What Is Going On At Macy's? | Retail Archaeology
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- Опубликовано: 14 июл 2023
- In this episode of Retail Archaeology we go see what is going on at Macy's.
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Macy's is starting to look exactly how Sears did right before they started closing a bunch of stores.
Yes, certainly not the Macy’s we all grew up with.
Yes, the one by my house used to be on par with other fancy department stores, but now it’s empty and they have cleared out sections and messes everywhere.
@@seriejohnson698 No, it certainly isn't. How sad.
I shopped at Sears right until they closed in 2014 and it was never this bad 🇨🇦 I still miss Sears 😢
Not surprising as Macy's ruined far too many local department stores.
A small magnet, that I tossed onto the metal corner of one of those mirrored pillers as a kid back in 1992, is STILL in the same exact spot at the Macy's in Baybrook mall in Houston Texas. I even pointed it out to my 6yo son! It's just wild to know my little "mark" is still there 30 years later.
That’s interesting😮😅😅
Haha that’s older than me!! Hope it stays there forever!
@MR-mr4tz The reason I know the exact year, is because the magnet came from one of those tyco track racing cars that I got that Christmas. It's fairly small. I hope my grandkid gets to see it. Lol just need another 20 years.
Fantastic
yikes. they definitely didn't clean up after covid lol
The sad reality is that Macy's is suffering on three fronts: more online purchasing, lower demand for higher end clothing as office wear becomes more casual, and a shrinking middle class being hit hard by a recession and inflation at the same time. It's hard to see the business model continue to be successful in the current environment.
Actually I prefer Macy's online than the brick and mortor stores. I sometimes find some nice products on its website.
I liked their online but somehow I had problems with an order and they said I was fraudulent on my order 😮. I received the order. So now I can’t make online orders 😟.
and they're not helped by changing tastes in shopping; today's youth are generally very obsessed with what's current, and thus no one wants to be caught shopping at the dingy old department store where grandma bought her perfumes 30 years ago, y'know?
One cannot forget the 4th front: The clueless buyers which are replaced every season.
Was the writing on the wall when Steve Jobs showed up on the stage in 1999 with turtleneck and jeans, or it happened much earlier than that?
Back when I was working retail in 94-99, a Saturday afternoon was so insanely packed that you couldn't walk down sone aisles. Just can't believe how dead these stores are
Things change, it freaks older people out for some reason. I was a toddler going to Sears & Macy’s (born 97). This Macy’s gives me an immense amount of nostalgia. It’s a place my immigrant parents would absolutely love especially my mother because it showed just the immense opportunity and future you can grasp one day. It’s definitely overwhelming for me now. It just looks like a giant unfocused mess. Mass produced photocopied sameness everywhere. My age group isn’t too fond of such design. Atleast for me and my friend, we appreciate smaller more focused spaces with attention to detail to the space, aesthetic etc… selling a bag? Put one bag out, we dont need to see 50 bags at once, it strips the feeling of individuality from the products when you see so much of it. Nobody wants to be “normal” anymore. And this screams such extremely safe almond milk in the fridge level stuff. Lol
Yep back when I worked in JCPenney during those years that's exactly how it was, now you can't find that anywhere you go.
I order online and it's a good shopping experience
@@sunnyolweis4984I don’t think so. You can’t try things on. You waste more time and energy returning things plus you are contributing to people losing jobs. You’re the problem.
@@AnonYmous-jo5ec”for some reason” you can’t put together why people dislike change? Life must be insanely difficult for you.
It was unreal to realize this was footage from a Saturday afternoon. Based on the foot traffic, I can't believe they are generating enough in sales to pay for the electricity, let alone all the other overhead. That location is giving off end-stage Sears vibes - old tired fixtures, no customers, diminishing amount of product on the shelves, and the product that's there is stuff no one wants.
Macy's definitely needs to close a non-trivial number of underperforming stores that are dragging down the brand.
Department stores used to sell to middle to upper-middle class. You got higher quality and style. But absolutely nobody cares now... we wear clothes from Costco.
@@aaron74Right? I'm not paying a small fortune for a sport coat that was made in China. I don't give a damn how nice it looks. May as well throw on a track suit form Costco. Augh.
@@uptoolate2793 Yeah I mean the basic expectation these days is that you're just bathed and your clothes are clean.
@@aaron74there aren’t many middle to upper middle class folks left. I’m technically there but I sure as hell don’t feel like I can afford Macy’s at this point. 10 years ago we went fairly often. The economy is shit
This makes me feel so sad. I find it hard to accept the changing world. I have so many fond memories of going to the mall with friends. We stayed for hours and no one had a cellphone so it was just us in the moment enjoying every minute.
Absolutely I hate it now. There used to be a person with a smile on their face at those jewelry and perfume counters. Now it’s dead. It’s like companies just worry about max profits now. Screw the customer experience! Sears and Macys used to have someone at every check out, people were mingling and talking while working. Now it’s like you have to scream to find the ONE panicked employee that can open the case to show u something!
you are not the only one that is feeling sad watching the Decay of what once was everything to us.
cell phone bad :(
@@tula1433👍
80s child and we never had malls until the late 90s. Thanks goodness. I had every excuse to avoid mingling with annoying tweens at my leisure 😂😂😂😂
I worked at Macy's for 7 years from 2012-2019 and the decline in staffing, quality of goods, and business focus was apparent. They could not decide who their clientele was and how they were going to reach them. There was a vague interest in moving "with the times" to complete online and an attempt to chase any and every possible trend to sell things was just so detrimental to the focus of their business - they have tried to appeal to everyone and anyone an honestly been forgotten by everyone. It's really sad to see.
My family was not rich, but my parents stressed the importance of buying quality over quantity. We often did our back-to-school shopping at Macys (Bon Marche back then!) because their clothes would hold up the entire school year without ripping, palling, etc. Furthermore, they sold a lot of classic pieces that never truly went out of style. Over the years, Macys slowly phased out their quality merchandise in favor of cheap trendy clothes. They are now indistinguishable from Pennys, Kohls, etc - Save for the pricing. Consumers are smart and will not pay top dollar for thin/poorly-made garments, especially with the ease of comparing prices online. I tried to warn my father, but he was insistent that he would find 100% cotton T shirts there. You should have seen the horror in his face as he sifted through shirt after graphic t-shirt with bananas, smiley faces, and flowers on them. Now that I am an adult with my own income, I would gladly pay a little more for quality - Wish I could shop at the Macys of my childhood.
Very well said, and me too.
Of all the major department stores, Macy's is probably the one that modernized its stores the most. If they go under, we really will be living in a world where it's all online shopping, Walmart or bulk retailers like Costco. And that thought depressses me.
I think if that happens, after some years people will miss in person service and some of this kind of retail will come back.
@@Sashazur I hope so. I'd still rather go to a store where you can try something on and browse instead of ordering online.
sadly thats what they want keep people indoors not moving around 5 minute cities ....
@@dojocho1894 I'm sorry but what your describing is literally the opposite of the 15 minute city idea...
Maceys has nothing I would want to buy anyways
I kept getting the feeling that security was going to tell you to leave, but then I remembered that they actually want you to be there.
They actually used to have top notch store detectives...Not sure now.
No one works in these stores anymore.
