I worked for Macy's corporate until 2009 so I am not surprised that the company went downhill; too many out-of-touch and stupid decisions & strategies - too many!!!
@@MGTOWgamer Doesn't work because of Nepotism. Majority of new executives are born for the position. Their mostly related to each other. Happens to every old businesses with history of supper success.
I fail to see what they could have done differently, other than setting up an e-commerce site to compete with Amazon and be willing to lose millions of dollars in the process.
Like most of the grand olds Macys got rid of all the stuff that made people come. The classy stores, the marble floors, the well dressed ladies.... the big grand buildings and lavish decor. It was an experience. Now they look like a garage sale run by Goodwill workers. Meh.
Exactly. Macys real problem is they started selling cheap brands and clothes plus making their store look cheap instead of sticking to a higher end experience like Nordstrom
If you already know which shoes you enjoy and which colognes, you like there is no reason to go shopping at a store and waste gas and time. Maybe that will help you understand a little.
I work at the flagship Macy's and they treat everyone there like shit- management is a joke, all the higher ups are out of touch entirely and the new CEO whose the Bloomingdale's CEO is starting the process of cutting out anyone whose not the 1%. He openly said Macy's is no longer catering to the middle class and will now be making it's return back to real luxury starting with removing Macy's from malls (which is funny because the remodel they did made the place look like a huge tacky mall). The employees are so mistreated that employment outside of veteran employees is a revolving door. I don't even work directly for Macy's and I can see easily how bad it is. Ontop of it all there is no real safety in Macy's. I've moved between different Macy's for my job and in every one nobody felt safe, the flagship has to be the absolute worst. Employees are regularly threatened and have been held at knife point MULTIPLE times during closing hours for their drawers. Security is a joke and Macy's legitimately does not care about our safety, security does not show up when called unless it's about merchandise being stolen. I know multiple people who have had their property stolen and Macy's won't look at cameras unless it's Macy's property, I know someone who was followed into the store and they wouldn't check the cameras, I know another person who had to physically fight someone off of them because they were trying to steal their property and honestly I could go ON AND ON. I personally have been threatened and had to deal with multiple things I shouldn't have to while working there and I'm sure when I go into my shift tomorrow it will be the same! For the sake of the workers I hope it doesn't go under horribly but everyone who is higher up are sincerely bad people who deserve to suffer exactly what they're making their employees suffer. Oh! They also have the union under their thumb entirely so there is no one to fight for these people it's literally gut wrenching to watch day in and out. There is also honestly a lot of messed up shit that happens internally with Macy's employees as well, genuinely think someone should study the social dynamic there.
My grandmother was a union leader at the 34th Street Macys in the 1960s and 70s. It was a very different store back then. There was even a plaque in the store in her honor - I'm sure it is gone now.
Federated ruined retail....When I grew up in Torrance, We had Sears, Robinsons, Orbach's, Buffum's, Bullock's, Montgomery Ward, May Co, Broadway, JC Penney. Those were all anchors. Going shopping was fun. The stores had different stock and they competed. But then the Federated bought everything and closed all anchors, making going to the Mall boring. One anchor, Macy's Men's, Macy's, Macy's Women's, Macy's Furniture. Every now and then we would drive to South Coast Plaza or Cerritos they had Nordstroms. But honestly the thrill was gone. I never go to Malls anymore.
The last time I was at Ross there were a couple African American guys running the registers dressed like street gangstas wearing hoods, I'm like seriously? The woman in charge was pretty seedy looking too. Menards displayed a guy getting carts with his pants falling down (missing prison belt) and another guy working inside with a huge mess of poodle hair down his back. Then I went to Meijers and a guy was stocking shelves with clown hair, and the register supervisor give me a double take. This middle aged woman she had what looked like a girl scout frock on with junk and ornaments pinned to it all around, and topped it off with a wifebeater! WTH 😵💫 How can you expect to be respected as a professional when you look like that. I worked in retail in the 90s, they would never let people dress like this for work. I can't even tell who the employees are anymore. This right to look like trash has gone too far, it just makes stores look bad
Those creepy weirdos that "edit" and "correct" the TH-cam comments to conform with their own twisted, demented minds obviously are a big fan of the deterioration of society thats why they hid my comment. They know where they can go, and where we all wish they would!
>>Those creepy weirdos that "edit" and "correct" the TH-cam comments to conform with their own twisted, demented minds obviously are a big fan of the deterioration of society thats why they hid my comment. They know where they can go, and where we all wish they would!>> Copied and saved this comment, to repost on a few other sites today. More people definitely need to see it TH-cam can hide it here as they please.....but it only makes it more true, as others have said
I walked into a Macy’s last week and I was shocked by how pricey it was. Ross is so much cheaper and the clothes actually look cute. Macy’s looks like overpriced Ross as the second commenter stated.
Their customer service has been awful for a decade. You can never find someone to help you and you have to walk around trying to find an open register. Shopping Macys on line is a much better alternate and they have no one to blame but themselves.
Yeah but at Walmart I don't expect the "high end" service. Like you know what you are getting when you walk into walmart and Macy's is supposed to be a "fancier" retail store we expect the good service@@jessejames9149
@@jessejames9149yes, bc it’s cheaper and more accessible. There’s one in almost every city, whereas I can’t tell you the closest Macy’s bc they’ve all closed down. 🤷🏻♀️
It's just dumb boring clothes and mediocre perfume and jewellery. They rarely sell anything useful anyone wants or needs. And that was 15 years ago, it's just a massive waste of space and time.
I worked at Macy's San Francisco from 1970-80, my first real job. But though I buy from them online occasionally, I haven't gone into a store in years. They've been around for a long time, and will continue to exist in some form for a while yet!
