urbanSTL

You don't know that ^



Maybe there all not there at the same time.

audioguy09 wrote:That's exciting, but my problem is, where are all these people during the rest of the year? Not shopping at downtown Macy's. Not eating at downtown restaurants. Not living downtown. Not supporting downtown businesses during the rest of the year.

Events like this show that people want to have reasons to come downtown. Maybe Macy's should hold more special events.

DeBaliviere wrote:Events like this show that people want to have reasons to come downtown. Maybe Macy's should hold more special events.

I've been wondering about this ever since Macy's brought back Breakfast with Santa and other holiday-related events four years ago (after they acquired May Company in 2005, but before they retired the Famous-Barr name in 2006). They make a strong effort during the holidays, and they also did so for the All-Star Game earlier this year and the Final Four in 2005. But the rest of the time, there's not much of an effort made to attract suburban shoppers. And meanwhile, celebrities and designers make their guest appearances at suburban stores, typically the West County Center and Saint Louis Galleria locations. Why not downtown?



I also wonder what will become of Breakfast with Santa after this year, as Macy's plans to downsize the store to three floors in early 2010. Papa Fabarre's is too small and not configurated to hold such an event, and I can't see them creating a space within the remaining floors to accommodate events like this either. I still don't know how they're going to address the fourth floor skybridge and its relation to a three-story store either. So I look forward to this year's holiday festivities, but I wonder what changes Macy's will make for the 2010 holiday shopping season.



BTW, we went to see the lights Friday night and had a great time. We got there a bit late, so we simply drove around Kiener Plaza to see the lights and the fireworks that followed. The only trouble was, Pine and Seventh streets were blocked, so I could not enter the Macy's garage after the festivities at Kiener Plaza ended.



I wasn't surprised by the street closure, as I knew there was a procession toward Macy's. However, the streets were still blocked more than 20 minutes after the Kiener event concluded. I got tired of driving around in circles, and I saw no police in the area, so I simply parked my car parallel to the barricades, moved a couple of sawhorses blocking one lane on Pine Street, and then I entered the Macy's garage with no trouble at all. People behind me followed my lead- I even had a lady thank me as I was looking at the display windows with my son outside of the store.



Great event, but the next time, they might want to get rid of those barricades a bit sooner.

ThreeOneFour wrote:I also wonder what will become of Breakfast with Santa after this year, as Macy's plans to downsize the store to three floors in early 2010. Papa Fabarre's is too small and not configurated to hold such an event, and I can't see them creating a space within the remaining floors to accommodate events like this either. I still don't know how they're going to address the fourth floor skybridge and its relation to a three-story store either. So I look forward to this year's holiday festivities, but I wonder what changes Macy's will make for the 2010 holiday shopping season.

That's a good question. I wonder if the St. Louis Room will be retained in some fashion, maybe as a space for event rentals, operated independently of Macy's.

Bev Shea is the General Manager of the Downtown Macy's and is very receptive to customers and ideas.

The Downtown MAcy's had cooking shows twice a month since Culinaria opened - they did them in conjunction with Culinaria and advertised it at both stores and online under "events".... not sure where else though.



They have also had fashion shows in conjunction with Fashion Week in STL. So I know they have tried doing some events throughout the year at the store.



Any ideas? Post em and also recommend them to Bev at the store.



The store does look jazzy for the holiday season. The windows are nice too - I am glad Bev got almost all the windows decorated now... even if some are a little smaller windows... just glad to see. I am sure the new renovations will add more visual pleasing to the store after January.

From what I understand is that Macy's will open the store more to the streetside to create more of a street level eye candy - when the store went inside to the dreaded STL Centre - they lost a lot of the lack luster store front appearance.

JMedwick wrote:Wouldn't be unreasonable to figure a 4 story layout with the store on floors 1-3 and offices/ event space on the 4th floor.

Macy's has been pretty ambiguous about the details of the renovation, but this makes the most sense.

After school yesterday, my 9 y/o and I went for a downtown walk. Parked over by Mercury at 11th and Spruce, stopped by the statues outside of Busch then headed over to the Old Courthouse. After that we decided to check out Macy's and their Christmas display. No Christmas display. Oh well, we picked up some clothes for her at a greatly discounted price then headed over to The Dubliner for dinner before walking back to the car.