@@HenryBloggitno one wants to pay employees anymore
You hit the nail on the head when you said Macy’s used to be a fancy department store but now it’s just a dump. The one near me (Cherry Hill Mall, NJ) is a pretty high traffic location, so it’s not like there aren’t enough customers to keep it profitable, but the staff and management seem totally incapable. Every display looks like a bomb went off, with packages ripped open and thrown all over. You have to dig to find a size, and need a police dog to find an open cash register. I was in the fragrance department yesterday to buy the new Bleu de Chanel cologne, and could not find anyone to help me so I gave up and bought it on Amazon. When my boyfriend and I were in the flagship New York City Herald Square store, trying to find a cashier, it actually seemed like every member of the staff was actively avoiding us, even running away to avoid ringing us up! I used to love Macy’s, and really hope they are able to turn things around and make make shopping it fun again.
I used to go to the big Macys store at Garden State Plaza in Paramus NJ. I started shopping there in the early 90s when I was in college. The store looks the same. It’s very worn out. Don’t get me wrong I love the 90s theme but they should at least change a little bit.
They must not have been on commission @user-pb8yh8bu6r
That honestly sounds like every dollar general store I’ve ever been to. I’m guessing that the 10000 IQ corporate management geniuses have determined they save money when they hire 15% of the workers needed to functionally run the place and just tell all 4 of their HS dropout 40 year old workers that they’re expected to perform at the same productivity of 25 people
In that unfortunate situation, you end up with 100 tasks to complete before you’re allowed to take a break or clock out and getting stuck running register means you won’t even get a chance to start all that other stuff until closing time
My wife and I went to a Macy's for Christmas shopping this past year, and it felt so depressing and run down. Also, one of the cashiers was checking out a customer, and forgot to bag some absolutely minor things. He was trying to catch her after he saw that he missed it, but she was gone. And the cashier was so dejected. My wife and I felt absolutely terrible for him. It has nothing to do with Macy's, other than they were understaffed, overworked, and underpaid.
Same here, I went there this past Christmas and was shocked, disappointed and somewhat sad as to what it had become.
This is so sad. My mother use to work at Macy's when I was a kid. The store would be packed, and it would get more during Xmas. Macy's would pay employees double if they wanted to work on the weekend. My mother worked with amazing colleagues and did well for a living. She was sad on how bad the situation Macy's was getting now. Another part of childhood that will go away. 😒
It's always sad to see something from our childhoods die off.. whether it's a Toys R Us or a Macy's... it's almost like losing a friend or something. /:
@@ogre706 it really is sad. It's scary to think about to. The stores we had great childhood memories is now dead. All good things come to an end.
Amazon killed brick and mortor.
@@paul9156c Oh. Amazon slaughtered malls. Like Netflix did w/Blockbuster
karlwithak That's sad.
As a kid I hated going to Macy’s, JCPenney, Sears, Bon-Ton, and all the other big anchor stores in malls because I thought clothes shopping was boring, but as an adult there’s nothing I want more than to go back
Same lul I had those same bad feelings during my youth years
Thing is I never really see a purpose for clothes shopping then again it can just be me, because I don't go for any fancy outfits just usually wear a graphic tee (of whatever show, band, or movie I like) and shorts/jeans in summer and whatever to keep me warm in the winter. I also feel that most people could possibly be like me hence why Macy's, Sears, and JCPenney are struggling due to people feeling very casual in their dress wear and somewhat why places like Hot Topic and Boxlunch succeed due to following what the current popular trend of the year is.
Same but now that i have my own car and watching RUclipsrs like Erik here, it makes me go to mall and to these stores.
I miss wandering Kmart and seeing the weird outdated things hidden in the back of the store
Also with Macy's for the swimwear departments, if your mall has them, you can browse the surf shops and corporate brand stores for those products along with Surfboards and their related equipment if you want to take up that activity. I rather go to those stores rather than look at the dismal selection in a department store. Macy's sells the actual name brand swimwear/surfwear. lol Sears and Penney's had the dated knock off stuff.
Bloomingdales is big fancy Macy's. I know Bloomingdales is a nameplate of Macy's which is why I said it's just a big fancy Macy's.
That being said I dreaded shopping in the girl's department, before we lost all our JC Penney's I liked buying pants (those Arizona Jeans zip off pants) from the Boy's section, I think because they had an actual Husky section.
Yea, we can just find a majority of what's sold in department stores (and probably better designs of prints and dye jobs too) in the rest of the mall. As an adult I just like passing through for the air conditioning, not really shopping in them.
I'm sure someone has mentioned it, but the small appliance section was probably shelving for fine China. I remember back in the 80s and 90s, Macy's had a huge section of fine China where women would start their bridal registry. Most people today don't want fine China and they don't need that much space for it anymore.
It’s shocking how degraded the stores are. My local Macys looks like an ill- kept second hand store. Also, weirdly, I’ve recently been to three different Macys where the escalators were out of order.
They want to get more people to shop online these days,glad i lived most of my life in the good old days
It's cheaper to just leave them turned off. A lot of dying malls do that too.
I recently was at a Macy's with a Toys R Us upstairs and it looked like a junk attic. Stuff strewn all over the floor, no shelves for a lot of the merchandise. It looked terrible.
The display department was probably the first to go.
Yeah thats the result of amazon
So like a two floor pawn shop.
Probably because they have few to staff and people just make messes
@@animeshock2006exactly I work at a macys and there’s hardly any employees
This is sad. I remember back in the 60s and 70s. Shopping on a Saturday was the day that most people went shopping. You were at a store like Macy's or JC Penney that were packed with people. Long lines, huge selection, etc. It's like the stores were alive. Stores had little lunch counters or coffee shops inside the store. They also had a candy section where you could buy candy by the 1/4 pound. In the candy section, there would be peanuts under a heat lamp along with an assortment of other nuts. Sears was the place to go. They had everything from lawn mowers to underwear and everything in between. The Macy's you visited was depressing. I could almost hear the death rattle as you were walking through. That was one of the saddest toy sections I've ever seen as well. I am well versed in Toys R Us. This was not it. Back then, Toys R Us was an adventure waiting to happen.
You brought back good memories. I remember the candy dept, book section, and when they sold fabric
Oh, Toys r Us, my husband and I, both in our late 30s at the time, took our last stroll through our local Toys r Us in 2018 or so right before it closed forever. I still love walking through toy stores, the smell, seeing how toys change, what is still around from my 80s childhood.
Never mind there are no customers, where are all of the employees?
@@tenabarnes3269good question
@@tenabarnes3269sometimes there are only 2 per floor. I know. I worked there.
I'm employed by them, and my place is almost exactly like this. Our place is separated from the main building entirely. It feels like this cause we don't ever get anything major. Only certain locations are privy enough to get better items. We have a lot of theft issues by annoying kids, damaged functions for our store in both spots, a severe lack of employees, and a general disregard by the public for how they treat our products and CONSTANTLY USING ITEMS IN THE STORE THAT HAVEN'T BEEN PURCHASED! Combined by the fact that a lot of what folks want has to be ordered, not in our store, and there you go. My place was once Hecht's before all of this, and since then, they've been getting worse and worse. If we weren't the only one in our local region, we'd be part of their closure list long ago. No one cares about how organizations like ours are treated by the shoppers, how the lack of care about the employees is, or how security is for us. I'd WANT you to critique my store just as proof to those in NY that they need to fix this!