It's really sad that our regional stores were caught up in the Macy group. In the Pacific Northwest we had the beloved Bon Marche for decades that was taken over. Also Marshall Fields in Chicago was another unfortunate casualty.
Yup. New Yorkers think the only thing that matters is 'their' brand. They steamrolled the regional chains with Macy's across fly over country, and it failed.
@@Astrobucks2 I don't think the citizens of the city the company's flagship store operates out of has much to do with this. It's more so a branding, corporate, and name-recognization thing. Good way to find a reason to connect it to people you already don't like though.
The Macy's credit card 💳 interest rate has gone from an already high 25% two years ago to a now current day insane 34.49%. That's nearing loneshark rates 🦈
I worked for Macys in the early to mid 2000s and there is no way anyone can survive on the wages they pay. If you worked full time you had to either pay for benefits or pay your bills but you could not do both. As a customer every now and then they have a nice sale but it’s not a place to constantly shop at.
Macy’s took over our traditional department stores! They ruined it! Selling inferior men’s clothes! Furniture department selling boring and overpriced too. In 2011, I cut up Macy’s credit card.
@@la6136 I think they were saying if a store is not fast fashion OR luxury, it'll be over for them. Meaning everything that's not in one of those two categories. I agree because the market is obviously fragmenting more and more all of the time. Macy's is probably wise to only put effort into its locations in higher-end malls going forward and let the regular mall locations and dead mall locations go completely. Macy's used to almost exclusively be found in upscale malls before the 2005 nationwide rollout.
Speaking from the UK, here is much the same. Big retailers who rested on their laurels and didn't keep an eye on the market trends, technology, serious sourcing strategies (to keep prices low) and keeping nimble with staff/overheads. Another major mistake for many of the big chains was underestimating your competition (Bricks: Uniqlo, Zara, H&M, Primark, T.K.MAXX and Online: Boohoo, Asos & Shein) If you want to find the biggest concentration of talentless jobsworths the British high street is at least number one in the world for that at the very least.
My ex best friend used to dream of going to Macy's in New York. I offered to go with her. We never got there. She stopped buying in shops & bought everything online instead. I told her, approx 12 years ago, that the internet was leading to shop closures & one day there will be no shops. She didn't take it seriously. Today I went to one of the most affluent cities in the UK, Cambridge. I counted 8 closed shops in a small group of about 16 by the main entrance of the Grafton centre. Every other store is closed yet people still can't see the obvious.
Macy's indeed has a rich history that's deeply woven into our culture, from pioneering retail strategies to shaping holiday traditions. Despite challenges, its legacy remains influential. 🙂💚
The video's analysis of Macy's rise and challenges is thorough! For legacy retailers, the key to revival often lies in leveraging their rich heritage while innovatively adapting to modern consumer habits and digital landscapes 🔄.
Out of desperation I visited the Macy's in our area yesterday. The escalator was broken. There was a mass amount of clothes but nothing for me there were more employees than customers I felt bad I like to shop in stores. Maybe old fashioned but I like to see what I am going to get. Too much guessing with online shopping unless you know for sure
Online retail is like a thousand small cuts, but the hemorrhaging is really happening because they shot themselves in the foot by not being price competitive. Go to a department store and look at the prices of stuff, its completely outrageous.
Other Macy’s acquisitions include The Broadway in 1996 and Stern’s in 2001. Stern’s itself was a chain in the Northeast which most notably acquired Gertz in 1982. That chain’s flagship store in Hicksville opened in late 1956 and remained in operation until early March 2020, when it closed shortly before the covid-19 pandemic was declared.
Macy’s was best when it was still a higher-end place to shop in major cities and hadn’t watered itself down to spread across America’s suburbs. They showed up in malls across the country, but didn’t bother to take any initiative to make the experience special. Instead, they slapped their signs on a bunch of former regional department store locations and didn’t even bother to renew or remodel many of them. They forgot about another national chain named Dillards that did a much better job of things and already had the suburban mall market cornered. The Macy’s at the mall closest to me is sad. The flooring, fixtures, and displays are the same old, worn ones the former department store had in the late 90’s. It smells old and musty, and their merchandise is a mess. We’re surprised it’s lasted as long as it has.
So in summary: They invested big and innovated to heck, but refused to make ongoing upgrades, and now it looks like it hasn't moved on from the 20th century.
When Macys consolidated their brands under the Macys umbrella (Bambergers, Richs, Macys West CA) was the start of the downtrend and the takeover of other retailers like Marshall Field just made Macys a national mid price version of Walmart. SAD
I would still shop at Macys but they don’t carry much clothes for plus size women and the sizes lack inclusion of all plus sizes beyond the typical 3x.
What should definitely been mentioned is that Isidor died on the titanic that night. I believe it’s the elder couple holding on each other on the doublebed in the movie. According to friend and Titanic survivor, when he offered to ask an officer if Isidor could enter a lifeboat with Ida, Isidor refused to be made an exception while women and children were still on board, while Ida is reported to have said, "I will not be separated from my husband. As we have lived, so we will die, together." Ida gave her maid her fur coat and insisted she gets into a lifeboat. Isidor and Ida were last seen on deck arm in arm; eyewitnesses described the scene as a "most remarkable exhibition of love and devotion"
The main problem is “BAD CUSTOMER SERVICE”. when you walk by the clerks and there is no one to help and all personnel are on their cell phone guess what? The customer walks out.!this is not rocket science.
In business (especially retail) it is toughest to be in the middle (not high end or low end) so Macy’s need to focus on deciding to go all in high income or low income customers. They are probably more suited to go toward high end with their history.
