Macy's
| File:Macy's Logo.gif | |
| Company type | Department store |
|---|---|
| Industry | Retail |
| Founded | 1851 Haverhill, Massachusetts |
| Headquarters | New York City, New York |
| Products | Clothing, footwear, bedding, furniture, jewelry, beauty products, and housewares. |
| Parent | Macy's  |
| Website | http://www.macys.com/ |
Macy's is a mid-range chain of American department stores including a flagship store in New York City, which has long been billed as the "world's largest," another in San Francisco (the flagship store of the Macy's West division), and soon to be another in Chicago (which will become the new flagship store of the Macy's North division) in September 2006. The company is also well-known for sponsoring Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade, an annual parade on the streets of New York City.
The company is part of Federated Department Stores and competes on an average price level on par with Dillard's, Belk, Sears, and J.C. Penney.
History
Macy's was founded in 1851 by Rowland Hussey Macy as a dry goods store in downtown Haverhill, Massachusetts. In 1858, Macy moved to New York City and founded 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 40 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 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, though Macy's rents it annually for a legendary sum, and always camouflages the facade with giant signs.
The same property problem presented itself when Macy's built a store on Queens Boulevard in Jackson Heights, Queens, New York, This resulted in an architecturally unique round department store on 90% of the lot, with a small privately owned house on the corner. It was a case literally of the "little lady who wouldn't sell".
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) in 1945, and Kansas City, Missouri (John Taylor Dry Goods Co.) in 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, New Orleans, and Dallas. Davison's in Atlanta 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 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. Bamberger's which had aggressively expanded throughout New Jersey and into the Greater Philadelphia Mero Area in the 1970's and the Baltimore Metro area in the early 1980's 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 it lost to Canada's Campeau Corp., walking 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 up 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-third's 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 the 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, 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 The 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 [1].
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. [2] (Bloomingdale's is an eighth retail division of Federated. There are also seven administrative divisions that provide corporate support services).
- Macy's East, headquartered in New York — 216 stores/29,100 employees (employment figure is for Macy's East division prior to February 2006) in Connecticut, Delaware, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Vermont, Virginia and Puerto Rico. (In addition to Macy's, this division currently operates Filene's stores, majority of Kaufmann's stores in upstate New York, Strawbridge's, and Hecht's stores in mid-Atlantic region. After announced divestitures/store closures are completed by late 2006, this division will have 185 locations.)
- 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, 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.)
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.
- Macy's been sponsoring fireworks displays in New York for decades, usually on Independence Day.
- 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 film Miracle on 34th Street (1947) is set in Macy's, and remains a holiday film classic. Subsequent remakes of the film for television (1955, 1959 and 1973) are also set in Macy's. 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.