They destroyed the regional department store. My favorite example of this is Burdine's at the Ft Lauderdale Galleria. The minute you walked in, you knew you were in south Florida. Even the columns in the main entrance/cosmetics area looked like palm trees. That's all gone; it could be on Long Island or Springfield or Anytown, USA.
Agree 100%. I remember that Burdines.
Also from SoFl, had two Burdines in West Palm. : )
The red and white floor tiles are the original floor for the home department from Robinson May. The shelves that you thought were designed for something other than small appliances are for fine china and collectibles. Great coverage.
Wow, well done!
Don't forget that China will also take away quality food supply, leaving only junk food and obesity to America, which is already happening.
Fine china and silverware were big money makers for these stores, no more.
Having grown up in Los Angeles, I can tell you JW Robinson’s was a better store than Macy’s ever will be. Even May Co was put together better than Macy’s.
Hah, I was pretty sure those shelves were for fine china! Nice to be right!
Growing up in the 1950's & 1960's, in rural Massachusetts, department stores were elegant, urban, dreamlike destinations that we might visit once or twice a year for a back to school outfit, Easter clothes, or a unique Christmas gift. Macy's in Herald Square was the ultimate destination - billed as the world's largest department store, we looked forward to some day traveling to New York to visit it. Before we ever got there though, Macy's started buying up department stores around the country, and converting them to Macy's. And such a disappointment - they all looked alike, all carried the same stuff and lacked the magic of the old time stores. And nothing has changed since - except for the owners - who, if their results say anything - seem to know more about bookkeeping and less about properly running department stores. Perhaps the smaller store format will help, but they also need to bring back store buyers, who know their regions, and how to find products that will appeal to customers. A department store in Pittsburgh should not look exactly like a department store in Chicago, or Los Angeles.
The homogenization is by design to demoralize the population and discourage localism.
Looking forward to the decline and demise of big box stores and the return and rise of small mom & pop stores.
They refused to cater to the younger demographics. And when I say younger, 60 years of age and down! Yes, they're still stuck back in the 70s and 80s. I'm surprised they've lasted this long, to be honest with you.
@@juniorjames7076Without a demise of government bureaucracy, those small businesses won't be coming back either.
Sooo many nit-picky regulations, high minimum wages ($19/hr in West Hollywood CA), and high taxes.
Without having many locations to spread the costs, owning a business often leads to bankruptcy
When Macy's purchased Rich's in Atlanta people there were quite annoyed. If I recall, Rich's & Macy's existed in the same malls as Macy's was in the Atlanta market for quite some time. I don't know who they purchased to enter the market. Come the late 1980's it was the whole Campo department store chain, that became Federated and the massive consolidation from that time period that literally destroyed the department store business nationwide. Back to Lenox Square in Atlanta; when Macy's bought Rich's it was Rich's-Macy's then Macy's. They moved to the main Rich's location and turned the old Macy's location into a quite nice Bloomingdale's.
Still shocking but not surprising. Even back in 2006 when I worked part time at Chicago’s Marshall Field when Macy’s bought them, this was on the wall. Macy’s came in, gutted over half our designer brands. And laid off 1/3 the staff, and trimmed our schedules. The store upkeep was impossible and it got messy. The generic Macy’s house brands of clothes were noticeably lower quality. And they all ended up on Clearance very fast. Our weekly personal sales goals got harder and harder to meet. Not to mention Macy’s being incredibly insensitive to the historic Field’s Chicago heritage, and traffic nearly dried up. Even at Xmas. I got out of there since my college campus job started paying more. Sad.
It’s getting harder and harder to NOT shop online.
Places like Dillards and Macy's going away always worries me because I just can't get on board buying some clothes online. I can do shirts but I gotta try my pants on before I'm buying 'em. Also I'm starting to associate stores selling toys of any kind when it wasn't part of their original business model (ie: GameStop) to be a massive red flag at this point.
The clothes are just cheap trash. It is not even fun going shopping anymore.
There’s still tjmaxx ,Ross and marshalls
Dillard’s is OPENING A NEW STORE:
Dillard's private label products are too much for shit.
@@Humandriver5280 which particular private labels at Dillard’s for crap? Please elaborate.
The store looks abandoned. Where are the employees, for that matter, where are the other customers? The whole mall looks empty. Yikes!
Probably a skeleton crew with tight labor hours
Some of them have only one or tow employees assigned for each FLOOR now. Where it used to be each individual makeup counter had an associate who was knowledgeable and trained for that specific brand. Like the watch dept would have an associate for each brand. So it's no wonder that there is nobody to clean up, put things away, or even answer any questions about a product in a reliable way.
He may also be only uploading footage where there are no employees or customers,simply because people don't like being filmed
@@henrymanzano2201it also plays into his narrative.
@@maxwellstainback4421 that,too
Yes, the Macys in Troy, Michigan has a creepy and weird 3rd floor. I really think people could hide out in some of the corners in the furniture area and not be found for days!
Can definitely go up there and "test out" those mattresses. No one will ever see or hear you!
I definitely prefer when the stores we either J. L. Hudson back in the day or Marshall Fields after they bought out J. L. Hudson both chains did a much better job than Macy's.
I was in one of their flagship stores - the former Wannamaker's in Center City Philly, the Sat before Mother's Day. The store was deserted. I went to the 3rd floor housewares. I only found 1 person working the entire floor and he was frantically running, trying his best to help people, run the register, and still keep a smile.
@@jeffs6090 if i were ever dating a man and he suggested we do hanky panky in the macy's third floor bedding that probably hasn't been washed in 10+ years i'd dump him on the spot
Looks like it could be dangerous - so secluded and poorly trafficked. Crime has gotten bad in my area.
Looking at this Macy's store, it's blatantly obvious that they don't have separate positions for Merchandising Manager, Visual Manager and Lighting Department. Feels like some poor soul on the Receiving Team is wearing all 3 hats. Great Video, thanks!
Sadly Macys did away with the Visual Manager position as well as visual teams.
The current position is Visual Captain (no longer an executive position) basically same position without the title & pay.
Most of the visual managers left after the roles changed since there pay got cut drastically.
I was thinking the same thing. My niece used to work at H & M doing visual merchandising. She worked long hours because they had a new campagein every 3 months and she had to changes floor and window displays. Macy's is in a time warp and there are no salespeople around to help you. I don't bother to shop there ever.
@@pjj.5649my friend Sammy did the H&M displays in nyc and san fran in the early 2000s. Remember they really went all out.
I remember I went to a mall and wandered into a Macy's. I needed to use the restroom and was told it was on the third floor. And much like your experience, it was a complete ghost town - it felt like shouldn't have been for customers. Some employees were even talking loudly coming out of the back. I'm surprised it wasn't basically a giant employee lounge.
I used to work at Kay-Bee and Toys R Us. What your looking at is/are toys that are old stock bought from old inventory, things that have been sitting around for years. Nothing is current. Toys R Us always had current inventory and the hottest fads. This is very sad.