I agree. Everytime I go to Macy's I feel confused about who they are supposed to cater to. They're too expensive for Target shoppers, but not high end enough for luxury shoppers. We have Neiman Marcus, Macy's, and Target all in one mall where I live and people gravitate either towards Neiman Marcus or Target first and then Macy's is an afterthought if they couldn't find what they wanted
The last time I tried shopping at a Macy’s they looked at me and said I had to buy what I was looking for online. Waste of my time. And they wonder why they are going under?
It’s been clear that Macys would fall. Last time I walked into one was in 2017 and I was surprised at what they were selling. Nada. The selection on offer was so generic and bland at HIGH prices. It was very obvious that they “let go” of all their good buyers and keep low wage ones instead. I Love shopping retail ❤, but it was clear that they didn’t really have a VM staff. The store look so outdated and uninteresting….nothing that excited me to make a purchase. The old Polo shops where still in place but was a dumping ground for ill fitted dress shirts. I walked two doors and bought from Express & Sears. At least I felt like I was buying something special and interesting. You can blame “Internet sales” but most consumers do like to shop in person. Their is room for both. ButThis is what happens when you base a business solely on numbers instead of people and offering a selection that is interesting. Perhaps the executives should step out of the office and actually look at the merch, asking themselves…..would I put down my hard earned money to buy this? Best of luck!
Let’s get honest here. I was a Macy’s Long Island, NY shopper. I bought my perfumes, clothing, & shoes. Then, the workers no,longer were helpful. I once waited at a counter in line. The worker closed and walked. I went to two others before getting assistance. Then the clothing changed. It was frumpy and in colors that did not work for this fair blonde. I started doing a stand and scan to search for my colors..no luck. I no longer shopped there. Athleta bc my go to for casual & workout. JCrew was ok.
I love how they say in the mid 1980s they saw their first signs of trouble and yet there’s customers all over. Nowadays there are few customers. If Macy’s looked like that now you’d think they’re the future. Walmart doesn’t look like that…. My how times have changed.
I have never liked Macy’s ever since they Hoovered up two regional department stores in my hometown of Atlanta. First Davison’s then Rich’s. Rich’s was THE store during my childhood and early adulthood. Macy’s gradually got rid of holiday traditions that Rich’s had started, such as the Pink Pig mini monorail train kids rode in after seeing Santa Claus. The last straw was Macy’s getting rid of The Great Tree lighting tradition. They seem to ruin everything they touch 😢
While it is good to note how Macy's has changed, how can we setup companies like Macy's for success in the future? People will always need clothing - maybe they can be the ones to change the model, for the industry - since they were the pioneers. How does the industry evolve, humanely for everyone?
We get it, more and more are online shopping. But heres the real problem in a nutshell: Online shopping has become a garbage wasteland of cheap imports from China and weird sizes. Most peope would love to go to the department store on a weekend and have lunch and shop, if the stores had: quality products, unique one of a kind clothing in various sizes, and sales associates that arent frazzled overworked and underappreciated, if you can even find them at all anymore. When dept stores got dumpy in order to see what customers would be willing to tolerate, they also lost customers. If Im expected to go to a store and have only run of the mill junk available to purchase, and no service, frankly I can go to horrid TJ Maxx for that.
Buying local departmeht chains as they were losing business made no sense. Sure Macy's only kept yhe most lucrative locations and closed the underperforming locations but it homogenized American shopping. Macy's had no way to differentiate from the competition becaise it bought up all the competition. We're seeing something somilar with Dollar Stores. In Southern California there used to be Dollar Tree, Dollar General, 99 Cents Only Stores, and Family Dollar. Family Dollar and Dollar Tree merged. Dollar Tree will buy some former 99 Cents Only stores to compete with Dollar General. Competition declines, service worsens, and consumers eventually go somewhere else while wall streets tries to eek out the profits of a sinking ship. Thank you, neoliberalism!
The in-store experience and management issues brought up are a thing for sure, but what I've noticed is Macy's lackluster sales. Stuff is always full price or sales come and go and savings are like 20% max. It's hard to compete when people can try shopping some of these same brands online or elsewhere for less.
A couple decades working in their collections dept. The number of deadbeat customers out there is astonishing. Federated, in my opinion, should have not bought them. My biggest regret was not selling my 401k stock when it was at $80 something. It was always a $40 something stock. I got hosed when I finall sold at $22. Bought it at $11 after passing when it went to like $4.95 during the 2008 meltdown. Had funtimes there working with mostly great people. Still got my employee discount too. Those were the days.
Nobody shops in person anymore? I was at a suburban mall on a Sunday afternoon, and the Macy's juniors dept., which fronts the mall walkway, appeared to have no customers looking or buying. The Penney's a few doors down had about three people looking around. The mall had many people walking around outside and going to restaurants, but few people in stores.
Macy's in the late 80s late 90s westwood california. Customer open a Macy's card the employee get 5 dollars. Lol i was making about $3.50hr _ 5 dollars hr
An ex LP ( Loss Prevention ) staff said " How most of them will CREATE a Ruse to COVER for their ACCOMPLICES , rewards better than Bonuses ! " a case of massive INTERNAL Theft & Fraud ?
The problem is way too many stores. Greedy business men. Put limited items on your website and force people to come to the stores with elaborate promotions. Retail will never be the same if we continue forcing people to shop for cheap products online.
it doesn't help to send out coupons that have fine print that includes 90 percent of what is in the store that the coupon doesn't apply to (most of what you would be interested in)so i would just toss them in the trash without even looking at them; i have worked and quit rather quickly at these places that have a new manager that doesn't know anything about how things work and totally trash the place
The Macy's in Brea Mall, in Orange County, California is ENORMOUS. It's actually two Macy's stores, but they're having trouble keeping one of them going. Still, it's a pretty vital store here.
