| Macy's |
Article Index for Macy's |
Information AboutMacy's |
Macy's is a chain of mid-range American Department Store s with its Flagship store in Herald Square , New York City , which has been billed as the "world's largest store" since completion of the Seventh Avenue addition in 1924. The company also operates two other national flagship stores, at San Francisco 's Union Square and the former Marshall Field's flagship on State Street in the Chicago Loop . Macy's Unveils Extensive Plans for State Street Flagship Store; Retailer Plans Series of Enhancements for Legendary Department Store in Chicago , Federated Department Stores, Inc., April 27, 2006. The company also has several divisional flagship stores, including in Atlanta , Miami , St. Louis , and Seattle . The company is also well-known for sponsoring the annual Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade , a Parade held on the streets of New York City annually since 1924. HISTORY Macy's was founded in 1858 by Rowland Hussey Macy . Macy had established a dry goods store in downtown Haverhill, Massachusetts in 1851. He moved to New York City and established a new store named "R.H. Macy & Company" on the corner of 14th Street and 6th Avenue, later moving to 18th Street and Broadway , on the "Ladies' Mile", the 19th century elite shopping district, where it remained for nearly forty years. ]] In 1896, R. H. 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 further uptown to Herald Square at 34th Street and Broadway. Although the store initially consisted of just one building, it expanded through new construction and merging, eventually occupying almost the entire block bounded by 7th Avenue on the west, Broadway on the east, 34th Street on the south, and 35th Street on the north. The only exception is, to this date, one small Brownstone on the corner of 34th and Broadway, which remains a separate property. Macy's rents it annually for a legendary sum and camouflages it with giant signs. This building is a remnant 19th-century building purchased in 1900 for US$ 375,000 by Robert Smith, Macy's neighbor at the old 14th Street location. The facade around the building was erected to camouflage it so that it would not detract from the Macy's store, and Macy's rented the building in later years from the heirs and their successors. The original Broadway building was built in 1901–1902 by architects De Lemos & Cordes . It is sheathed in a Palladian Facade , but has been updated in many details. Other additions to the west were added in 1924, 1928, and 1931, all designed by architect Robert D. Kohn . They are all in the Art Deco style.White, Norval & Willensky, Elliot; AIA Guide to New York City, 4th Edition; New York Chapter, American Institute of Architects; Crown Publishers. 2000. p.227. The same problem presented itself when Macy's built a store on Queens Boulevard in Elmhurst , Queens , New York. This resulted in an architecturally unique round department store on 90 percent of the lot, with a small privately owned house on the corner. 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 around New York and Long Island. Acquisitions were also made outside of the New York City region. Department stores in Toledo ( LaSalle & Koch 1924), Atlanta ( Davison-Paxon-Stokes 1929 ), Newark, New Jersey ( L. Bamberger & Co. 1929 ), San Francisco ( O'Connor Moffat & Company 1945 ), and Kansas City (John Taylor Dry Goods Co. 1947) were purchased during this time. O'Connor Moffat was renamed Macy's San Francisco in 1947, later becoming Macy's California, and John Taylor was renamed Macy's Missouri-Kansas in 1949. {Link without Title} Macy's New York began opening stores outside of its historic New York City–Long Island trade area in 1983 with a location at Aventura Mall in Aventura, Florida (a suburb of Miami ), followed by several locations in Houston , New Orleans , and Dallas . Davison's in Atlanta was renamed Macy's Atlanta in early 1985 with the consolidation of an early incarnation of Macy's Midwest (former Taylor and LaSalle's stores in Kansas City and Toledo, respectively), but late in 1985, Macy's turned around and sold the former Midwest locations. Bamberger's, which had aggressively expanded throughout New Jersey , into the Greater Philadelphia Metropolitan Area in the 1960s and 1970s as well as into Nanuet, New York(southern Rockland County), and into the Baltimore Metropolitan area in the early 1980s, was renamed Macy's New Jersey in 1986. Management buyout In 1986 Edward Finkelstein, Chairman & CEO of R.H. Macy & Co., Inc., led a leveraged buy-out of the company and subsequently engaged in a takeover battle for Federated Department Stores, Inc., in 1988 that he lost to Canada's Campeau Corp. As part its settlement with Campeau, Macy's purchased Federated's California-based, fashion-oriented Bullock's and its high-end Bullocks Wilshire and I. Magnin divisions. It followed with a reorganization of its divisions into Macy's Northeast (former Macy's New York and Macy's New Jersey), Macy's South/Bullock's (Macy's Atlanta stores plus Macy's New York's operations in Texas, Florida and Louisiana), and Macy's California, the later including a semi-autonomous I. Magnin/Bullocks Wilshire organization. The Bullocks Wilshire stores were renamed I. Magnin in 1989. Subsequently, R.H. Macy & Co., Inc., filed for bankruptcy on January 27, 1992, after which point its banks brought in a new management team, which shut several underperforming stores, jettisoned two-thirds of the luxury I. Magnin chain, and