Having owned a specialty toy store for two decades I spotted the kiss-of-death: Endless amounts of generic Melissa and Doug stuff. M&D was once an interesting brand, but now they are just piles of cheap stuff readily available to any struggling seller.
I think that Macy’s as a company just has way too many stores! The stores vary in terms of how busy they are, and how they look. There is a large Macy’s near me, which is three floors, and is extremely busy almost all the time. It’s also very clean and organize, very updated. Then another local location is very old and really should close because you don’t hardly see another soul in the whole store.
Macy’s is doing a good job at trying to keep relevant in my opinion by focusing on their online business. Also, by prioritizing new smaller locations is probably the best move.
I think you’re right and I think that is the problem with so many stores.
Ghost store. I bet somebody could live in the mattress and bedding section for a week without anyone from managment even noticing. Maybe who ever was eating that bag of Wetzel's Pretzels is already doing this.
Exactly. They took over Famous Barr, and I believe Bergner's (someone correct me if Im wrong) Our Mall, last I knew anyway, had TWO Macy's, and a totally gone Sears on one end and a virtually empty JC Penney on the other. TWO Macy's?? Who thought THAT was a good idea??
@@blschafer4310 Two Macy’s at the same mall? that’s the craziest thing I’ve ever heard
@@JBBrickman IKR? One was a Lazarus and the other was a Marshall Field's/Kaufmann's. Then they became Macy's, with one at one side of the mall and the other at the other side. I dont think they have 2 anymore, but who knows...havent been to that mall for years.
Wiki mentions the craziness under 'history'.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Mall_at_Tuttle_Crossing
I also remember Macy's being considered a higher-end department store. Macy's over-expanded during the second half of the 1990s and early 2000s once they were purchased by Federated. Federated probably over-leveraged the company to make the purchase and then slashed budgets (including remodeling budgets) to make the ROI look better, but resulting in stores that now have a very dated look to them. They probably can't do much to reduce their footprint in existing spaces, but they really do need to continue to cut the number of stores they have and focus on customer experience to entice people back into their stores. It looks like they've already closed over 300 stores over the past few years (from 867 in 2019 to 504 as of July 2023). Hopefully, they can find the right balance to be successful.
And Macys bought Strawbridges too
I worked for Macy's just outside of Chicago from '08-'12, and the change is drastic. The first 3 years it was a good store, and the company put some money into it (new carpet, jewelry cases, and a few other things). Towards my last 6 months, the change was apparent. I worked at a top 100 store, and one of the largest non flagship stores in the Midwest so we carried Armani, AX, all of the premium denim brands (when that was a thing), and the jewelry section had items that cost over 10k. In the that final 6 months we had some training, and they said there competitors were Kohl's, Target, Lord and Taylor and a few others. That is when I knew Macy's was going to become a non mid range department store. I live in the DC area now, and several of the Macy's look EXACTLY like the one in this video. They are all run down, broken escalators, the same carpet, the same drab interior, and hardly any brand names anymore. Its pretty sad
Oak Brook?
@@bondmood Schaumburg
Ah, ok.
I worked at the Levengers at that Macy's the previous year and it was such a shame to see what had been the beloved Marshall Field's become a more mall like store. The luxury kiosks became the focus instead of maintaining the general quality of the store as a whole.
@@amyschneidhorst1384 you hit the nail on the head!
Who else remembers Macy’s “One Day!” commercials in the 2000’s? They ran endlessly! It’s sad to see what Macy’s has become
legends say that one day is still yet to come
Imagine watching regular TV now and seeing ANY commercials. 😂
White Flower One Day Sale
Yes! And the one day sale was 2 days long!
I remember even 15 years ago, going to a Macy's 3rd floor at one of the southern California malls and it felt like a studio set because nobody was around and there was a bunch of furniture with props everywhere. The lighting was also darker for some reason. I kinda felt like I wasn't supposed to be there or that I could perhaps live on the 3rd floor rent free for months without anyone noticing me.
"Dim lighting and cheap fabric; that's how you move merchandise:--Morty Seinfeld.
Was the Macy's at the South Bay Galleria? 😂
😂
There was a time when Macy's was something special when I was growing up when the only Macy's I encountered was in Sacramento. But then, through mergers and acquisitions, Macy's ended up having a huge portfolio that they just became another department store and all the uniqueness went away.
I just found your channel, but I'm hooked. It's depressing to see the state Macy's has fallen into, but your commentary also just makes it so interesting.
Reminds me of when my friend put an open can of monster on a shelf of laundry detergent at a Dollar General. Over the next 4 months it moved around on the shelf, the laundry detergent was sold and restocked, but there the open can sat until it finally disappeared.
I remember the original Macy’s in White Plains, NY in the 1950’s/60’s. A massive store, eventually spanned an entire city block. With a wonderful three story glass front entrance. It had everything - like an upscale Sears. They had a great book store with the latest best-sellers and a lot to browse otherwise. It was real cosmopolitan for the NYC suburbs. My favorite Department Store was Filenes - Macy’s ruined it when they purchased the chain and converted them all to Macy’s. I dropped a lot of money at Filenes but never again when Macy’s took over. Sad.
Macy ruined all the stores they were hellbent on taking over. Overpriced junk store.
No one can afford to shop for fun. That habit is honestly what got a lot of our parents into debt, but it still shows how the economy is vastly different now. You don't get a coupon in the mail and go looking for anything that sparks your interest. You wait until you have a need, then go online to find exactly what you need. No one wants to walk through a giant store they can't afford.
The Macy's I went to most recently was in Rancho Mirage, CA. I'm happy to report that it seemed clean and modern and there were people there. I shopped primarily in bedding and home goods and it was bright and welcoming and fully stocked. Hopefully they can figure out a way to make it. We've got to save some of our traditional shopping destinations!
Yesss I agree!
Wow, you just walked through the cosmetics dept, typically a dept store's busiest dept, and I didn't see a single salesperson. In fact, I didn't see a single salesperson in the entire video. Macy's used to be considered somewhat upscale in the early 80s, when they had some style, before they became the dept store that ate America and turned every dept store all the same. Personally, I think Macy's is a trash store. I'm surprised they're still around. I used to work at Bullock's in Los Angeles and within a few years, Macy's gobbled up every dept store (Bullock's, Robinson's, May Co, Broadway) and turned them all into a slightly updated Miller's Outpost. The merchandising and visual merchandising in this store is practically non-existent. It's like this store has given up.
The Macy's near me is in downtown Chicago and is absolutely huge, something like 8 floors. It was the old Marshall Field headquarters store and you can see the extravagant architecture, the tiffany ceiling, fountains, and general feeling of grandiosity and luxury. Unfortunately, while it's beautiful, it's just another non-descript Macy's store with rather boring merchandise. It has customers, but it's not "busy", you can easily be the only person on the escalators. The only thing I've purchased at Macy's in the last 15 years is underwear, socks, and a belt.
Department stores and malls in general don't have a unique selling proposition anymore to attract customers - except maybe air-conditioning. There are a few standout "lifestyle centers" like The Grove in Los Angeles, but I don't see a future for Macy's at all, nor for malls in general. There were way too many dept stores and malls anyways. Macy's in particular, has poisoned their brand by allowing themselves to become what we saw in your video - a shell of the shell that they used to be.