Was very disappointed last year when I went to a Macy’s store many items ( like luggage and some clothing) didn’t have the correct price on them and the customer service was not good. I had enjoyed going shopping there around 20 years ago.
Yea. Not having the correct price is why I walked out with nothing. I was told the price of the item I was looking at was actually higher than what the sticker said. Most stores would honor the price they put on their product. It was less than a $10 dollar difference. Other items were in the clearance area, but not actually on clearance. What a waste of time.
Possibly haven’t bought from them in over a decade until a few years ago when it had the best price for a watch I was interested in. That was 3 years ago and haven’t bought from them since. Poor quality in-house, private label brands contributed to its demise.
I used to work in the Macy’s in Redondo Beach, CA. We used to take clothing from fitting rooms (including those that smelled of body odor) and put them back on the floor without cleaning or treatment :(
In the 1940s department stores had part time dress models that would dress in the fashion clothing and customers could sit and sip champagne and decided which dresses they liked, then order in their particular size, the item would be wrapped properly and delivered to the customers home address. Now that was service !!!!
2:40 This is only partly correct. While L. Straus & Sons imported some (not all) of the blanks from Europe, they did the cutting for their rich-cut glass in the United States.
Terry Lundgren was the CEO that kept Macy's rolling and helped keep retail on its feet as an industry...Good work Terry and I will always be a Macy's guy!!! TREDD
He killed of the regional nameplates and replaced them all with the "New York City is the only important thing in the world" brand attitude. The regional nameplates 'might' have been a competitive asset.
Macy's is an old business model that modern consumers see no value in. It almost doesn't matter what they do to modernize because those same consumers are already trained to see them as an old outdated brand. Fast fashion, boutiques, and the internet all work against legacy department stores and shopping in general.
Costco, Walmarts et el are more what the new immigrants are used to, most foreign countries like Manila , Mexico, don't have malls, they have open air flea markets, it looks cheaper but not necessarily is.
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I worked for Macy's corporate until 2009 so I am not surprised that the company went downhill; too many out-of-touch and stupid decisions & strategies - too many!!!
Executive level decisions are always the cause of these beloved brand going to pot. It should be a criminal offense to conduct business this way.
The company needed younger executives and leaders than the old guard that was out-of-touch with their views.
@@MGTOWgamer Doesn't work because of Nepotism. Majority of new executives are born for the position. Their mostly related to each other.
Happens to every old businesses with history of supper success.
I fail to see what they could have done differently, other than setting up an e-commerce site to compete with Amazon and be willing to lose millions of dollars in the process.
@@mirzaahmed6589 Every E-Commerce succeeded even while competing with Amazon. You don't even need a store and you will make more money than Macys.
Like most of the grand olds Macys got rid of all the stuff that made people come. The classy stores, the marble floors, the well dressed ladies.... the big grand buildings and lavish decor. It was an experience.
Now they look like a garage sale run by Goodwill workers. Meh.
Exactly. Macys real problem is they started selling cheap brands and clothes plus making their store look cheap instead of sticking to a higher end experience like Nordstrom
Well said
I don’t get why people like online shopping for shoes, clothes, & perfumes you can’t try shoes or clothes on and you can’t smell the perfumes…
laziness
Thought Macy's bought out bambergers
You can have both, you know...
If you already know which shoes you enjoy and which colognes, you like there is no reason to go shopping at a store and waste gas and time. Maybe that will help you understand a little.
This is half correct. If you know the brand, you can order it. I agree with you on items and brands you're unfamiliar with, though
I work at the flagship Macy's and they treat everyone there like shit- management is a joke, all the higher ups are out of touch entirely and the new CEO whose the Bloomingdale's CEO is starting the process of cutting out anyone whose not the 1%. He openly said Macy's is no longer catering to the middle class and will now be making it's return back to real luxury starting with removing Macy's from malls (which is funny because the remodel they did made the place look like a huge tacky mall). The employees are so mistreated that employment outside of veteran employees is a revolving door. I don't even work directly for Macy's and I can see easily how bad it is. Ontop of it all there is no real safety in Macy's. I've moved between different Macy's for my job and in every one nobody felt safe, the flagship has to be the absolute worst. Employees are regularly threatened and have been held at knife point MULTIPLE times during closing hours for their drawers. Security is a joke and Macy's legitimately does not care about our safety, security does not show up when called unless it's about merchandise being stolen. I know multiple people who have had their property stolen and Macy's won't look at cameras unless it's Macy's property, I know someone who was followed into the store and they wouldn't check the cameras, I know another person who had to physically fight someone off of them because they were trying to steal their property and honestly I could go ON AND ON. I personally have been threatened and had to deal with multiple things I shouldn't have to while working there and I'm sure when I go into my shift tomorrow it will be the same! For the sake of the workers I hope it doesn't go under horribly but everyone who is higher up are sincerely bad people who deserve to suffer exactly what they're making their employees suffer. Oh! They also have the union under their thumb entirely so there is no one to fight for these people it's literally gut wrenching to watch day in and out.
There is also honestly a lot of messed up shit that happens internally with Macy's employees as well, genuinely think someone should study the social dynamic there.
I believe you, I work at a job where most of the higher ups are psychotic.
Just wait till Venture Capitol buys it. Things will get MUCH worse
😢
My grandmother was a union leader at the 34th Street Macys in the 1960s and 70s. It was a very different store back then. There was even a plaque in the store in her honor - I'm sure it is gone now.
