urbanSTL

Just bought a suit from downtown Macys. Great suit, 50% off for 4th of July, an extra 11% for out of town residents, so 61% off. Total was around $250 with tax. Pretty cheap!

I am actually pretty concerned about this. Guess what companies do when profits fall? They close stores. Guess which St Louis store might be in danger?

^ Jamestown Mall

Arch City wrote:Based on this article and the one markinlondon posted, Federated/Macy's should have just left May Company ALONE. Wonder how all of those shareholders feel now? In my opinion, Macy's has always been overrated just because it was a New York store.



Macy's sales disappoint again

St. Louis Business Journal - 10:57 AM CDT

Thursday, July 12, 2007

by Cincinnati Business Courier



Sales at Macy's Inc. fell short of expectations for a second consecutive month as consumers moderated their apparel spending, sinking the retailer's shares in morning trading.



Same-store sales at the Cincinnati-based retailer declined by 2.7 percent in June. This follows a sales decline in May of 3.3 percent. Year to date, Macy's same-store sales are down 1 percent.



Federated, which completed its acquisition of St. Louis-based May Department Stores Co. Aug. 30, 2005, changed its name to Macy's Inc. (NYSE: M) in June 2007.



Shares in the company fell by $1.40 in morning trading, to $39.01.



"Macy's is a story that is so uncertain right now, so much there has to be fixed," said Walter Loeb, a New York retail consultant.



Macy's, which operates corporate offices in Cincinnati and New York, expects its July sales to be flat to down 3 percent.



Source

I am not surprised by this, Messy's forced this change down people's throats so quick. They should have researched the markets more throughly and not jump to conclusion that everyone that shopped at former May stores would accept and shop at Messy's. Look at whats going on in Chicago with the former Marshall Fields stores, they have a nice rebellion going on there with protesting and boycotts too. Last April I visited several of these stores including the State St. store. Its so pitful what they done to MF!!! The Louis Joilet Mall store was dirty and the escalator was out of order, the Oak Brook store was tacky and also dirty. The State St. store had so much tacky stuff, it look like a flea market! Also, all these stores were pretty much empty considering it was a Saturday I visited.



I just wish some private equity firm or companies would buy out Messy's Inc. and reestablish these old names and traditions. I wonder how long Messys can deceive shareholders and consumers. I even remember back in Feb they blamed cold weather and snow for slow/negative sales at their stores, considering stores like JCPenney and Nordstroms had positive sales during that period. Messys and Terry Lunkhead will never understand.



As for stores that will close, many of them will close. STL will see some close probably the downtown store, Northwest Plaza or Alton.

The Central Scrutinizer wrote:Not to get further off topic, but Wal-Mart doesn't destroy town centers and has never put a single "mom-pop" store out of business.

Is that a fact? What's your authority?

STLMO314 wrote:Just bought a suit from downtown Macys. Great suit, 50% off for 4th of July, an extra 11% for out of town residents, so 61% off. Total was around $250 with tax. Pretty cheap!

They're giving a discount for OUT OF TOWN residents? That doesn't make sense to me.

The Central Scrutinizer wrote:

steve wrote:

The Central Scrutinizer wrote:Not to get further off topic, but Wal-Mart doesn't destroy town centers and has never put a single "mom-pop" store out of business.

Is that a fact? What's your authority?

Reality.

Reality is pretty persuasive.



But back to Macy's, it will be interesting to watch.

Not to get further off topic, but Wal-Mart doesn't destroy town centers and has never put a single "mom-pop" store out of business.

It depends on your understanding of causality. In logic, this is known as an INUS, or an insufficient and non-redundant part of an unecessary but sufficient cause. There are two kinds of causes: a necessary cause means that when x causes y, y automatically implies the precense of x. A sufficient cause means that when x causes y, y does not imply the precense of x because z is also a possible cause. An example of an Inus condition:

to say that short circuits cause house fires is to say that the short circuit is an inus condition for house fires. It is an insufficient part because it cannot cause the fire on its own (other conditions such as oxygen, inflammable material, etc. should be present). It is, nonetheless, a nonredundant part because, without it, the rest of the conditions are not sufficient for the fire. It is just a part, and not the whole, of a sufficient condition (which includes oxygen, the presence of inflammable material, etc.), but this whole sufficient condition is not necessary, since some other cluster of conditions, for example, an arsonist with gasoline, can produce the fire.

So, while Wal-Mart doesn't "necessarily" cause any of these things, it is one part of a web of conditions that sufficiently cause a store's closing. You can say that the store would have not closed down had Wal Mart not moved into town. Not to get further off topic.

There are rumors that Macy's will soon be bought out by private equity company KKR.





Read Article

^ Ugh. Macy's probably needs to cut back its presence in St. Louis, but I shudder to think of what will happen if it's acquired by a private equity firm.