Yep, Macy gobbled up all the good department stores and ran them into the ground. Nondescript, overpriced, poor quality merchandise. Run down, understaffed stores. Nothing special.
Macy's turned Marshall Field's into a slightly fancier/more upscale Kohl's. It's a tragedy what they did to the State Street store. They turned it from a glittering gem into a dingy, dismal place. And it's been that way for many years.
I live in the Bay Area of California, take a look at the Macy’s in Sunvalley Mall of Concord, California. The third floor has no tiling at all, and the light fixtures are totally exposed. It looks like a half complete construction project, and the Toys R Us section is the size of a convenience store aisle. Its sad to see the downfall of these iconic department store brands in live action.
Worked as a merchandiser for macys for all of three weeks back in 2017. It was so terribly run I quit. I got in trouble for cleaning the display, the tables had dirt on it and I said to my boss that only an idiot would buy a $200 set of cooking pans when the display is dusty and dirty. I was told to just do my job and leave the cleaning to the janitor. So I quit lol
I went to my local Macy’s a few years ago and was so disappointed that I haven’t returned since. The women’s and teen clothing department were turned into a chaotic discount area where everything feels either extremely cheap or looks like avant-garde high end clothing that’s unwearable for normal people. Random lights are out everywhere, almost no salespeople in sight. Felt like a cheap horror film set. There’s no incentive to shop there when there’s so many clean, well stocked stores like tjmaxx or small local thrift/consignment stores that have similar items.
It was like that when I went 25 years ago to buy my friend a wedding gift.
Macy's problem is that everything is so fuckin expensive. Corporations are hoarding the wealth and then are shocked to see crappy sales numbers. Truly a surprised-pikachu face moment.
Expensive but junk quality. I don't mind paying high prices for quality.
I used to love going to Macy’s as in the1990’s through ~2015. They had a great lunch counter and a nice candy area. I could always find some decent clothes on sale. Unfortunately, they devolved into a junky store with messy racks of clothes and cheap brands. Here in Michigan, it was always hard to find an employee to take your money.
They have really. Even Somerset has gone downhill a bit, though not nearly as much as the other southeast stores. Very sad indeed. Also, I avoid macys since around 2015-2016 as well, I think this is around when they started to go downhill.
I worked in Macy's in the early 90s as a surly teen, and hiding from customers was a serious sport!
That's the part of Macy's I hate the most. The way they just have random registers throughout the store and its a total guess as to which ones are even going to be open
Yes, I live in Michigan and I used to love the Deli at the Macy’s in Woodland Mall. The store is a shell of what it was.
@@35mm21Right.
I lived near what is considered one of the last "living/nice" malls in the area. Despite growing up in the 2010s, I definitely got my fair share of active mall culture as a teen. I was bummed when I moved and learned that that experience was definitely not normal, and videos like these make me realize just how rare it was. I get it's a "changing world" and all that, but I still miss when shopping in person was more of a thing.
The macys in my hometown closed and was torn down, and the whole month before that involved steeper and steeper discounts (but still rarely over 50%). At the beginning of the closing sale it looked like a regular cheap department store, but by the end they were selling the mannequins and shelves off the walls. No people in sight aside from two haggard cashiers and someone in the closed dressing room (the stall that still had a door anyway). Security cameras dangled from fraying wires off the ceiling, mirrors were broken on the carpet and unswept, lightbulbs were burnt out, graffiti on nearly every secluded surface, and there were still racks full of clothes no one wanted. Real apocalyptic stuff.
Being a loss prevention officer at a place like this must be boring because nothing inside is even worth stealing.
The cologne and jewelry?
@@certifiedfinest5065 Which are behind locked, glass cases.
LOL I was in a Macy's a few weeks back with a friend and I mentioned out loud how even if the stuff was free I wouldn't want most of it
Stores get hit all the time. Worked at an inner city location and we had at least one theft every day, if not more. Only time it was dead was towards the end of the summer.
They're either watching the one customer intently, or there's no human there at all. Probably alerts the general mall 'cop' if alarms sound. I guess if you live in one of those cities that don't prosecute under $1k or something, it could be a field day.
They probably have one person in display and no department managers due to lack of business. That third floor feels like the end of the world. Makes me sad, I loved working retail back in the day.
It's crazy...The display managers made a lot of money back when they were busy. Probably right. No managers anymore.
The San Francisco Macys was insane during the 80s and 90s when I was a kid, and of course right before online shopping began. Christmas was especially epic, thousands of people in and out, I will never forget it, had some great shopping trips.
I was shopping for a dress to wear to a wedding last week and observed the same thing at my local mall. It looked and felt like a Ross, everything was on sale, and everything seemed like a random assortment of only the smallest and largest sizes. The next day I went to Macy's at South Coast Plaza and it looked like a high-end department store.
When the Macy’s in my city closed, they tried to use the empty store for a comic con. It was a shitshow. The one you visited seems to be heading for a similar fate.
I remember when first arriving in the US nearly 25 years ago, having to dodge through all the people around the makeup/fragrance sections at metrocenter. Seeing a store like this is just spooky.
There is still a lot of foot traffic at a few Macy’s in my area at the few remaining heavily trafficked malls that exist, but it’s definitely not what it used to be. Never seen one as desolate as the one you visited.
I was in a Macy's a few months back. This particular store long been considered one of the "nicest" Macy's around. I was dismayed to find a store filled with low quality, over priced and dated merchandise. Honestly, if you took someone from 2003 and dropped them in the store I think the only differences they would find is higher prices and less traffic. Nothing felt premium or special there. If anything I'd argue Wal-Mart sells clothes of better quality at a lesser price.
Exactly.
You've got to be kidding if you think Walmart sells better quality clothes than Macy's.
I miss the Macy’s 3rd floor. It always felt like a distant world. As kids, my brother and I would always like to go up and just hang out there. That was a long time ago. Then just a few years ago, my brother and I realized while in conversation that we’d forgotten which Macy’s in our local mall had a 3rd floor or if perhaps it was JC Penney’s. The 3rd floor was so surreal to us even as kids, that it almost felt like a fake memory. After much pointless confusion, we decided to walk over to one of the Macy’s and briefly ask an employee if that particular store ever had a 3rd floor. When we asked an employee, she initially said no and that there’d never been a third floor there. Before the conversation was over, another employee who was much older (that detail’s relevant), jumped in and after a moment of thinking, she was like, “Ooo there was a 3rd floor. A loooong time ago. Yeah, there was.” At that point, I would guess at least 15 years had passed by since the 3rd floor had been removed. Even though it had been there forever with potentially thousands of customers over the years, it took 4 of us to remember it with certainty. Weird how that works. It was definitely a moment. Anyways videos like this are cool because they document things that were present in everyone’s lives, but somehow get forgotten so quickly as though they never existed
I really enjoy your Macy's and mall videos. I worked in Macy's all through college and it was so different back then...always busy, always alive and hopping. I still like shopping in department stores, gives me good old school vibes... But as you said, this can't be good for Macy's as a business
As a Former Retail Manager;
The Zone recovery is normally taught to be done while store isn’t busy and/or before clocking-out from your shift.
Toys-R-Us zone recovery is not acceptable, being that dead and not even trying to at least put things back….