“I work at the flagship macys” also you…. “I don’t even work at macys” 😂🤡
Those investors aren't trying to save Macy's; they're just going to auction the property off.
Exactly. Will go the same route as sears
Good? The brand has no place in the world now.
Federated ruined retail....When I grew up in Torrance, We had Sears, Robinsons, Orbach's, Buffum's, Bullock's, Montgomery Ward, May Co, Broadway, JC Penney. Those were all anchors. Going shopping was fun. The stores had different stock and they competed. But then the Federated bought everything and closed all anchors, making going to the Mall boring. One anchor, Macy's Men's, Macy's, Macy's Women's, Macy's Furniture. Every now and then we would drive to South Coast Plaza or Cerritos they had Nordstroms. But honestly the thrill was gone. I never go to Malls anymore.
Macy’s feels more like a Ross these days.
The last time I was at Ross there were a couple African American guys running the registers dressed like street gangstas wearing hoods, I'm like seriously? The woman in charge was pretty seedy looking too.
Menards displayed a guy getting carts with his pants falling down (missing prison belt) and another guy working inside with a huge mess of poodle hair down his back.
Then I went to Meijers and a guy was stocking shelves with clown hair, and the register supervisor give me a double take. This middle aged woman she had what looked like a girl scout frock on with junk and ornaments pinned to it all around, and topped it off with a wifebeater! WTH 😵💫
How can you expect to be respected as a professional when you look like that.
I worked in retail in the 90s, they would never let people dress like this for work. I can't even tell who the employees are anymore.
This right to look like trash has gone too far, it just makes stores look bad
Those creepy weirdos that "edit" and "correct" the TH-cam comments to conform with their own twisted, demented minds obviously are a big fan of the deterioration of society thats why they hid my comment. They know where they can go, and where we all wish they would!
>>Those creepy weirdos that "edit" and "correct" the TH-cam comments to conform with their own twisted, demented minds obviously are a big fan of the deterioration of society thats why they hid my comment. They know where they can go, and where we all wish they would!>>
Copied and saved this comment, to repost on a few other sites today. More people definitely need to see it
TH-cam can hide it here as they please.....but it only makes it more true, as others have said
Feels like an overpriced Ross. The quality of the clothes is oftentimes the same, but Macy's charges much more 🤦♀️
I walked into a Macy’s last week and I was shocked by how pricey it was. Ross is so much cheaper and the clothes actually look cute. Macy’s looks like overpriced Ross as the second commenter stated.
Their customer service has been awful for a decade. You can never find someone to help you and you have to walk around trying to find an open register. Shopping Macys on line is a much better alternate and they have no one to blame but themselves.
Exactly in when you find someone they act as though you are bothering them.
Their fragrance department employees are insanely aggressive too
Thats what people say about Walmart "horrible customer service" and yet still go shopping their!
Yeah but at Walmart I don't expect the "high end" service. Like you know what you are getting when you walk into walmart and Macy's is supposed to be a "fancier" retail store we expect the good service@@jessejames9149
@@jessejames9149yes, bc it’s cheaper and more accessible. There’s one in almost every city, whereas I can’t tell you the closest Macy’s bc they’ve all closed down. 🤷🏻♀️
Sears and JCP became obsolete as well.
It's just dumb boring clothes and mediocre perfume and jewellery. They rarely sell anything useful anyone wants or needs. And that was 15 years ago, it's just a massive waste of space and time.
True 😮🥲🥹
What about dillards?
JC Penney’s pays more than Macy’s. Struggling employees are on food stamps!
JCP still holding on..
Felt like the background music was too loud, made it harder to hear the narrator.
I worked at Macy's San Francisco from 1970-80, my first real job. But though I buy from them online occasionally, I haven't gone into a store in years. They've been around for a long time, and will continue to exist in some form for a while yet!
Macy’s destroyed Marshall Fields. That still hurts to this day. MF was a world class store back in the day !😢
Absolutely…..it still stings!!!❤❤❤❤
Now they getting killed by Marshall’s, TJ Maxx, and Ross in their field..
They screwed up by changing the historical regional chains over to the Macy's name and model. Killed the regional flavor that was special
Terry Lundgren said Everybody loves Macys. Guess not.
It's really sad that our regional stores were caught up in the Macy group. In the Pacific Northwest we had the beloved Bon Marche for decades that was taken over. Also Marshall Fields in Chicago was another unfortunate casualty.
Yup. New Yorkers think the only thing that matters is 'their' brand. They steamrolled the regional chains with Macy's across fly over country, and it failed.
@@Astrobucks2 I don't think the citizens of the city the company's flagship store operates out of has much to do with this. It's more so a branding, corporate, and name-recognization thing. Good way to find a reason to connect it to people you already don't like though.
My store was Lazarus until they changed over to Macys 😢
Macys has bad service and quality these days. Nordstrom has far superior service.
True
The Macy's credit card 💳 interest rate has gone from an already high 25% two years ago to a now current day insane 34.49%. That's nearing loneshark rates 🦈
That’s your fault for even getting a Macys card, they’ll rob you in front of you. Just cuz you wanted those new shoes on the Macys card.
Wow
Don’t charge what you can’t pay for upfront. This way the interest rate will not matter.
If they sell to that investment company that will be the end of Macy’s
I worked for Macys in the early to mid 2000s and there is no way anyone can survive on the wages they pay. If you worked full time you had to either pay for benefits or pay your bills but you could not do both. As a customer every now and then they have a nice sale but it’s not a place to constantly shop at.