reduced Macy's to two divisions; Macy's East and Macy's West . Federated Department Stores merger 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 shut down the remainder of the I. Magnin chain, converting several to Macy's or Bullock's and selling four in Carmel , Beverly Hills , San Diego and Phoenix to Saks Fifth Avenue . Federated also merged its Abraham & Straus / Jordan Marsh division with the new "Macy's East" organization based in New York, renaming the Abraham & Straus stores in metropolitan New York with the Macy's nameplate in 1995, and then erasing the Jordan Marsh moniker in New England in early 1996. Federated followed that by leading a bid in mid-1995 bid to acquire the bankrupt Woodward & Lothrop / John Wanamaker organization in the mid-Atlantic region, a bid it lost to rival group led by long-time rival and future acquisition target May Department Stores . Instead Federated soon agreed to purchase Broadway Stores , Inc. (owner of The Broadway , Emporium and Weinstock's stores in California, Arizona, Nevada and New Mexico), from its majority shareholder, Samuel Zell , thereby gaining a leading position in Southern California and a dominant one in the Northern California marketplace. In early 1996 Federated dissolved Broadway Stores, incorporating the majority of its locations into Macy's West , rebadging them as Macy's and using the opportunity to retire the Bullock's name. Several of the redundant Broadway locations were used to establish Bloomingdale's on the West Coast , while many other were sold to Sears. In 2001 Federated dissolved its Stern's division in the New York metropolitan area, with the bulk of the stores being absorbed into Macy's East . Additionally, in July 2001 it acquired the Liberty House chain with department and specialty stores in Hawaii and Guam, consolidating it with Macy's West. In early 2003 Federated closed the majority of its historic Davison's franchise in Atlanta (operating as Macy's since 1985), rebranding its other Atlanta division Rich's with the unwieldy name, Rich's–Macy's. The downtown location, formerly the Davison's flagship store, at 180 Peachtree St. was shuttered at this time as well. The original Macy's Lenox Square and Perimeter Mall locations were extensively remodeled and opened in October 2003 as the first Bloomingdale's stores in Atlanta. The company rapidly followed suit in May 2003 with similar rebranding announcements for its other nameplates, Burdines in Florida, Goldsmith's in Memphis , Lazarus in the lower Midwest, and The Bon Marché in the Pacific Northwest. On March 6 , 2005 , the Bon-Macy's , Burdines-Macy's , Goldsmith's-Macy's , Lazarus-Macy's , and Rich's-Macy's stores were renamed as simply "Macy's", the first two as the new Macy's Northwest and Macy's Florida divisions respectively and the later three as part of the Macy's Central division. As of July 2005, Macy's had 424 stores throughout the U.S. Federated At-A-Glance , Federated Department Stores, Inc. Merger with May Department Stores still has a Kaufmann's sign in front of the store, even though it was converted to a Macy's one year ago. A Macy's sign is slightly visible behind the trees. Taken in July, 2007.]] On February 28 , 2005 , Federated agreed to terms of a deal to 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 more than 1,000 stores. On July 28 , 2005 , Federated announced, based on the success of converting its own regional brands to the Macy's name, its plans to similarly convert 330 Regional Department Stores owned by the May Company (as May Department Stores was generally referred to) to the Macy's nameplate. This included May's Famous-Barr , Filene's , Foley's , Hecht's , The Jones Store , Kaufmann's , L.S. Ayres , Meier & Frank , Robinsons-May , and Strawbridge's chains, pending approval of the merger by federal regulators. This was met with negative reaction in many of the local areas of these department stores because they were considered local institutions in those regions. Where Macy's stores were in close proximity to May Company stores, some redundant stores would be closed while others would be converted to Bloomingdale's , Federated's luxury chain. On September 20 , 2005 , Federated announced that all of its Marshall Field's stores (including the legendary State Street store in Chicago ) would become Macy's by the end of 2006, becoming the new Macy's North division. This last announcement was met with negative publicity as Marshall Field's had long been considered a Chicago institution. On January 12 , 2006 , Federated announced its plans to divest May Company's Lord & Taylor division by the end of 2006 after concluding that chain did not fit with their strategic focus for building the Macy's and Bloomingdale's national brands. On June 22 , 2006 , Macy's announced that NDRC Equity Partners, LLC would purchase Lord & Taylor for US$1.2 billion, Federated Agrees to Sell Lord & Taylor to NRDC Equity Partners; Transaction Expected to Close in Third Quarter of 2006 , Federated Department Stores, Inc., June 22, 2006. and completed the sale in October 2006. Macy's becomes a national brand store located at Eastland Mall in Columbus, Ohio. ''(Store was relocated to the former Kaufmann's building at Eastland in April 2006).'' The former Lazarus stores are now part of Macy's Midwest.]] ).]] On February 21 , 2006 , Macy's appointed a new chief marketing officer, Anne MacDonald, to oversee the transformation of Macy's into a "national department store." By September 9 , 2006 , and after renaming the former