Just lack of accountability.. imo
There was a Belk department store at the mall I use to visit as a kid and young adult, the third floor had this huge high ceiling with a hanging rugs display and recliner department. It was very dark and lit with area lamps, like a thunderstorm passing by feeling, I loved how out of place it seemed from the mall, a couple old metal desks filled with what seemed like decades worth of appointment books and receipts filled the drawers and bookcase behind them in each back corner surrounded by mounds of fabric swatches. Sadly,. Well nevermind the sadly…
Where are the store employees? Throughout the video, I kept hoping to see some kind of staff walking by or working the booths when you came down the escalator. This store could have cut staff hours since not having the customers to serve. Without staff, the shelves get neglected.
Likely
I'd think dust or grime, floors would cause problems, stains over time. I guess lower paid staff or contract crews sort out, mop, sweep 🧹 after hours. 1 or 2 workers could take a 8hr shift cleaning a empty 3 floor retail space.
I was honestly hoping for a “night of the living dead” style zombie to start showing up when he panned to the right or left across the aisles…
He may be avoiding filming the staff (and customers) for legal or privacy reasons. Makes the store look extra deserted though.
Honestly I can't remember the last time I've been to a Macy's.. maybe around 2005.
For many, shopping was never fun. It was a chore to walk all over, stand in line for dressing rooms, stand in line for checking out. Quality has gone way down in stores like Macy's and Talbott's. Merchandise needs to be sold differently. For women's clothing, for example, you don't know the length of the pants, or the waist size. Clothes are not organized according to people's needs. Why are there no consistent styles for curvy shapes vs. slim shapes. You have to try everything on to find out!!! Also, for many years clothes have not been constructed with seam allowances. This means you can't alter clothes, as you could in the past. Since almost all sizing is S-M-L, this is more important than ever. Women's clothes like waistbands, can't be adjusted, like men's pants. All this applies to online shopping too. It is actually necessary to purchase 3-4 pairs of pants to discover one that fits, and the others have to be returned. Why can't I search " pants, waist "" and length"" " ? I have to scroll through pages of items and read every description to find the important information buried in a wordy paragraph--if it is even there...
The only reason I frankly ever went to Macy’s recently is because of that massive discount section for bedding because it was a good way to get decent bedding for really low prices, but even now I can’t even bring myself to do that because of how depressing it is. Macy’s needs a total overhaul because they’re being left in the dust by Bloomingdale’s, Nordstrom’s, Marshalls, etc.
Finally it’s been a long wait. All department stores seem to be on their way out.
I also really like visiting dead malls with 90s vibes. It's sad though, wish they would make a revival but I think it's more to do with the high cost of living and not online shopping. Cause the malls have really good deals and yet I never buy anything myself while I'm there. Thanks for making this!
I actually bought a new mattress during Macy's Memorial Day sale. The store wasn't empty, but it also wasn't overly crowded either, and I was able to get good service. Oddly enough, I found their bedding/sheets, etc. to be poorly displayed and lacking in options. I had to go to another store to get that stuff.
It looks like everything that was once great is dying. Unfortunately i think nothing as good is replacing it in all parts of society. Always love your vids.
Very true, sad and unfortunate.
ya you got that right... there is nothing coming to replace our once great decade the 80s and 90s. Just wait until the kids that are around now have to take care of us because we have become old. Sweet jesus this keeps me up at night in terror.
The flagship Macy's in Manhattan, which I had the pleasure of visiting last year, had like 7 floors. It was super busy, and carried brands and merchandise I had never seen before at other Macy's. Can't tell you if it had a furniture gallery though.
Yeah I heard the Manhattan one is unrecognizable and is premium, from the inventory to the staff.
There’s this Macy’s were I live in south Florida that is always super busy and has three floors similar to this Macy’s. It’s always a strange experience to see people shopping in a Macy’s.
@@TurtleDaddy-cm4qt The San Francisco store used to be like this, before the looters.
@@bodyloverz30smash 'n grab
I was at the Macy's NYC Herald Square flagship store again in April. Still the nicest Macy's store of all, swank as always, staff are numerous and very helpful, upscale,
but the prices for most of the stuff are very high. Anything designer in the main 2nd floor men's dept. is high or premium priced. Even a basic lightweight Spring
Guess bomber jacket for men was about $140 there, in about five colors. The Macy's Backstage stores on LI NY here are the places to go, you can find deals
and bargains there galore if you have time to really dig through the racks, and they're nicer stores than Marshalls or Burlington etc. I didn't buy anything at
the midtown Macy's because those designer prices are silly. All of the designer name men's stuff on the first floor off 7th Ave. entrance (leading to the watch dept.) were sky high. The Toys R Us there is not too bad, nicer than this junky Macy's he's showing. I'm sick that Toys R Us flagship stores all closed, it's inexcusable. It also sucks
that KayBEE Toys closed down years ago now. The irony is that even weird specialists such as midtown NYC's Compleat Strategist (a RPG gaming and war strategy
gaming specialist going back to the early or mid 70s) somehow still thrive, even in a super high rent district! Go figure. How they even afford the rent there, I dunno. I shopped
at Strategist a few times in the 80s.
I didn’t see anyone on that 3rd floor lol.
I don’t know why, but I felt quite mournful watching through all of this. I mean I feel a sense of nostalgia for 90s shopping because I was a very young adult at that time.
I might’ve mentioned it on your channel I think with the Toys “R” Us Macy’s thing you did a few months ago. But we had one at the galleria mall in Cambridge Massachusetts but they shattered their store front so it’s kind of a hassle if I wanted to buy something from Macy’s and have to go to the downtown store. The one in downtown Boston is still in business because it’s in a really busy place but I don’t know how well it’s doing. Lately I just have Macy’s online just shipped. My order is supposed to go in the store. But if I’m in downtown Boston, I might be inclined to shop in the store.
I’ve noticed sort of a down fall of Macy’s. I think, starting in the late 2000’s and 2010s. It didn’t have that magical atmosphere did and the holidays were always quite beautiful but during these time frames up until present, it’s kind of gloomy.
On the other hand, I think I would like to shop at a 90s style store with some of the original fittings but it would just be for nostalgia purposes and not for routine shopping. I can just do that online.
Thanks for sharing another wonderful video. The way that you captured the essence of this dying store. It’s really powerful. Just goes to show that these giant stores are just not the place for people to be
We just went to the mall so my wife could buy a bathing suit. We visited a few stores and didn't find anything she liked. So we ended up at Macy's which just has way too much overpriced junk, but we found the backstage section and found a bikini she liked a top and bottom put together. The checkout lady thought they were separate pieces because the regular side of Macy's was selling the same bikini but as separate pieces that cost more than the backstage ones that were put together and cheaper as a pair. I was pretty surprised to learn that they are getting away with over charging like that.
Our family recently visited the Macy's at Eastland Mall in Evansville, Indiana. Although my recollection is that the store had only two floors, the second floor had some of the vibe on display in this video. The Last Act section drew virtually no attention, and an associate told me that she basically was running the entire upper floor. Also, displays were very spread apart, with probably half the merchandise that used to be available. I was not sure whether that was a unique situation based on other parts of the mall--a lot of other spaces were filled with second or third generation retailers--or based on the strength (or weakness) of the company. It definitely did not seem like the Macy's of yesteryear.