Macy’s took over our traditional department stores! They ruined it! Selling inferior men’s clothes! Furniture department selling boring and overpriced too. In 2011, I cut up Macy’s credit card.
The day Macy's closes is when you really know its over for major non fast fashion/luxary clothing stores.
Not really…. A new store will pop up to replace it. There is always a demand for luxury clothing many people do not like cheap fast fashion
@@la6136 I think they were saying if a store is not fast fashion OR luxury, it'll be over for them. Meaning everything that's not in one of those two categories. I agree because the market is obviously fragmenting more and more all of the time. Macy's is probably wise to only put effort into its locations in higher-end malls going forward and let the regular mall locations and dead mall locations go completely. Macy's used to almost exclusively be found in upscale malls before the 2005 nationwide rollout.
Speaking from the UK, here is much the same. Big retailers who rested on their laurels and didn't keep an eye on the market trends, technology, serious sourcing strategies (to keep prices low) and keeping nimble with staff/overheads. Another major mistake for many of the big chains was underestimating your competition (Bricks: Uniqlo, Zara, H&M, Primark, T.K.MAXX and Online: Boohoo, Asos & Shein) If you want to find the biggest concentration of talentless jobsworths the British high street is at least number one in the world for that at the very least.
My ex best friend used to dream of going to Macy's in New York. I offered to go with her. We never got there. She stopped buying in shops & bought everything online instead. I told her, approx 12 years ago, that the internet was leading to shop closures & one day there will be no shops. She didn't take it seriously. Today I went to one of the most affluent cities in the UK, Cambridge. I counted 8 closed shops in a small group of about 16 by the main entrance of the Grafton centre. Every other store is closed yet people still can't see the obvious.
What I will never understand is why top level executives have to make millions of dollars for.
Macy's indeed has a rich history that's deeply woven into our culture, from pioneering retail strategies to shaping holiday traditions. Despite challenges, its legacy remains influential. 🙂💚
@@2GlobalMarkets Less so every time I go.
The video's analysis of Macy's rise and challenges is thorough! For legacy retailers, the key to revival often lies in leveraging their rich heritage while innovatively adapting to modern consumer habits and digital landscapes 🔄.
Out of desperation I visited the Macy's in our area yesterday. The escalator was broken. There was a mass amount of clothes but nothing for me there were more employees than customers I felt bad I like to shop in stores. Maybe old fashioned but I like to see what I am going to get. Too much guessing with online shopping unless you know for sure
When are we going to see the Amazon Thanksgiving day parade.
Lol
Probably sooner than later. Lol.
Prolly because of the business boom of Online Shopping...
And the brands they carry the youth isn’t interested in.
@@markclay1000 They need to learn from the turnaround of marks and spencer
Online retail is like a thousand small cuts, but the hemorrhaging is really happening because they shot themselves in the foot by not being price competitive. Go to a department store and look at the prices of stuff, its completely outrageous.
Ppl believe they are too expensive which is a lie. You can get things on sale for cheaper than the cheap stores
@@markclay1000 like Shein?
Other Macy’s acquisitions include The Broadway in 1996 and Stern’s in 2001. Stern’s itself was a chain in the Northeast which most notably acquired Gertz in 1982. That chain’s flagship store in Hicksville opened in late 1956 and remained in operation until early March 2020, when it closed shortly before the covid-19 pandemic was declared.
They assumed everyone would love them and think they were “magical”, but Dayton’s and Marshall Field’s shoppers saw it as the massive downgrade it was
Backing music way too loud on this clip. Difficult to focus on narration.
Macy’s been surviving due to their large portfolio of real estate space they own, especially in NYC. Yes they do own that Herald Square building!
Macy’s was best when it was still a higher-end place to shop in major cities and hadn’t watered itself down to spread across America’s suburbs. They showed up in malls across the country, but didn’t bother to take any initiative to make the experience special. Instead, they slapped their signs on a bunch of former regional department store locations and didn’t even bother to renew or remodel many of them. They forgot about another national chain named Dillards that did a much better job of things and already had the suburban mall market cornered.
The Macy’s at the mall closest to me is sad. The flooring, fixtures, and displays are the same old, worn ones the former department store had in the late 90’s. It smells old and musty, and their merchandise is a mess. We’re surprised it’s lasted as long as it has.
So in summary: They invested big and innovated to heck, but refused to make ongoing upgrades, and now it looks like it hasn't moved on from the 20th century.
last time i shopped inside macy's department store was in 2016 enough said....
When Macys consolidated their brands under the Macys umbrella (Bambergers, Richs, Macys West CA) was the start of the downtrend and the takeover of other retailers like Marshall Field just made Macys a national mid price version of Walmart. SAD
I would still shop at Macys but they don’t carry much clothes for plus size women and the sizes lack inclusion of all plus sizes beyond the typical 3x.
What should definitely been mentioned is that Isidor died on the titanic that night. I believe it’s the elder couple holding on each other on the doublebed in the movie. According to friend and Titanic survivor, when he offered to ask an officer if Isidor could enter a lifeboat with Ida, Isidor refused to be made an exception while women and children were still on board, while Ida is reported to have said, "I will not be separated from my husband. As we have lived, so we will die, together." Ida gave her maid her fur coat and insisted she gets into a lifeboat. Isidor and Ida were last seen on deck arm in arm; eyewitnesses described the scene as a "most remarkable exhibition of love and devotion"
The main problem is “BAD CUSTOMER SERVICE”. when you walk by the clerks and there is no one to help and all personnel are on their cell phone guess what? The customer walks out.!this is not rocket science.
