Macy's: Still A Part Of Your Life? | Dead Mall & Retail Documentary | Retail Archaeology

When I was younger, Macy’s was THE fancy department store in my hometown. If you got a Macy’s gift card for your birthday, you treated that thing like gold. My friends and I bought our prom dresses there and we thought we were hot stuff. Recently I went to the Macy’s where I currently live and it was a far cry from what I remembered it to be. Sad!

I worked at Macy's as an assistant manager for about two weeks and then they fired me because they said I wasn't doing my job. They hired me and 3 days later my manager who refused to talk to me went on vacation. When I asked for guidance he would just kind of grunt. Then the only other person in the department went on vacation the next day. He told me I was doing great and to "keep doing what I was doing." I didn't feel like I was doing good but nobody really established any goals so I took his word for it. The next week I was solo. Nobody told me what I was supposed to be doing, so for a week I did what I thought was right. Any time I asked a question nobody could give me an answer. So I continued to wing it and try to keep the ship afloat with my limited knowledge. Then my manager got back, told me I was terrible and didn't know what I was doing, and I told him that he never told me what my job description even was, and he kicked me out. In the end I think I was there just to cover for him and the other guy while they both took vacation. Macy's had no structure and they were running way too lean with poor managers that don't want to be there and are setup to fail even if they want to be. Opened my own restaurant after and I'm doing way better now, so I guess getting fired was a good thing? Can't wait for Macy's to finally go out of business.

Macy's is now competing with the bottom of retail. The stores have too much product in the aisles you can't even walk without hitting something. The clearance racks have become permanent taking up more space of cheap clothes no one wanted 3 months ago. The registers are filled with chocolate bars, who buys that with clothes? They need to tone it down, get rid of all the red sales signs that just make it all seam cheap. Clear the aisles pay the associates a living wage so they will want to come to work and help the customers. Okay end of rant. :)

I no longer know what to think of department stores. I'm 53, and grew up with them, but things have changed so much. Sorry to say, service is terrible, merchandise is shoddy, and they always seem so empty. Not sure what happened. Employees use to be hired to a department, knew the merchandise, and could ring up your purchase. The worse part is the "central" check-out - long lines, and you wait and wait, and like the post office, it seems like there are 4 registers, and 1 or 2 being used. Customer service, for the most part, has died in this country ....

Macy’s used to be a unique store back in the 80’s and early 90’s. Nowadays it’s no different than a JC Penney’s or Kohl’s

We all know Macy's carries a lot a good brands that people like, but I think one major thing effecting Macy's stores in a negative way is that a lot of other stores like Ross and Marshalls carry similar merchandise at a huge discounted price.

In the 80s I remember going to a department store that sold records, personal computers (IBM PS2 IIRC), and fabric for sewing. Department stores can come back, but they have to do things better than Amazon. Amazon is today, but the secret is finding out what is next.

I worked at Macy’s for over 2 years, and during the holidays there’s a special holiday program called Thanks for Sharing. You can see signs talking about it in this video. Anyways, it costs $25 for Macy’s cardholders to enroll and then they get rewards for the rest of the year. My store pushed for us to enroll customers in this program as if our lives depended on it. They told us to take $25 off the customer’s purchase to basically make it a free enrollment, even if they were only spending like $30. With a sales pitch that easy, I was a natural at enrolling people. I enrolled about 600 people in 2 Christmas seasons. But then they decided to fire me for it out of nowhere despite me doing what they told me to do. No warning or anything. They fired some of my coworkers for this too. They woulda probably fired us for not getting enough enrollments either. I’ll never shop there again.

In the early 80s macys used to sell electronics... My parents would drop me off there for a bit so i could listen to music on the home stereos while they shopped.... Sony,JVC, sansui, Sherwood and Fisher... Sanyo too IIRC... Pioneer and akai too

I'm born and raised in Chicago and have never once set foot in a Macy's since they bought out and closed our beloved Marshall Field's department stores. There was once a huge boycott against them here for doing that. I totally believe Macy's shunned a lot of customers from doing buyouts of regional department stores and slapping their name on the building.

Macy's is apart of my life because I work there. The only retailer that decided to give me a break and hire me. My Macy's was a Broadway before Macy's bought them out in the 90's. It's usually busy on Saturday afternoons, especially at the women's shoe department, so it was strange seeing it empty Macy's. One thing I don't like is how much stock we get flooded before the holidays. We have shelfs where we put shoe boxes in and there's no space, so we have to make space, but my department is struggling for hours so we barely have time to add the shoes to inventory, put the shoes on to the wall neatly (which is standard) and get the displays out while the store is open.

Macy's really screwed up rebranding all of those respected department stores like Marshall Fields and the Bon Marche.

Somehow it is. I go to my nearest one to buy jeans, but their service is awful. I waited 15 minutes for somebody to help me get the size shoe I need, nobody came, so I ended up leaving. I think I will be shopping at other stores from now on.

Another great Retail Archaeology video. I stop shopping at Macy's because of over pricing. If you are in any story and you see an item you want get your phone out and google it. Most likely you will find it cheaper somewhere else. If you are in a mall it just might be a store away. It has happen with me and saved me over 15.00 on an item I was looking for.

The writing is on the wall for old-school department stores, and I'm actually a bit sad to see them go. I still like buying clothes in physical stores--easier to try on a bunch of things and put back what you don't like/doesn't fit than having to return stuff online--and it's nice to be able to get a range of decent quality stuff in one place. The alternative is needing to go to a bunch of smaller stores that focus on one type or style of clothes, or your Old Navy/Target/Walmart that generally have lower quality. Kohl's has a similar range of products as a department store, although their prices seem to be going up.

Yes, my day is happy, a new retail Archaeology has been posted.

Macy's got too aggressive in their 2006 expansion, in which they gobbled up local department stores like crazy.  People had built up loyalty and expected certain quality from stores like Marshall Field's, Filene's, etc.  Macy's stomped on all those traditions, and they have been rewarded with their current predicament as a result.

macy's tries to be a high-class department store, but it's just tacky and full of old people...

Macy's has never been a part of my life. Since they had come to Chicago and hijacked Marshall Fields & Company (granted that company was on a downward slide as well), renamed all the stores and pretty much threw away the memories, I refused to shop or give them a single dime of my money. But I know they've done that to multiple local companies. It's all in the name of Brand Recognition. I recognize the brand as junk and spend my money elsewhere. It's terrible the employees have to bear the brunt of the executive mismanagement.