The Decline of Macy's...What Happened?

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Macy's is one of the country's oldest, most iconic retailers. This video examines their history while highlighting some of their most dramatic rises and falls.

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Company Declines:
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Just a few days ago, I was trying to buy shirts at a Macy's. The sole cashier had a breakdown in front of a full line and stormed off, and nobody else was in the area to take over the register. It felt like I was watching a going-out-of-business speed run.

BradTheProducer
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I worked at Macy's during the Holiday season. This day I was the only cashier available and the line was long. All of a sudden the eldery woman next line in begins yelling at me saying it's my fault the line is long and I need to hurry. I apologized and explained we are short staffed and I will be with them shortly. That made her more angry and she let me have it. I just stood there feeling all sorts of emotions and I started crying. The elderly lady would not stop, even her husband told her to stop it. When the other customers saw me crying they stood up for me and told the lady she was wrong. One customer even gave me a hug said I was doing good and don't let her get to me. I was so happy those customers stood up for me. Not the first time eldery went off on me while at Macy's. That experience definitely changed my view of things. I know all are not that way but I was so shocked how I got treated. Now I know holiday shopping brings out the worst in some people.

SunShine-vokj
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The decline of Macy's is emblematic of challenges that other mid-market retailers have faced: too expensive to compete with the discount retailers, and not nice enough to compete with the luxury ones. When my wife and I shop for clothes, we either go to Nordstrom because we want something nice or to Costco or TJ Maxx for the low-price treasure hunt. There's never really any reason for us to go to Macy's.

Default
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Working there was pretty miserable at times. I hated shilling the credit card. It feels immoral pressuring people into debt. All the fixtures in the fitting rooms are breaking down, too. It’s sad. I remember it being special when I was a kid and now it’s mostly just overpriced things that don’t appeal.

binary_terror
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I’ve been in both Asset Protection and Management at Macys. I think their biggest downfalls were their lack of adapting to the times, unwillingness to develop and fairly pay their employees, inability to capture the younger demographic, and terrible upkeep in their stores. Their policies are outdated, their POS systems are outdated, the way upper management interacts with the staff is outdated. I saw them firsthand pushing out employees who had worked there for decades and screwing them out of their pensions. I’ve never felt more under appreciated at a company than I did Macys. Glad I left because I doubt they will make it much longer.

JoshuaAndrewMusic
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I shop Macy's for decades. The quality of the merchandise are declining so badly. Every single time I am disappointed, nothing good to buy except cosmetics. Nobody wants to buy junk. It's very sad. Stay awake Macy's !We love you!

dianamirazic
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My mom is 94 and can’t physically go to Macys anymore so I shop online for her. I try to explain that Macy’s has gone downhill but she doesn’t get it. Their cosmetics department is still ok, but most of their clothing is fast-fashion embellished with logos, and they advertise a new “sale” daily. Our Macy’s is run-down and the lingerie department looks like a picked-over garage sale. I miss the old days when shopping was an event that brought joy.

julesdm
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My mother-in-law worked at Macy’s for 20 years and she saw the decline in person. Macy’s went from actually caring a bit about their employees to working them like mules!!!! My MIL was always their top sellers and had a knack of being able to get lots of people to sign up for credit cards. She was always in their Star Academy and they would treat her to an awards ceremony and stay at Disneyland. A few years go by and the awards ceremony is held in the break room. Then Macy’s introduced the points system for employees - you earned points by working and lost them by calling out sick, not meeting your goals, etc. it was extremely demoralizing.

SheilaArkee
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It's so much easier to shop online. For instance, me & my mom were in Macy's a few months back. She was looking at a dress for my niece and the dress in the store was $120 but on Macy's website it was 50% off which made it $60 and the store would not honor the price on their website. That blew my mind and I even told the salesperson that's why nobody is in this store.

nathanbradleyf
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When I was a kid in the 80s, if one shopped at Macy’s you were considered rich. My mother shopped there weekly but rarely bought there because we weren’t rich. 😂 Still, it was a very nice store with top quality. Now when I cut through Macy’s from the parking lot to get to the mall, I’m struck how much I feel like I’m at Sears more than Macy’s and we all know what happened to Sears.

svenllr
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My wife worked at Macy's when she was a teenager. She was there when the brand started to fade and saw the slow decay of Macy's. When she started, there was an emphasis toward attentive customer and creating a personal shopping experience. As time went on, we saw staff being cut so customers had a hard time finding assistance. Starting pay was lowered and the people that joined were less motivated to go the extra mile to make people happy. A huge emphasis was put on signing people up for a Macy's credit card which further dampened customer satisfaction. Folks that did want a shop in person went to stores like Saks and Nordstroms. Other gravitated toward online shopping for the convenience and cost savings.