In business (especially retail) it is toughest to be in the middle (not high end or low end) so Macy’s need to focus on deciding to go all in high income or low income customers. They are probably more suited to go toward high end with their history.
I agree. Everytime I go to Macy's I feel confused about who they are supposed to cater to. They're too expensive for Target shoppers, but not high end enough for luxury shoppers. We have Neiman Marcus, Macy's, and Target all in one mall where I live and people gravitate either towards Neiman Marcus or Target first and then Macy's is an afterthought if they couldn't find what they wanted
The last time I tried shopping at a Macy’s they looked at me and said I had to buy what I was looking for online. Waste of my time. And they wonder why they are going under?
this year will be the 100th Thanksgiving parade
I wonder if they think it'll be ruined by Trump winning again. LOL!!
@@steelionx9255😂
It’s been clear that Macys would fall. Last time I walked into one was in 2017 and I was surprised at what they were selling. Nada. The selection on offer was so generic and bland at HIGH prices. It was very obvious that they “let go” of all their good buyers and keep low wage ones instead. I Love shopping retail ❤, but it was clear that they didn’t really have a VM staff. The store look so outdated and uninteresting….nothing that excited me to make a purchase. The old Polo shops where still in place but was a dumping ground for ill fitted dress shirts. I walked two doors and bought from Express & Sears. At least I felt like I was buying something special and interesting. You can blame “Internet sales” but most consumers do like to shop in person. Their is room for both. ButThis is what happens when you base a business solely on numbers instead of people and offering a selection that is interesting. Perhaps the executives should step out of the office and actually look at the merch, asking themselves…..would I put down my hard earned money to buy this? Best of luck!
Well said !!!!
Let’s get honest here. I was a Macy’s Long Island, NY shopper. I bought my perfumes, clothing, & shoes. Then, the workers no,longer were helpful. I once waited at a counter in line. The worker closed and walked. I went to two others before getting assistance. Then the clothing changed. It was frumpy and in colors that did not work for this fair blonde. I started doing a stand and scan to search for my colors..no luck. I no longer shopped there. Athleta bc my go to for casual & workout. JCrew was ok.
I really miss our Macy’s in my city
I worked at the one westwood california from 1988 until 1996 we had good customer service.
Memories
Macy's, Sears, Woolworth, K-Mart, etc. You have to change business models or your close.
Have you ever tried shopping online at Macy's. It's impossible due to the terrible interface.
I love how they say in the mid 1980s they saw their first signs of trouble and yet there’s customers all over. Nowadays there are few customers. If Macy’s looked like that now you’d think they’re the future. Walmart doesn’t look like that…. My how times have changed.
Not only Macy's. I think all department stores are going under because of Amazon.
Amazing
No. You can’t buy clothes or shoes or fragrances solely online.
Heard Macy's Herald Square is in the process of replacing all its iconic wooden escalators too to save costs on maintenance😢
Times and things changes’s, the circles of business’s.
And likely a management team that has not a clue what they are doing and a private investor will be the final nail in the coffin
I have never liked Macy’s ever since they Hoovered up two regional department stores in my hometown of Atlanta. First Davison’s then Rich’s. Rich’s was THE store during my childhood and early adulthood. Macy’s gradually got rid of holiday traditions that Rich’s had started, such as the Pink Pig mini monorail train kids rode in after seeing Santa Claus. The last straw was Macy’s getting rid of The Great Tree lighting tradition. They seem to ruin everything they touch 😢
Davison's was a division of RH Macy & Co, long before Federated bought the company.
@@Pisti846 Good to know. I still miss Rich’s.
While it is good to note how Macy's has changed, how can we setup companies like Macy's for success in the future? People will always need clothing - maybe they can be the ones to change the model, for the industry - since they were the pioneers. How does the industry evolve, humanely for everyone?
We get it, more and more are online shopping. But heres the real problem in a nutshell: Online shopping has become a garbage wasteland of cheap imports from China and weird sizes. Most peope would love to go to the department store on a weekend and have lunch and shop, if the stores had: quality products, unique one of a kind clothing in various sizes, and sales associates that arent frazzled overworked and underappreciated, if you can even find them at all anymore. When dept stores got dumpy in order to see what customers would be willing to tolerate, they also lost customers. If Im expected to go to a store and have only run of the mill junk available to purchase, and no service, frankly I can go to horrid TJ Maxx for that.
Buying local departmeht chains as they were losing business made no sense. Sure Macy's only kept yhe most lucrative locations and closed the underperforming locations but it homogenized American shopping. Macy's had no way to differentiate from the competition becaise it bought up all the competition.
We're seeing something somilar with Dollar Stores. In Southern California there used to be Dollar Tree, Dollar General, 99 Cents Only Stores, and Family Dollar. Family Dollar and Dollar Tree merged. Dollar Tree will buy some former 99 Cents Only stores to compete with Dollar General.
Competition declines, service worsens, and consumers eventually go somewhere else while wall streets tries to eek out the profits of a sinking ship. Thank you, neoliberalism!
The in-store experience and management issues brought up are a thing for sure, but what I've noticed is Macy's lackluster sales. Stuff is always full price or sales come and go and savings are like 20% max. It's hard to compete when people can try shopping some of these same brands online or elsewhere for less.
A couple decades working in their collections dept. The number of deadbeat customers out there is astonishing. Federated, in my opinion, should have not bought them. My biggest regret was not selling my 401k stock when it was at $80 something. It was always a $40 something stock. I got hosed when I finall sold at $22. Bought it at $11 after passing when it went to like $4.95 during the 2008 meltdown. Had funtimes there working with mostly great people. Still got my employee discount too. Those were the days.