May Company locations, Macy's operated approximately 850 stores in the United States. To promote its largest and most recent expansion, Macy's used a version of the Martha And The Vandellas hit song, "Dancing in the Street" in its Advertising . Also, the company took Props from its annual Thanksgiving Day Parade to various re-labeled stores throughout the nation, in what the company marketed as its "Parade on Parade." Macy's significantly increased its use of television advertising and product placement in 2006 and 2007, using branding spots that featured the new Macy's star logo. During the February 11, 2007, episode of the popular ABC television series '' Desperate Housewives '', a Macy's location in the fictional city of Fairview was featured, a rare instance of Product Placement promoting a department store chain in a scripted series. Nearly two years earlier, one of the first national commercials for Macy's had aired during ''Desperate Housewives'', shortly after the conversion of Rich's, Lazarus, Goldsmith's, The Bon Marché and Burdines. On February 27, 2007, Federated Department Stores announced plans to change its corporate name from Federated Department Stores, Inc., to Macy's Group, Inc.1 By March 28, the company further announced plans to convert its stock ticker symbol from "FD" to "M", and revised its earlier proposed name change, instead opting to change to Macy's, Inc. 2 The change in corporate names was approved by shareholders on May 18 2007 , and took effect on June 1 2007 . The company will continue to operate stores under both the Macy's and Bloomingdale's nameplates. As part of the identity change, Macy's moved its corporate headquarters from the Federated headquarters in Cincinnati, Ohio, to the Macy's flagship store at Herald Square in New York City, bringing Macy's corporate governance back to its first and largest store. NYSE stock quote information DIVISIONS As of February 2006, Macy's stores were organized into seven divisions with store locations in 45 states, is an eighth retail division of Macy's Inc. There are also seven administrative divisions that provide corporate support services.)
CONTROVERSY In July 2003, then- New York State Attorney General Eliot Spitzer launched an investigation of the private policing system Macy's has used to deal with suspected shoplifters. The investigation was prompted by a civil rights lawsuit and an article in '' The New York Times '', which reported on many of Macy's tactics, including private jails and interrogations. In Stores, Private Handcuffs for Sticky Fingers , ''The New York Times'', June 17, 2003, reprint of [http://select.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=F6091EF6395C0C748DDDAF0894DB404482] Spitzer's investigation found many of Macy's actions, from ethnic profiling to handcuffing detainees, to be unlawful. Macy's settled the civil rights complaint for US$600,000, claiming to have put the illegal tactics to an end while maintaining the security system itself.[http://www.nytimes.com/2005/01/14/nyregion/14macys.html?ex=1263358800&en=4755e9e480a8d20a&ei=5090&partner=rssuserland Macy's Settles Complaint of Racial Profiling for US$600,000], ''The New York Times'', January 14, 2005. The Macy's East downtown Boston store (formerly the Jordan Marsh flagship) touched off a local public relations firestorm with the June 6 , 2006 , removal of two Mannequins and the Web address of the AIDS Action Committee from a window display promoting Boston's annual Gay Pride celebration. The removal was apparently in response to pressure from MassResistance, a local group opposed to Same-sex Marriage , whose members complained the mannequins were “ Homosexual ”. The removal of the mannequins was widely condemned by residents and officials, including Boston mayor Thomas Menino , who was quoted as saying: Macy's response to the debacle was to publish an apology by the Macy's East chairman, Ron Klein, in ''In Newsweekly'', a Boston-area weekly with a large gay readership. Klein's description of the incident as “an internal breakdown in communication,” further stated it was regrettable some would doubt Macy's commitment to diversity as a result. CEO admits 'Macy's mistake' , ''In Newsweekly'', June 14, 2006. The Web address was later restored—the mannequins, however never made a reappearance. In Chicago , Macy's move into the Marshall Field's building on State Street upset many residents. Hard-core fans stay loyal to brand , ''Chicago Tribune'', September 5, 2006. While some have protested, many once loyal shoppers are simply shopping elsewhere. Protesters: Give Chicagoans what they want - Field's , Skyline-Chicago.com, November 30, 2006. Macy's reported in December 2006 slowed sales in stores that once were Marshall Field's. Macy's Reports Slow Sales At Converted Marshall Field's Stores , NBC5.com, December 13, 2006. Labor Dispute Macy's is involved in a labor dispute regarding stores was peacefully suppressed by Macy's security guards. Pittsburgh union dispute A union representing former Kaufmann's employees at Pittsburgh's flagship store filed a grievance on June 9, 2007, claiming a new dress code policy violates workers' rights. The dress code is set to take effect Sept. 4, 2007, in Macy's Midwest stores. Should the policy go into effect, Macy's would have the strictest dress code policy of any area department store, including Saks Fifth Avenue.http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/07200/802832-28.stm MISCELLANEOUS FACTS AND POP CULTURE
REFERENCES EXTERNAL LINKS
|
|
|