Macy's

Macy's is the name of a chain of American department stores including one in New York City that bills itself as "the world's largest". The company is also well-known for sponsoring Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade, an annual parade in New York City. Macy's is part of Federated Department Stores.

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. Acquisitions were also made outside of the New York region. Department Stores in Toledo, Ohio (LaSalle & Koch) 1924, Atlanta, Georgia (Davison-Paxon-Stokes) 1929, Newark, New Jersey (L. Bamberger & Co.) 1929, San Francisco, California (O'Connor Moffat & Company) in 1945, and Kansas City, Missouri (John Taylor Dry Goods Co.) in 1947, were purchased during this time. O'Conner Moffat was renamed Macy's California in 1947. Macy's began opening stores outside of its historic New York City-Long Island trade area in 1983 with a location at Aventura Mall in North Miami, Florida, followed by several locations in Houston, Texas, New Orleans, Louisiana and Dallas, Texas. Davison's was renamed Macy's Atlanta in early 1985 with the consolidation of Macy's Midwest (former Taylor and LaSalle's stores in Kansas City and Toledo respectively), but late in 1985 turned around and sold the Ohio stores to Elder-Beerman of Dayton, Ohio and the Missouri and Kansas stores to Dillard's of Little Rock. Bamberger's which had aggressively expanded throughout New Jersey and into the Greater Philadelphia Mero Area in the 1970's and the Baltimore Metro area in the early 1980's was renamed Macy's New Jersey in 1986.

Related Topics:
1922 - Toledo, Ohio - Atlanta, Georgia - Newark, New Jersey - San Francisco, California - Kansas City, Missouri

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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 it lost to Canada's Campeau Corp., walking away with the purchase of Federated's California-based, fashion-oriented Bullock's/Bullocks Wilshire and I. Magnin divisions. It followed up 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 plus Macy's New York operations in Texas, Florida and Louisiana), Macy's California and I. Magnin-Bullocks Wilshire, with the Bullocks Wilshire stores renamed I. Magnin in 1989.

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Subsequently R.H. Macy & Co., Inc. filed for bankruptcy in January 1992 at which point its banks brought in a new management team, which shut several underperforming stores and jettisoned two-third's of the luxury I. Magnin chain.

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Merger with Federated Department Stores

R.H. Macy & Co. merged with Federated Department Stores on December 19, 1994. Federated promptly shutdown the remainder of the I. Magnin chain, converting several to Macy's or Bullock's and selling 4 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 the erasing the Jordan Marsh moniker in New England in early 1996.

Related Topics:
Federated Department Stores - December 19 - 1994

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Federated followed that by leading a mid-1995 bid to acquire the bulk of the Woodward & Lothrop/John Wanamaker organization in the mid-Atlantic region, a bid it pursued half-heartedly (and soon lost to a bid led by long-time rival and future acquisition target May Department Stores) as it soon agreed to purchase Broadway Stores, Inc. from its majority shareholder, Sam Zell, thereby gaining a dominant position in southern California and a strangle-hold on the northern California marketplace. It promptly subsumed The Broadway, Emporium and Weinstock's stores in California, Arizona, Nevada and New Mexico into its newly enlarged Macy's West unit (now including the Bullock's franchise), selling several redundant locations to non-competitors like Sears.

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In 2001 Federated dissolved its Stern's division in the New York metropolitan area, with the bulk of the stores being consolidated with 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.

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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, and rapidly followed suit in May 2003 with similar rebranding annoucements for its other nameplates, Burdines in Florida, Goldsmith's in Memphis, Lazarus in the lower Midwest and The Bon Marchè in the Pacific Northwest.

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On March 6, 2005, 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". Macy's has 424 stores throughout the U.S., as of July 2005http://www.fds.com/company/aag_1_2.asp.

Related Topics:
March 6 - 2005 - July

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Merger with May Department Stores

On February 28, 2005, at a time when Macy's had about 400 stores, Federated agreed to terms of a deal under which it would 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 over 1,000 stores.

Related Topics:
February 28 - 2005 - May Department Stores

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On July 28, 2005, Federated announced that, based on the success of converting its own regional brands to the Macy's name, it proposed to similarly convert 330 regional department stores owned by the May Company, named variously Famous-Barr, Filene's, Foley's, Hecht's, The Jones Store, Kaufmann's, L.S. Ayres, Meier & Frank, Robinsons-May, or Strawbridge's, pending approval of the merger by federal regulators. Where Macy's stores were in close proximity to other May company stores, some redundant stores would close while others might be converted to Bloomingdale's, another brand owned by Federated. On September 20th, 2005, Federated announced that all of its' Marshall Field's stores would become Macy's by the end of 2006, becoming the new Macy's North division. If completed as envisioned by the Fall of 2006, Macy's would have approximately 730 stores in the United States. Lord & Taylor will remain a separate brand for now, though the end of the 125-year-old Marshall Field and Company name has led to considerable speculation that these stores will be renamed or closed.

Related Topics:
July 28 - 2005 - Regional department stores - Famous-Barr - Filene's - Foley's - Hecht's - The Jones Store - Kaufmann's - L.S. Ayres - Meier & Frank - Robinsons-May - Strawbridge's - Bloomingdale's - Marshall Field's - Lord & Taylor

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