Macy’s 2020

Predicting the demise of Sears & Kmart since 2017!
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Re: Macy’s 2020

Post by veteran+ »

Very surprised by the Macy's in San Fran.

I've shopped there before (2years ago) and was impressed with the selection, quality and service. That being purportedly a flagship store, I expected as much.

I especially enjoyed finding plenty of pants (low rise and others) in my waist size (29) and lots of slim fit tapered clothes.
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Re: Macy’s 2020

Post by Super S »

babs wrote: February 5th, 2020, 10:24 pm
storewanderer wrote: February 5th, 2020, 9:49 pm Macy's products seem a little lost. It seems like even on brand name items they are getting items "specific for Macy's" and these brand name items seem of a lower quality than what I would expect from the brands in question.

I've been in the market for a new coat. I am pretty specific what I want. Macy's selection is really really good and on first glance I get what I want. These are those $250-$395 costs... always 50-70% off. Probably still overpriced even after the discount.

I am noticing Macy's coats even in brand names like CK or DKNY are cheap blends of many materials and are not performing well at all in the cold. Pockets (even in different brands) are interesting as the side-facing pockets on the chest both have no depth and anything you put into them falls right out (what is this? previous coats aren't like this... which were from a variety of sources Sears, Dillards, etc.)... but there is an up facing pocket with a flap you can use...

Needless to say despite having high hopes initially I keep being disappointed with my purchases.

I may just wait for Dillard's next year (they hardly have any coats left) and forget Macy's low quality and high prices.
Or go to Costco. During the season they had a ton of different coats, many of which could also be found at Macy's, at prices half or less. For Macy's to survive, they can't sell the same stuff the warehouse clubs stock. There also needs to be some fun put back in the store. I remember as a kid going to Meier and Frank, playing video games, trying samples in the home department. Nordstrom has some good ideas such as having restaurants or bars in their stores. Macy's can survive just by being a boring, over inventoried clothing store.
The problem these days is that, even with the expensive brand names Macy's sells, the apparel products pretty much are coming from the same places overseas and the only real difference is that some of them get a fancy name added. The quality is no different than products you can find elsewhere. Many people realized this long ago and are not willing to pay a premium for a name. It doesn't help that not only Costco, but even stores like Target and Walmart have some of the same items for much less money.

Another thing I mentioned before is that Macy's seems to stock a very narrow size range even in the huge 100,000+ square foot stores. Good luck trying to find men's big & tall sizes. I would guess that women's clothing is in a similar boat here. It is sad that stores like Walmart have a much better size selection.

Macy's and other department stores position themselves as upscale stores, but many of the products aren't all that upscale these days, and they really need to either improve their offerings or lower their prices. Many people have no real reason to make regular trips to their stores when they can get better prices elsewhere on nearly everything they stock.
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Re: Macy’s 2020

Post by storewanderer »

veteran+ wrote: February 6th, 2020, 7:38 am Very surprised by the Macy's in San Fran.

I've shopped there before (2years ago) and was impressed with the selection, quality and service. That being purportedly a flagship store, I expected as much.

I especially enjoyed finding plenty of pants (low rise and others) in my waist size (29) and lots of slim fit tapered clothes.
Was that before or after they combined both the Men's and Women's into the same building?

I thought the Men's building at that Macy's in Union Square was the best department store I've ever seen. Lots of items, good atmosphere (really liked the different vibe different floors and different areas within the same floor had), departments actually staffed well with helpful employees, massive brand selection. It was many bars above any other downtown Macy's I had visited (Chicago, Portland, Seattle, Miami). I think it was the inspiration for the JCP "brand shop" concept too.

And my observation was that store sold a lot of men's clothing too. But that didn't matter to Macy's. They sold the real state and moved the men's in with the main women's store and it is not even close to the same.
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Re: Macy’s 2020

Post by veteran+ »

storewanderer wrote: February 6th, 2020, 3:49 pm
veteran+ wrote: February 6th, 2020, 7:38 am Very surprised by the Macy's in San Fran.

I've shopped there before (2years ago) and was impressed with the selection, quality and service. That being purportedly a flagship store, I expected as much.

I especially enjoyed finding plenty of pants (low rise and others) in my waist size (29) and lots of slim fit tapered clothes.
Was that before or after they combined both the Men's and Women's into the same building?

I thought the Men's building at that Macy's in Union Square was the best department store I've ever seen. Lots of items, good atmosphere (really liked the different vibe different floors and different areas within the same floor had), departments actually staffed well with helpful employees, massive brand selection. It was many bars above any other downtown Macy's I had visited (Chicago, Portland, Seattle, Miami). I think it was the inspiration for the JCP "brand shop" concept too.

And my observation was that store sold a lot of men's clothing too. But that didn't matter to Macy's. They sold the real state and moved the men's in with the main women's store and it is not even close to the same.
It was before for sure.
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Re: Macy’s 2020

Post by veteran+ »

"The problem these days is that, even with the expensive brand names Macy's sells, the apparel products pretty much are coming from the same places overseas and the only real difference is that some of them get a fancy name added. The quality is no different than products you can find elsewhere. Many people realized this long ago and are not willing to pay a premium for a name. It doesn't help that not only Costco, but even stores like Target and Walmart have some of the same items for much less money."

I have to disagree, though I do agree with possibly a trend in that direction (retailers trying to appeal to lower income folks possibly?).