I could be wrong, but I think that the Jamestown and Alton stores are in the most immediate danger, then maybe Crestwood and Northwest. FWIW I think those stores would meet with the chopping block before downtown. Anyway...



Macy's has its issues, but I don't think it's nearly as bad as others on this forum believe it is. The customer service varies greatly from store to store and could use improvement. (Memo to Macy's employees: Stop asking me to go to macys.com to comment on my service, and actually make the service memorable in the first place!) Some stores have a better overall appearance than others. The downtown store could still use a wider selection of men's clothing. Other than that, I don't see how it's a big step down from Famous-Barr. I still find most of what I need and want there. My wife could never find anything she liked at Famous-Barr, and now she does a big portion of her shopping at Macy's. Maybe if we were accustomed to shopping at Marshall Field's we'd be upset? I don't know.



I was in the downtown store twice last week- I went to browse briefly on Thursday afternoon, and my wife and I did some shopping Friday afternoon. If the store was consistently as busy as it was those two days, I wouldn't worry for a second about Macy's future in downtown. With a private equity firm likely to takeover the parent company, however, I suppose anything's possible.



I do have one major complaint, however. I've always enjoyed eating at Papa Fabarre's, and it's no stretch to say I've been eating there almost all of my life. I'm addicted to the Famous (French) Onion Soup, and I've always found the food and service to be consistently on the mark. When my wife and I had lunch there Friday, however, it was easily the worst experience I've had there. The food was great...but the service was deplorable. We waited 20 minutes for drinks, 20 minutes for extra napkins we requested, and the waitresses were unusually rude. I just finished forwarding my comments to Macy's earlier today, and I'm looking forward to a response from them. (Maybe I should try the Saint Louis Room next time?)

The St. Louis Room is pathetic.



Macy's restaurants could easily become some of the hottest lunch venues in downtown. They stand now as underutilized and underperforming assets. They are diamonds in the rough.



Maybe they should lease the spaces to outside operators?

Matt wrote:


Maybe they should lease the spaces to outside operators?

I sure hope not!



I don't want to see this, look at their flgaship Herald Square store. It has chains such as McDonalds and Au Bon Pain. I rather see a local restaurant there than a franchise. That is anouther way that makes shopping at a department store feel special i.e. Walnut Room at Marshall Fields.



Though Messy's probably rather get something like McDonalds into their stores than a local.

Matt- I don't think it's such a bad idea, particularly in the case of the St. Louis Room. I agree with you about its condition.



My grandmother worked at Famous-Barr in the 1970s and early 1980s, so I literally grew up in those restaurants. I can say with certainty that there have been no major changes, and few changes of any kind, since the Carter administration. (I'm pretty sure the mustard yellow and olive green highchairs in which we seated my son when he was a bit younger are the same ones in which I was seated back in the age of disco.)



Papa's retro atmosphere is charming, whereas the St. Louis Room just looks completely dated. I'd definitely like to see the St. Louis Room "outsourced" to someone that would renovate it and update the offerings. I'd like to see Papa's continue to offer its traditional fare with minor updates, but if Friday's visit was any indication, it's in desperate need of new management and staff.

I haven't been to the Saint Louis Room in years and don't know its current condition. But, I used to like the way it looked, and have never known it to be anything but out of date. And filled with ladies who lunch using their chargeplates to order half sandwiches and cocktails (discreetly). It was explained to me that the Saint Louis Room provided a place for ladies to have a cocktail, even if they were shopping alone.



ThreeOneFour, I will always love Famous French Onion Soup.



In general, department stores need to get their act together.

what is the st. louis room? something downtown I've never heard of!

The Saint Louis Room is the restaurant on the sixth floor of the downtown Macy's.



The menu is similar to Papa's Fabarre's, but there is also a rather large salad bar.



Both the Saint Louis Room and Papa Fabarre's (second floor, northwest corner) have been operated by Famous-Barr for as long as I can recall (I'm 32). The Cafe Express on the pedestrian bridge linking Macy's to its garage closed earlier this year- no loss since it was hardly ever open for business anyway. At the Locust Street northeast entrance, there was once a Baskin-Robbins, which later became an Edy's outlet, then a snack bar, and now there are blank walls in this spot.



My memory is fuzzy, but I thought there was a restaurant in the basement level as recently as the early 1980s. For those of you born before disco, am I right, or am I thinking of another old downtown department store?

^Yes, there was a restaurant in the basement level (bargain basement). It wasn't as nice as the others, as I recall. I could be wrong, but it seems like there was another restaurant on the upper levels, around the travel agency, beauty shopt, bookstore area. But, my memory is vague on that one. I don't remember a salad bar in the St. Louis Room, but I haven't been there in many years.

The Saint Louis room also has a decent lunch buffet as well. We go there with work people every now and again. Sometimes is easy to forget that there are two restaurants inside of Macy's.