1989.

Subsequently, R.H. Macy & Co., Inc., filed for bankruptcy in January 1992 at which point its banks brought in a new management team, which shut several underperforming stores and jettisoned two-thirds of the luxury I. Magnin chain.

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. Federated promptly shutdown 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 mid-1995 bid to acquire the bulk of the Woodward & Lothrop/John Wanamaker organization in the mid-Atlantic region, a bid it pursued half-heartedly (and soon lost to a bid led by long-time rival and future acquisition target May Department Stores) as it soon agreed to purchase Broadway Stores, Inc., from its majority shareholder, Sam Zell, thereby gaining a dominant position in Southern California and a strangle-hold on the Northern California marketplace. It promptly subsumed The Broadway, The Emporium and Weinstock's stores in California, Arizona, Nevada and New Mexico into its newly enlarged Macy's West unit (now including the Bullock's franchise), selling several locations to competitors like Sears and J.C. Penney.

In 2001 Federated dissolved its Stern's division in the New York metropolitan area, with the bulk of the stores being consolidated with 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 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 annoucements for its other nameplates, Burdines in Florida, Goldsmith's in Memphis, Lazarus in the lower Midwest, and Bon Marché in the Pacific Northwest.

On March 6, 2005, Bon-Macy's (now Macy's Northwest), Burdines-Macy's (now Macy's Florida), Goldsmith's-Macy's (now Macy's South), Lazarus-Macy's (now Macy's South), and Rich's-Macy's (now Macy's South) stores were renamed as simply "Macy's." Macy's has 424 stores throughout the U.S., as of July 2005. *

Merger with May Department Stores
On February 28, 2005, at a time when Macy's had about 400 stores, Federated agreed to terms of a deal under which it would acquire May Department Stores for $11 billion in stock, creating the nation's second largest department store chain with $30 billion in annual sales and over 1,000 stores.

On July 28, 2005, Federated announced that, based on the success of converting its own regional brands to the Macy's name, it proposed to similarly convert 330 regional department stores owned by the May Company, named variously Famous-Barr, Filene's, Foley's, Hecht's, The Jones Store, Kaufmann's, L.S. Ayres, Meier & Frank, Robinsons-May, or Strawbridge's, pending approval of the merger by federal regulators. Where Macy's stores were in close proximity to other May Company stores, some redundant stores would close while others might be converted to Bloomingdale's, another brand owned by Federated. On September 20, 2005, Federated announced that all of its Marshall Field's stores (including the legendary State Street store) would become Macy's by the end of 2006, becoming the new Macy's North division. The announcement was met with much hostility. If the project is completed as envisioned by the fall of 2006, Macy's will have approximately 730 stores in the United States.

On January 12, 2006, Federated announced its plans to divest the Lord & Taylor division by the end of 2006 after concluding that chain does not fit with their strategic focus for building the Macy's and Bloomingdale's national brands. Until a buyer is found and the sale is completed, Lord & Taylor will remain a separate brand of Federated Deparment Stores.

In February 2006 Macy's appointed a new chief marketing officer, Anne MacDonald, to oversee the transformation of Macy's into a "national department store."

Divisions

As of February 2006, Macy's stores are organized into seven divisions with store locations in 45 states, Washington, D.C., and Guam; only Alaska, Arkansas, Iowa, Mississippi and Nebraska either have no current Macy's stores or no stores scheduled to be converted to Macy's. The seven current Macy's divisions include five former divisions existing up to 2005, plus the six former regional May Company divisions. * (Bloomingdale's is an eighth retail division of Federated. There are also seven administrative divisions that provide corporate support services).