I love Macy's it's my favorite store
Nobody shops in person anymore? I was at a suburban mall on a Sunday afternoon, and the Macy's juniors dept., which fronts the mall walkway, appeared to have no customers looking or buying. The Penney's a few doors down had about three people looking around. The mall had many people walking around outside and going to restaurants, but few people in stores.
Macy's in the late 80s late 90s westwood california. Customer open a Macy's card the employee get 5 dollars. Lol i was making about $3.50hr _ 5 dollars hr
Just waiting for Macy’s to pull off a Sears.
An ex LP ( Loss Prevention ) staff said " How most of them will CREATE a Ruse to COVER for their ACCOMPLICES , rewards better than Bonuses ! " a case of massive INTERNAL Theft & Fraud ?
The problem is way too many stores. Greedy business men. Put limited items on your website and force people to come to the stores with elaborate promotions. Retail will never be the same if we continue forcing people to shop for cheap products online.
it doesn't help to send out coupons that have fine print that includes 90 percent of what is in the store that the coupon doesn't apply to (most of what you would be interested in)so i would just toss them in the trash without even looking at them; i have worked and quit rather quickly at these places that have a new manager that doesn't know anything about how things work and totally trash the place
The Macy's in Brea Mall, in Orange County, California is ENORMOUS. It's actually two Macy's stores, but they're having trouble keeping one of them going. Still, it's a pretty vital store here.
The Macy’s in Torrance has a similar format. One of the stores used to be Robinson’s May.
Was very disappointed last year when I went to a Macy’s store many items ( like luggage and some clothing) didn’t have the correct price on them and the customer service was not good. I had enjoyed going shopping there around 20 years ago.
Yea. Not having the correct price is why I walked out with nothing. I was told the price of the item I was looking at was actually higher than what the sticker said. Most stores would honor the price they put on their product. It was less than a $10 dollar difference. Other items were in the clearance area, but not actually on clearance. What a waste of time.
My store was Lazarus until they changed to Macys 😢
Possibly haven’t bought from them in over a decade until a few years ago when it had the best price for a watch I was interested in. That was 3 years ago and haven’t bought from them since. Poor quality in-house, private label brands contributed to its demise.
Backstage and a lack of salespeople were terrible ideas.
Years ago macys felt like a store for the every day person..the makeover at least at herald square..seems to be targeting the high and mighty. .....
Sorta glossed over the Campeau LBO
I used to work in the Macy’s in Redondo Beach, CA. We used to take clothing from fitting rooms (including those that smelled of body odor) and put them back on the floor without cleaning or treatment :(
That Macy's was originally a May Company that became Robinsons May.
All stores do this unless as an employee you want to spend your days cleaning clothes?
In the 1940s department stores had part time dress models that would dress in the fashion clothing and customers could sit and sip champagne and decided which dresses they liked, then order in their particular size, the item would be wrapped properly and delivered to the customers home address. Now that was service !!!!
2:40 This is only partly correct. While L. Straus & Sons imported some (not all) of the blanks from Europe, they did the cutting for their rich-cut glass in the United States.
They bought up all their competitors and now cannot sell; I think they need new management
I remember going to MACY’s with my mom, the good old days😢🥹🥹🥲
Yeah any businesses and organizations that want to expand, need to follow the trend...
"letting go hundreds of people" Way more than that
Not once was it noted that Macy's was based and operated from Cincinnati OH.
It is because of the internet. All of stores are closing My store closed
They're getting rid of everything we love... its so sad :(
I miss Sears and KMart
$6BN for Macy's? They should take that and run
Terry Lundgren was the CEO that kept Macy's rolling and helped keep retail on its feet as an industry...Good work Terry and I will always be a Macy's guy!!! TREDD
He killed of the regional nameplates and replaced them all with the "New York City is the only important thing in the world" brand attitude. The regional nameplates 'might' have been a competitive asset.
Wonder what's up with that building that Macy's couldn't acquire?
I've owned it since the 1920s. I told them to go pound sand.
I went to Macy’s it was so empty! So much inventory
And the brands they carry the youth isn’t interested in.
Polo. They have Rag & Bone and others. It’s the job market
But I bet they would take a 2000 gift card
You can boil everything down to « online has eaten up the biggest slice of the cake, and clothing retailers ate up the crumbs ».
Wait, that's the Macy in Macy's Day Parade
A fun fact: Isador and Isa Strauss, you may recognise their name, died aboard the RMS Titanic.
Ironic that Business Insider thats own by Amazon made this
i was wondering why amazon wasn’t mentioned once in the whole video. now it makes sense.
I know what will fix it … a leveraged buyout! Look what wonders one did for Toys R Us!
Macy's is an old business model that modern consumers see no value in. It almost doesn't matter what they do to modernize because those same consumers are already trained to see them as an old outdated brand. Fast fashion, boutiques, and the internet all work against legacy department stores and shopping in general.
How Grants, Wards, Sears, K-mart, Etc.....Then you have the automakers that would be gone if not for your tax dollars.
Costco, Walmarts et el are more what the new immigrants are used to, most foreign countries like Manila , Mexico, don't have malls, they have open air flea markets, it looks cheaper but not necessarily is.
It’s the amount of die as a white employee my raise are based on on equity so I get paid less
It's kinda simple every thing now a days is sold online. Meaning no need to rent or own a building for people to come in. Less theft. Less employees.
Ugly clothes, lack of choices, weak online presence…looks like they’re doing exactly what Sears did.
help save my old parking lol
Background music is too loud
business insider
I miss living near a Macys!
gads---TURN DOWN THE BACKGROUND MUSIC---CAN'T HEAR THE NARRATOR!!!!!!!!