It's hard to understand how Macy's stays open with as few customers as I saw in that place this time of year.

The other day I thought I would go check out the restaurant scene in Macys for lunch. The restaurant on the third floor had the most appallingly strong odor of uncleaned grease-trap I have ever smelled; I did not even sit down. The restaurant on the 6th floor looked like a cafeteria at a nursing home, minus the windows. Depressing. I did not even sit down.

Look folks, you can't just walk into Macys downtown on a Friday evening, Saturday and Sunday and expect to see droves of people - Downtown St. Louis is still getting a weekend presence and weekdays are the real "shopping" times for the work force downtown. Lunchtime and early mornings seem to be the "crowd" times at store.

Now as for the restaurants, yes, they ARE old - very - infact teh 3rd floor Papa's is an institution because of the decor in a lot of ways - not to mention a consistent menu which includes serving up French Onion Soup (Famous Barrs recipe) the only place in town to still get it.

The St. Louis Room is a cafeteria and always has been - the decor is so 1970-80's but it is CLEAN and friendly. The food is very good at both of the restaurants. What did you expect in a department store restuarant. have you ever been in any department store restaurant in a downtown store anywhere? This is not to mention Saks and Nieman's uppity overpriced snotty ass cafes.



Onto the decorations... Did you walk the windows - which in my opionion - are the best in years. The train window - a standard. The animated windows on the west side are nice - the decor and clothing windows (maybe not for kids so much) but nice too. The 3rd floor Childrens area has Santa's North Pole. It isn't like the northpoles we use to see in 1970's or 80's around the country - but it isn't bad. The trim a tree section on the 3rd floor is also pretty nice. The decorations throughout the store look nice too. - So I am not sure what you were expecting. In fact, I think Macy's downtown Santa area is much nicer than most of the malls (except Galleria) ... or it's about what they do nowadays.



My 2 cents.

I'm not trying to pick on Macy's. I guess we missed the train display since we entered along Olive. The staff was very helpful but I just couldn't help but wonder how they could survive with as few customers as I saw yesterday afternoon. Also, was looking to buy some shoes for my daughter but no children's shoes available.

Matguy is right about the peaks and valleys in business at the downtown Macy's. It doesn't have much traffic on weekends or in the evening unless there's a convention in town, although there were some times during the summer when it was busier (Cardinals gamedays, Live on the Levee evenings, etc., when there are more locals downtown. I also agree about the restaurants. Yes, they are well-worn, particularly the 1970s/1980s decor of the Saint Louis Room, but the food is very good. The French Onion Soup is a classic. Actually, I will be in the Saint Louis Room tomorrow morning with my family for Breakfast with Santa, something that has become an annual tradition for our household!



The holiday window displays are a mixed bag. On one hand, Macy's has started putting mannequins and merchandise in most of the display windows. This is probably the first time in 20-25 years that most of the windows have some sort of display. I was disappointed that less of them were used for holiday decorations, though. Last year all of the windows on Olive Street had displays, some of which were animated. Now there are only a couple of windows on Seventh Street with trees, ornaments, and other decorations.



Like Luke, however, the lack of a children's shoe department is a major oversight, and the boys' clothing selection pales in comparison to the girls' clothing as well. It's important to note, however, that Macy's will completely renovate the store beginning in early 2010. At that time the merchandise area will be reduced from seven to three levels. Hopefully Macy's will use that as an opportunity to add and upgrade merchandise. And while they've had some special events downtown outside of the holidays, they really ought to consider offering validated parking more often to attract people to the store when it's not the holiday season.



Macy's deserves credit for the things it gets right with the downtown store, but hopefully some constructive criticism will lead to some substantial improvements to the shopping experience that will keep it viable for years to come.

^for the record I've never been upset at seeing a clown leave the premises.

matguy70 wrote:
Now as for the restaurants, yes, they ARE old - very - infact teh 3rd floor Papa's is an institution because of the decor in a lot of ways - not to mention a consistent menu which includes serving up French Onion Soup (Famous Barrs recipe) the only place in town to still get it.