CaffeineGeek
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The Macys on 34th street is still impressive. I went there earlier this year to get a suit for my son to wear to my boss's funeral. The older gentleman helping us was absolutely impressive.

leesteal
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Physical retail has three advantages: 1) someone who knows the inventory and can be an advisor 2) getting your item right away 3) the ability to touch and feel the item before buying. Retail, particularly Macy's, has forgotten this. They rarely have anything in stock and good luck finding anyone to help you.

katasticone
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i worked at macy's for 5 miserable years 2015-2020 all throughout college. i started off as a on call and gradually "Moved up" to the women's shoe dept support position. i sacrificed holidays, time with family, and overnights and my health for the company, and for nothing. shortcuts were taken every step of the way, packing cologne loose in boxes with no packing material, storing stuff in fire halls, using severely outdated and dangerous equipment, throwing paint into dumpsters, are just a few that i remember. one day in early 2020 before COVID, my manager pulled me into a back office saying she needed to talk to me. I thought i was getting a bonus or a pay raise like i had the previous several years. She dropped a bombshell that i was getting laid off due to "company restructuring". She had the audacity to say that i could keep my old job if i lose all my benefits such as my 401k, PTO and sick leave and go back to being on call. took a insulting severance and left. on my last day my weasel of a store manager saw me walking out after i clocked out and ducked behind a rack of clothes to avoid confrontation. haven't been back since.

spencer
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I remember when Macys was the place to shop for the best items and awesome customer service..Recently I was in a Metro Atlanta store and it was an experience I will never repeat. After finding the items in the mass of disarray looking like a thrift store it took over 45 minutes to find an open register with a cashier..The line was long and the cashier was frustrated because she was missing her lunch time, there wasn't anyone available to replace her spot.
..🤔🙄 😮

debrahill
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Working at Macy’s was one of the most traumatic experiences of my life. I started there when I was 16 and for a few years it was actually pretty nice until my manager got promoted and the lady who replaced her hated my guts. I’m a man and I worked in the cosmetics department and she couldn’t stand that but she couldn’t fire me bc I was a top performer in my district so she would do anything in my power to make my life hell. The month leading up to when I quit I had lost my house and both my dogs in a fire and when I called to tell them what had happened all they had to say in response was to ask if I was still planning on coming in for my shift that day and if I didn’t I would be pointed in the system. I would report her to HR monthly and they would always return my emails saying that it was a he said she said situation even though I had several other coworker saying they witnessed the abuse. The day I put in my two weeks a wedding party came in to get makeovers and I had the privilege of doing the brides makeup and when I finished my manager came up behind me looked the bride in the face and yelled “that looks awful” it was so embarrassing I couldn’t help but start to cry thankfully the bride was so sweet she reassured me that she loved the makeup and that I had done an amazing job and even tried to make a complaint against her but once again Macy’s said that I didn’t have enough evidence. I eventually started working at Sunglass hut and somehow got roped into being a manager at a leased Sunglass hut in the same Macy’s I’d previously worked in but that was just as bad. They would treat me and my employees like we were cockroaches and I would lose employees left and right because of how incredibly rude they were to us. I used to love shopping at Macy’s even after I originally left but after my experience as a third party vendor in their store I realise they’re just a horrible company and it’s not hard to see why they’re failing.

redwolfstone
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I worked at Macy's when I was going to college. Management placed a huge emphasis on credit card signups and approaching every single customer that walked through our department. Even though I had great metrics, high customer satisfaction scores, and low return rates, I got sent to that back office multiple times just because of the credit card signups. I think for the consumer it stopped being a pleasurable experience when they turned the stores into a den of sales sharks. The writing has been on the wall for quite some time and management was always slow to adapt to the times so I'm not surprised that Macy's is declining. Right now, people shop there mainly due to the brand name which I think is why they rebranded those other stores to Macy's.

serenadesilhout
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A huge reason I stopped shopping at Macys (after many years of being a regular customer) is the coupon policy change. They send you lots of coupons, but they are never usable for so many different reasons, that it was infuriating. I know from experience that when a store drastically reduces it’s air conditioning, it’s in big trouble. Too difficult to try on clothes when you’re overheated.

carmenpalenske
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Never expected to hear about Macy’s ever again. My aunt used to work at one location before either being let go or quitting (not sure which). She said her time working there was pretty miserable but I doubt that speaks for everyone.

Not surprised I haven’t heard about it in years especially due to the decline.

dullsunrise
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I can’t speak for others, but I remember when going to a department store — especially Macy’s — was a special experience; but that was back when department stores were run by merchandisers. Now, they’re run by financial types (aka “bean-counters”) who know nothing about how to attract and please customers. Now, you go into a Macy’s and all you see are relatively inexpensive clothes that all look alike, and are sold for less at Walmart or Costco. It used to be a department store had real departments — clothing, sure, but also toys, electronics, jewelry, even tools, specialty foods, some type of restaurant or food service and more. Shopping was an experience, and served by an adequate number of trained and properly-compensated staff; not untrained, underpaid and abused people.

Macy’s 34th Street flagship store comes closest to what a department store used to be, and succeeds because it still provides a somewhat unique experience with the breadth of merchandise, attractively displayed, ancillary services and adequate staffing that it offers. Until department store executives accept that they can’t compete with on-line retailers, budget and big box stores on price and convenience they’ll continue to die a slow death.

Alternatively, they’ll figure out that shopping-as-experience, with a limited number of larger stores, offering a variety of merchandise, attractively displayed, and served by an adequate number of trained and properly-compensated sales staff is the only way for department stores to survive in this hyper-efficiency economy — in short, department stores can survive only if they realize what they’re really in (or should be) is a quasi-entertainment business, with retail merchandise as its focus.

Cinclow