  • Macy's Florida, headquartered in Miami — 61 stores/9,800 employees in Florida. The majority of the stores were formerly Burdines. In 2007 the division will assume control of the store in San Juan, Puerto Rico, currently part of Macy's East.
  • Macy's Midwest, headquartered in St. Louis — 95 stores in Illinois, Indiana, Kansas, Kentucky, Missouri, New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania, and West Virginia. (Currently operates Famous-Barr, The Jones Store, L.S. Ayres, the bulk of Kaufmann's stores, and Macy's stores in Western Pennsylvania. After announced divestitures/store closures are completed in late 2006 and final reorganization planned for early 2007, this division will operate approximately 110 stores.)
  • Macy's North, headquartered in Minneapolis — 65 stores in Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, Minnesota, North Dakota, Ohio, South Dakota, and Wisconsin. (Currently operates as Marshall Field's, plus L.S. Ayres location in Merrillville, Indiana, and Macy's at Mall of America. One duplicate location at University Park Mall in Mishawaka, Indiana, is expected to close in spring 2006.)
  • Macy's Northwest, headquartered in Seattle — 71 stores/7,200 employees (employment figure is for Macy's Northwest division prior to February 2006) in Idaho, Montana, Oregon, Utah, Washington, and Wyoming. (In addition to Macy's stores, currently operates Meier & Frank stores. One duplicate location at Valley River Center in Eugene, Oregon, is to close in spring 2006.)
  • Macy's South, headquartered in Atlanta — 166 stores/14,100 employees (employment figure is for former Macy's Central division) in Alabama, Georgia, Indiana, Kentucky, Louisiana, North Carolina, Ohio, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, Virginia, and West Virginia. (In addition to Macy's stores, operates Hecht's stores in southern Virginia and North Carolina, and Foley's stores in Louisiana, Oklahoma, and Texas. After announced store divestitures in 2006 and final reorganization planned for early 2007, this division will encompass approximately 130 locations.)
  • Macy's West, headquartered in San Francisco — 232 stores/31,100 (employment figure is for Macy's West division prior to February 2006) in Arizona, California, Colorado, Hawaii, Nevada, New Mexico, Texas and Guam. (In addition to Macy's stores, operates Foley's locations in Colorado, New Mexico, and El Paso, Texas, as well as Robinsons-May stores. After announced divestitures/store closures are completed by late 2006, this division will operate approximately 190 stores.)

Controversy

A Macy's East store in downtown Boston, Massachusetts (former Jordan Marsh flagship) touched off a local public relations firestorm on June 6, 2006, when it bowed to pressure from MassResistance, a local anti-gay group, and removed two "homosexual mannequins" from a window display promoting Boston's Annual Pride Celebration.

Macy's further upset the gay community by removing from the display the website address for a local AIDS Action Committee. AIDS prevention continues to be a major theme of the Boston Pride celebration. The website address was later restored, while the mannequins never made a reappearance.

Ron Klein, Chairman and CEO for Macy's, issued a public apology in InNewsweekly, a Boston-based newspaper frequently read by the gay community. The letter stated that the removal of the mannequins was the result of an "internal breakdown in communication... a mistake - unquestionably." The letter further stated, "Am I regretful that Macy's made a mis-step in this instance? Yes. I am also regretful that some may question our commitment to the GLBT community based on this incident."

Trivia and Pop Culture

  • The star in the Macy's logo comes from a tattoo that Mr. Macy got as a boy.

  • The Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade, the most famous and most watched Santa Claus Parade, has been sponsored by Macy's for over 75 years. Among New Yorkers, it is often referred to as "The Macy Day Parade". The first Macy's parade was held in Haverhill in 1854, but was only attended by about 100 people.
  • Since 1976, Macy's has sponsored the annual "Macy's Fireworks Spectacular", New York City's Independence Day fireworks display.
  • The phrase "Does Macy's tell Gimbel's?" used in the USA as a put-off to inquiring people (the implication being that a company does not give information out to its competitors). Gimbel's was the other large department store directly across 34th Street from Macy's. It has since folded.
  • The classic holiday film Miracle on 34th Street (1947) is set in Macy's 34th Street flagship store. Subsequent remakes of the film for television (1955, 1959, and 1973) are also set in Macy's. However, a 1994 remake of the film was set in the fictional "Cole's" department store after Macy's refused to have its name used in the remake of the original film.
  • In the 2003 film Elf (starring Will Ferrel) the exterior shots of Gimbel's department store is actually a digitally altered view of the flagship 34th Street Macy's. Gimbel's, which was also located on Herald Square, was a chief Macy's competitor in New York City. Gimbel's Herald Square closed in 1987.
  • The U.S. version for the music video "Heard 'Em Say" by Kanye West and Adam Levine (lead singer of Maroon 5) was filmed inside Macy's Herald Square. The video features West and homeless children playing inside a closed Macy's at night, when Levine, as a store manager, lets them in.

External links

Landmarks in New York City | Macy's | Manhattan | 1851 establishments

Macy’s | Macy's | メイシーズ | Macy's | Macy's

 

This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the "Macy's".

Home Page • arts • business • computers • games • health • hospitals • home • kids & teens • news • physicians • recreation• reference • regional • science • shopping • society • sports • world