The St. Louis Room is a cafeteria and always has been - the decor is so 1970-80's but it is CLEAN and friendly. The food is very good at both of the restaurants. What did you expect in a department store restuarant. have you ever been in any department store restaurant in a downtown store anywhere? This is not to mention Saks and Nieman's uppity overpriced snotty ass cafes

Methinks you doth protest too much. My perceptions are accurate as far as my perceptions go. The first place smelled dreadfully of unchanged grease trap and the second place was very dark and looked like a nursing home cafeteria. Maybe I am alone on this, but I don't want to eat in a smelly place or a dark (almost windowless isn't it?) pastel-hued, carpeted cafeteria that looks like it should have jello on the menu.

There were times I've had less-than-stellar service, but I can't say I've ever had a bad meal at the Macy's restaurants, and I've been going there ever since I sat in a highchair. (BTW, I am fairly certain those are the same highchairs that were used when I sat in one, because my grandmother took a picture of me sitting in one. For the record, the photo was dated 1976.)



I'll admit the decor of the St. Louis Room is quite dated, but once again, for me it is like a trip down memory lane, as that's how it's always looked to me. I normally wouldn't be caught dead in a place with decor like that, but we're talking about some good ol' Famous-Barr history here. And if it still bothers you too much, I have good news for you: the Saint Louis Room will likely cease to exist when Macy's downsizes the store next year.

AN OUTLET MALL IN THE MACY’S BUILDING?
June 18th, 2010 | Author: jberger

Then, Kathy and LHM’s Bob O’Loughlin joined Bruce and O’Loughlin suggested an outlet mall would be ideal for the Macy’s building, which was greeted with enthusiasm by Bruce.
http://bergersbeat.com/an-outlet-mall-i ... -building/


Among those making the rounds was developer Bill Bruce, who revealed he has already snagged a few tenants for his downtown Macy’s building. “Macy’s has seven more years to go on its lease,” said Bruce
http://bergersbeat.com/conan-obrien-rob ... ob-costas/

Does anyone know what the status of the condensed version is?

Wow, I think an outlet mall is a terrible idea. Hope that doesn't happen.

Outlet mall? Whiskey Tango Foxtrot?

And what's with the "seven years to go on their lease" talk? That talk is nothing new to me, but it makes it sound as if Macy's will stick out the length of their lease and close the store once it's over. I was under the impression that Macy's was going to try and make a go of the location- with additional retail nearby and more hotel guests and residents at The Laurel nearby- I'd hope that Macy's would be willing to stick it out downtown and renew their lease.

And speaking of leases, why couldn't Macy's negotiate the most favorable terms possible when it owned the building? It seems like something that could have been done as a condition of selling the building.

The outlet mall idea sucks. It'd probably look like an overgrown junk store. Besides, aren't their other vacant buildings in and around downtown better suited for this?

Are they referring to a Macy's outlet or outlets for multiple different companies? If the Macy's goes to an outlet then you might as well put it out of its misery.

That's the danger of putting too much stock into what Jerry Berger claims. I suppose the developers were merely thinking aloud. I can certainly understand why they'd want to plan for the Railway Exchange's future without Macy's just in case the company decides to walk away from the location at the end of its lease.

I must admit, that is a troubling scenario, and it seems like Macy's could have committed for a longer period of time or on more favorable terms since they were the ones selling the building in the first place. I like to believe they are committed to maintaining a presence in downtown St. Louis for the long haul. This is where adjacent developments like 600 Washington may help. With additional retail adjacent to the store, a rising tide may raise all the ships, and the area surrounding Macy's may become a retail destination again just as it was when it was anchored by Famous-Barr and Stix, Baer, and Fuller for decades.

I'm also hopeful that the renovations Macy's has planned will lead to an improvement in the array and quality of merchandise available downtown. There have already been some improvements in those areas, but taking things a step further would be great for downtown workers, residents, and visitors.

I would be interested to know, however, what Macy's brass thinks about staying downtown once the seven-year lease is up, and how the downsizing of their store will impact their events calendar since Breakfast With Santa and the window decorations have become a tradition since the Famous-Barr nameplate was replaced by Macy's. Hopefully these things won't go away when the store is downsized and remodeled.