The clothes may come from the same area but they are not the same quality of clothes. Has the quality of Macy's clothes declined? I suspect, YES! But to equivocate with Walmart, Costco and even Target..............hmmmm.....I can't concur .

IMO ;)
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Re: Macy’s 2020

Post by Super S »

veteran+ wrote: February 7th, 2020, 7:36 am "The problem these days is that, even with the expensive brand names Macy's sells, the apparel products pretty much are coming from the same places overseas and the only real difference is that some of them get a fancy name added. The quality is no different than products you can find elsewhere. Many people realized this long ago and are not willing to pay a premium for a name. It doesn't help that not only Costco, but even stores like Target and Walmart have some of the same items for much less money."

I have to disagree, though I do agree with possibly a trend in that direction (retailers trying to appeal to lower income folks possibly?).

The clothes may come from the same area but they are not the same quality of clothes. Has the quality of Macy's clothes declined? I suspect, YES! But to equivocate with Walmart, Costco and even Target..............hmmmm.....I can't concur .

IMO ;)
The last time I looked at clothing at Macy's, which was several years ago, I was looking for shirts. Several of them already had unraveling thread and one already had buttons missing. I did not try any on as, like I previously mentioned, they did not have any big & tall sizes (which I did not know on that visit) It shocked me that most of these shirts were in the $50-$60 range. Especially when the quality appeared to be one-time-use quality. And there was no sales help to be found. I ended up purchasing shirts at Walmart of all places which were not only well-made and sized properly, but were not even $30.

There was absolutely no reason to justify Macy's high prices on that visit, and I think people have had similar experiences in other areas of their stores.
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Re: Macy’s 2020

Post by mbz321 »

veteran+ wrote: February 7th, 2020, 7:36 am
The clothes may come from the same area but they are not the same quality of clothes. Has the quality of Macy's clothes declined? I suspect, YES! But to equivocate with Walmart, Costco and even Target..............hmmmm.....I can't concur .

IMO ;)
There might be a slight quality difference when it comes to the brand name clothing Macy's sells, but as far as the house brand stuff, it seems to me the same as anywhere else, with a much higher price tag. And Costco has been killing it when it comes to clothing....I work at one and I would say at least 40% of transactions I see in any given day have at least one article of clothing in the order. Some stuff you can tell is made just for Costco, but the quality is still there.

That being said, Macy's overall is a dead man walking. Younger customers don't have a reason to shop in an ancient department store anymore, nor are the incomes there to support Macy's ridiculous pricing.
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Re: Macy’s 2020

Post by babs »

mbz321 wrote: February 8th, 2020, 9:10 am
veteran+ wrote: February 7th, 2020, 7:36 am
The clothes may come from the same area but they are not the same quality of clothes. Has the quality of Macy's clothes declined? I suspect, YES! But to equivocate with Walmart, Costco and even Target..............hmmmm.....I can't concur .

IMO ;)
There might be a slight quality difference when it comes to the brand name clothing Macy's sells, but as far as the house brand stuff, it seems to me the same as anywhere else, with a much higher price tag. And Costco has been killing it when it comes to clothing....I work at one and I would say at least 40% of transactions I see in any given day have at least one article of clothing in the order. Some stuff you can tell is made just for Costco, but the quality is still there.

That being said, Macy's overall is a dead man walking. Younger customers don't have a reason to shop in an ancient department store anymore, nor are the incomes there to support Macy's ridiculous pricing.
Macy's stocks some of the same clothes Costco has at double the price including 32 Degrees, Levi's, Pendleton, and many others. Macy's thinks their customers are stupid.
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Re: Macy’s 2020

Post by veteran+ »

In my experience Macy's is not always "Macy's".

Macy's at the beverly Center in L.A. always seems awesome in quality and selection (not cheap but not Neiman Marcus).

Macy's in Palms Springs area awful on all counts.

Macy's San Diego limited on all counts but not awful (pretty awesome personal shopper stylist).

Macy's Dadeland in Miami rocks but not cheap.

Macy's flagship in San Fran was amazing!

I just know that I walk into some Macy's and can't believe it's Macy's (feels like and expensive JCP).

I believe they should perfect who they really are and reduce their footprint dramatically and transform back to a more specialized brand (perhaps it's too late for that after such a time of brand dilution and diminishing).
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Re: Macy’s 2020

Post by architect »

architect wrote: February 5th, 2020, 9:45 pm An interesting tidbit here: https://www.forbes.com/sites/laurendebt ... b8d0394891

Around 2/3 of the way through this article, it is stated that Dallas will be losing three stores at underperforming malls, while gaining three Backstage outlets and two Market stores, technically resulting in an increase in unit count for the region.

Side note, my guess is that two of the closures are Irving Mall and Music City Mall as previously mentioned, with the third either being Fairview Town Center, Firewheel, Shops at Willow Bend, Golden Triangle, or Hulen Mall.
Update from Macy's investor presentation as shown here: https://content-az.equisolve.net/_dee11a220f064b9f84604 ... 282%29.pdf

The closing DFW locations are Irving Mall, Music City Mall (formerly Vista Ridge), and Golden Triangle. The first two are not surprising in the least, the third slightly more only due to the fact that the Denton area is growing extremely quickly and income levels are rising. However, Golden Triangle Mall has seemingly been up and down for years, and most local residents simply travel down to Dallas for the bulk of their shopping.
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