I am a died in the wool NYer and back in the 60s and 70s Macy's was one of the top of the line department stores. They had exclusive merchandise and clothing and the quality was excellent. When purchasing a gift for someone, to get it from Macy's was the thing to do and the recepient was equally happy. New York had a lot of exclusive stores back then, especially along 5th Avenue: Lord & Taylor, Arnold Constable, Bonwit Teller, Bergdorf Goodmans, Abrocombrie and Finch (before they got strange), etc. and Macy's had to be top-of-the-line to compete with them. The Herald Square store had many exclusive services from two dining restaurants, gift wrapping, personal shoppers, a fresh meat and fish department, a bakery, a bridal shop, shoe repair, tailors on premises for men's suits and dress wear, formal wear, fabric shop, hair salon and the list goes on. You could spend the whole day in the store until your eyes hurt from looking.
I would say in the mid-80s, early 90s Macy's started going downhill on greased roller skates. I long had stopped shopping there because the exclusivity was long gone and the store itself is too much walking to see the same junk on displays and racks that was in another department. I think their psychology is if you do all this walking in the store to find something to buy out of frustration and being tired you buy anything to justify all the work you put in. I can't stand this store and never go there to shop. About 5 months back I went to buy some bras because the brand was on "sale" like the whole doggone store. The service was awful. I purchased $70.00 worth of merchandise on the 6th floor. I was so frustrated and annoyed (the escalators were not working and the elevators turned into turtles.) By the time I got to the 1st floor I went to the refund department and got my money back.
Most of the customers you see in Macy's nowadays are tourists. It is still a fascinating place with its dressed window, floor displays, merchandise everywhere colors, lights, smells, and salespeople smiling out of boardem The tourists don't know you can buy the same junk a few blocks away for a fraction of the cost. For example: a Pashmina shawl in Macy's is about $40.00 on the street you can get them for $5.00 a piece or 3 for $10.00 same size, colors, and packaging. In the side streets of the garment district, you can buy so much of the same mess you find in Macy's. I wouldn't buy bubble gum in that store.
If you think it is going on in Macy's Hera;d Square, 0New York, think again, you are not missing a thing. The yesteryear glory is gone and it ain't coming back. Macy's days are done and watching this store flounder, refusing to die is the saddest retail business death you ever weant to see.
That floor and decor is straight from the 90's.... that store badly needs updated, what a trip back in time!
Every time I visit one of Macy's countless locations things just seem to get more and more left behind and disorganized. Can they truly turn it around by closing more locations or will they be rendered to the same fate to store such as Sears...Only time will tell...
The thing I loved most at the mall was the piped in music. In the 80s, malls played the hell out of Steely Dan’s “Peg”., some George Benson Breezin, Al Jarreau and 10cc and Ambrosia and America too. Mall shopping was boring to me especially if I didn’t get to eat first. Feed the kids first, then shop. Yacht rock should be called Mall Rock because it’s the kind of music they used . Clothes shopping sucked but then I got to listen to “ Oz never gave nothing to the tin man, that he didn’t already have”. Malls led to my lifetime appreciation of 70s soft rock and smooth jazz. Now I’m actually interested in the architecture and layout of these places
Macy's was considered "fancy" when I was a kid. That's because at the time, they had much fewer locations and those they did have were a lot like how we percieve Nordstrom today. Macy's completely changed in 2006 when they bought out multiple regional mid-range department stores. After purchasing those stores, they didn't invest in them and just let them decay. It seriously tarnished the Macy's brand.
Reminds me of a story I read of a homeless man that hid in the department store and only came out at night. Discovered there was a small village of night people in the store
The 3rd floor, it almost seems like you could walk out of the store with something without anybody knowing.
That's actually what I hate the most about shopping at Macy's the way they just have random cash registers throughout the store might have been nice when they were fully staffed in the 90s but now its a chore to even checkout. The idea that you could just run in and pick something up in any reasonable amount of time is out the window when you have to have a scavenger hunt for a cashier who might be on the opposite end of the building from your car or bus stop...
Thanks to a series of mergers, our Macy's had two anchors in our local mall. One had men's and women's clothes, while the other had kids' clothes and home goods. We joked about how sad it was when they shut down and had to kick out the orphans in the "Macy's Children's Home."
Haha poor orphans... Same happened in our mall except they lumped the furniture in with Men's in one store and children's clothing in with Women's in another. Then both Macy's anchors closed haha
We have a mall (the one that kept it's classic carpets from the time they opened as a closed air mall, except that one wing that got flooded, theater wing that now has a renovated theater) that had a Macy's layout like that, though I think at this point they merged them together and the former men's store is now a Planet Fitness.
I've seen at least two different malls where the Dillard's store did the same thing. Unlike this Macy's, most of the Dillard's I've seen are at least doing fairly well.
i worked at one of the largest macy's in the USA, down town Chicago. i recently left because of poor management. it would be a Saturday afternoon and I would only see 5 guest in the span of 2 hours. it's only a bit busy during holidays and even then it's not much. so happy I left.
I actually worked PT at a Macy’s for a year recently in MN. The store was filthy understaffed and full of discount shoppers. After working at Dillard’s for 7 years Macy’s was such a disappointment and disgusting. We were overworked and customers left trash all over the store and in the fitting rooms. Happy I escaped. They really should close. Who goes to malls and department stores anymore? It amazes me how people still walk around those places….good riddance.
I can’t believe this even a Macys store. This store obviously doesn’t have much time left as the employees don’t even care about this stores appearance anymore. If I was the CEO of Macys and I visited this store, I would be in such deep shock and I would call this store a disgrace. How could this even be a modern department store.
It might not be the employees don't care but there just so understaffed and if you done retail you know how horrible people are about messing up sections
@animeshock2006 Yes sadly
Yet it's Macy's average store!
Modern decay
Lol let’s be real here, no retail employee is paid enough to give a shit about a store’s appearance, even if it were new. I used to work at JcPenney for $7.75 an hour in 2014. Did the bare minimum to not get fired
Looks like it's downhill all the way for this Macy's.
I remember when Macys was also considered, the “fancy/luxury” Department Store. I worked there in my early 20’s and loved working and shopping there. Oh how the mighty have fallen. So sad.
I think it all depends where the Macy's is located. We have a 2 story location in Summerlin (just outside Las Vegas) and it's always busy. We also have a 3 story one inside a mall located on The Strip and that one too is always busy.
You are absolutely correct. The Macy’s stores that I visit are staffed and busy.
That bedding section reminds me of the bedroom section at my local SEARS for years until it was closed. That floor was beyond empty... and you nailed it when you said it feels "eerie." The lighting, mattresses in every direction, but not a trace of a soul in sight.
And the sound... It's hard to describe, but you'll know what I mean if you've ever been in a section like that. If silence did have a sound, it'd sound like the neglected bedroom section of a department store.
I live in California and have seen creepy 3rd floors of both Macy's and JC Penny's. It's surreal how quiet they can be!
Also, Robinsons-May was compartively higher end - closer to a Nordstroms while modern day Macy's is a weird mix of higher end and cheaper but with cheap vibes given how neglected all their stores are. I actually first noticed it back around 2015-2016. I visited the flagship store in Chicago and there were even cracked tiles. It bore no resemblance to the gorgeous store my parents had seen a decade ago. It just makes me sad, honestly.
I worked at Macys from 1997 until 2009. It was packed at Christmas and busy at other times of the year as well. You cannot find anyone to help you there now and it seems that the store carries less of a variety of items than it used to. Black Friday there seems to be like any busy Saturday now and they have cut their hours even at Christmas.
It’s sad to think of how it used to be, I enjoyed working there!
Try the Macy's in Downtown Chicago. Went there to check out the toys r us. There were like 7 floors and no maps. Many of the escalators and elevators were out of service. The lights were dim and could not find an employee for help. Needless to say, I was lost in the backrooms for real.
On another note, the first floor perfume section was crowded
The Macys in Chicago is totally depressing. For non-Chicago people - this building used to be Fields which was the best department store in history. I kept going there after Macys took over because some part of my mind thought it was still Fields. I can’t go into that building any longer. It’s too sad to process.
I worked at both the Marshall Field's State Street store and the location on North Michigan Ave in Chicago. Both stores were beautiful and very busy for the years I worked there from 1982-2011. When the chain was bought out and changed the name to Macy's in 2006 I knew the writing was on the wall! Ever so slowly the employee benefits were widdled away, many more cheaper quality items were introduced into the store, and store services were slowly discontinued. They closed the restaurant and deli at the Water Tower Place store, closed gift wrapping department, no more tailer stop for clothing alterations, human resources was done by phone instead of in-store, specialty shops like the iconic 28 stop for designer women's clothing were discontinued, and other small items like live plants on display. I guess that old saying applys " You don't know what you have till it's gone " ! This store is now closed and the big store on State Street is still hanging in there. It is still grand with the iconic Tiffany done and old world architecture plus the beautifully wood paneled Walnut Room restaurant. Yet it has lost it's grandeur. The old saying Marshall Field supposedly said " Give The Lady What She Wants" is gone. Customer service is no different then shopping at Kohls, and the merchandise is no longer different and special. I was sad when the Macy's corporation changed the name, but now I am glad they did. Marshall Field's was special and many Chicagoins still morn the loss.
I was raised in Marshall Field’s.
@@michaelmichniak7287I used to love Marshall Field's. It was an event. Now Macy's is getting trashed just like the Loop. You get what you vote for.
Its weird seeimg that whole bed section. I recently bought a bed and it never even occured to me to go to Macy's
Trying to bring a bed from a mall back to your home seems like a big struggle that’s not worth it. Plus it’s overpriced and dusty. You’re better off getting a mattress from a place that specializes in mattresses.
@@zojirushi1 yeah, those mattress places have their own delivery people too. Mattress and platform delivered right to my room.
@@zojirushi1 Macys delivers it from a warehouse; you don't haul one home with you.
In Seattle, Macys bought out Bon Marche. When Bon Marche left, the store immediately went down hill. I loved Bon Marche and shopped there often. Macys was like a bad thrift store that I never shopped in. My online items often looked and felt used. I don’t shop there anymore.
Remembering pre-historic times in downtown New Haven, CT. There were four five and dime stores: Woolworth's, W.T. Grant, Kresge's and Newberry's. Newberry's was the low end of the four, and I hardly ever went there. There were two big local department stores: Malley's and Shartenberg's. Shartenberg's went out and a few years later Macy's came in to the small "New Haven mall." One big downtown drug store: Rexall Ligett Drugs.
Other than these: if you wanted shoes you went to a shoe store; if you wanted a shirt you went to a men's clothing store, etc. etc. All the five and dimes and the Rexall had lunch counters back then. I saw many sci fi and horror movies in the great old down town theaters, which had once been live vaudeville theaters way back before my time.
So, when the malls came in, they were exciting at first (though prices were always higher), but they left me cold compared to good old downtown. What can I say? I'm a dinosaur.
It’ll be nice to see more alive stores as well as more book/comic/record stores.
The Macy's near me closed and nothing has replaced it. My local mall (Sierra Vista Mall, Clovis, CA) seems to be doing nothing to try and get new stores or keep the ones they have. There's no food court, no restaurants in the mall, and only 1 random pretzel stand. There is a vending machine but I don't trust the expiration dates on anything in it considering how dead the mall is. The only good it's serving is a cool-off shelter for seniors to get out of the heat.
The mall owner is probably trying to figure out how to convert the whole place into housing.
On my last several trips to Macy's, I didn't buy anything. I couldn't find anyone to help so after finding the item myself, I couldn't find anyone to take my money. I just threw the items on the counter and walked out. Their products aren't great, the stores are disorganized, and customer service is non-existent. I get better service at Kohl's (which isn't great either).
Also, a big issue is that their products are the same as anywhere else. I now shop at small local shops for my nice clothing and buy my socks/underwear/generic items online or at Costco (I can't believe I buy clothes at Costco).
Macy Mart is a joke! Junk, dirty, run down, overpriced, poor quality, understaffed... waste of time!
WOW. I was just at Superstition Springs today. I should have wandered into Macy's. The whole mall in general has a sparse feel much like Fiesta Mall did at the beginning of its decline. I'm going to make a point and go back and check out Macy's next weekend. Keep documenting. Love these videos!
man, between fiesta being dead and superstition dying, it's gonna be weird to have all the places i took girls on dates to in high school just erased from history. that's the kind of stuff i think about whenever i'm watching or exploring these places left behind to decay and vanish, is "some people's most formative memories probably live in here somewhere."
The third floor of a Macy's really does have that backrooms vibe to it which is why I often go up there whenever I'm at the mall my nearest one's in. I wouldn't be surprised if more urban explorers know about the macy's backstage than actual customers. At my nearest one, the third floor has the toys R us section, bedding, kitchen appliances and for some reason a star bucks.
My local Macy's, which seems to do fairly well, has ample signage for the Backstage, so anyone can find it easily even though it's on the top floor. That's the way it should be for all stores.
Starbucks? ! 3rd flr? Def the Twilight Zone.😅
Macy's ruined themselves in my view by consolidating all of the regional brands they acquired during the merger with May Department Stores Corporation to solely operate under the Macy's brand name instead of just letting the regional chains exist doing their own thing and just letting them use the supply & distribution chains Macy's had.
I know people in Seattle who fondly remember The Bon Marché, not so much Macy's before or after the name change. Same for Chicagoans with Marshall Fields.
HUGE mistake to take away all of the hometown names and make everything Macy's. The people who used to shop at all those stores have no history or affinity with or loyalty to Macy's. Terry Lundgren really blew it. Even I realized right away this was a garantuan blunder of the first order.
While I was mad at Macy's for eliminating the Filene's store brand, I really can't imagine Filene's would be doing a whole lot better in today's shopping environment. Malls are no longer longer shopping destinations anymore, especially for younger people. We older folks may have fond memories of weekend trips to the mall but the younger generations do not. The harsh truth is that large mid-to-up scale department stores are a shopping trend of the past and will not survive. The mid-to-up-scale merchandise they used to sell no longer even exists. Wholesalers no longer make it. Everything is either super cheap or super ritzy. What places like Macy's tried to do is sell the super cheap items as if it was mid-to-upscale and that just isn't going to fly.