urbanSTL

RBB wrote:For what it's worth:





Macy's says their Herald Square store is "over 1,000,000 square feet".



The St. Louis store is about 300K:



http://www.mxstl.com/press/

The new district will add 160,000 square feet of new retail space to the existing 300,000 square feet Macy's.

-RBB

That 300,000 figure is simple because they only have the store take up the middle of the Building. Behind the walls are offices that surround the perimeter and that is where all the windows are.



So if they did open the windows up, they would gain massive amounts of floor space... way to much to support 7 floors worth.

Jeff707 wrote:Taht's great... and I agree with everything you said. You addressed a lot of good qualities about the store. But you didn't address a major issue, and the point of many people's previous posts: the selection of clothes is not appropriate for young people or people, fashionable, trendy, up-to-date, or whatever you want to call it. The lines they stock the shelves with are of low quality and/or marketing towards middle aged moms and dads.

I talked with a buyer at Macy's who told me that they rank all of the stores for buying purposes and the higest ranked stores get the best merchandise, the next highest gets less upscale product, etc. The downtown St. Louis store is currently rated the lowest, but in 2008 it is going up one rank. I know I don't have the lingo correct, but hopefully you get the idea.

I posted a while back that I only recently started buying clothes (just a few) at DT Macy's. The selection is WAY better than it ever has been in the 13 or so years I've worked down here. However, I'm a long way from seriously shopping at the store- a lot of the clothes are very frumpy housewife. Even the hosiery is boring.



I do like the housewares and furniture departments. I also think the kids dept is pretty good- especially the greendot (?) brand of basics. I also buy greeting cards and make up there.



I'm glad that we're going "up" in rank.

63104mom wrote:I posted a while back that I only recently started buying clothes (just a few) at DT Macy's. The selection is WAY better than it ever has been in the 13 or so years I've worked down here. However, I'm a long way from seriously shopping at the store- a lot of the clothes are very frumpy housewife. Even the hosiery is boring.



I do like the housewares and furniture departments. I also think the kids dept is pretty good- especially the greendot (?) brand of basics. I also buy greeting cards and make up there.



I'm glad that we're going "up" in rank.

I love the fact that there's a Hallmark "store" right there on the first floor. And the candy counter is pretty awesome too.



I'll have to check out the kids' stuff.

If it is true, it is definately a good sign of success that the store is going up in rank. This either means that the store is gaining more customers or customers are buying more expensive items. Either way, it makes it that much more likely for Macy's to invest in the store's appearance.

southsidepride wrote:^that's funny. What I always liked best about downtown Famous (Macy's) was the fact that there were all those floors. I would always go out of my way to explore all the levels whether or not I needed anything there.



Like I needed any more evidence I'm wired a little different than the norm

Well, I guess that makes two of us, because I used to go out of my way to go to all of the floors at Famous-Barr (and the downtown Stix/Dillard's) as well. Actually, I've done that at just about every multi-level department store I've ever visited, as I've always had some strange fascination with department stores, especially those in downtowns.



The housewares and furniture departments are excellent. Like others here, I also like the children's section (DeBaliviere, you're in luck because IMHO the girls' section is stocked a little better than the boys'). The Hallmark and candy section in the SW corner are great as well.



I've already mentioned several times in this thread that I think the merchandise mix could use some improvement. That said, I think what AvantSTL said is quite encouraging. There's certainly been an increase in business in the last couple of years or so, and I'm confident Macy's will adjust the variety of merchandise accordingly in the near future.



One interesting thing to point out- the retail space in the floor has shrunk significantly in recent years. I found an old May Company annual report from the late 1990s (yes, I know I'm a pack rat), in which it listed the square footage of the downtown store at 482,000 SF, compared to approx. 300,000 SF today. As long as the space is used wisely, I don't think it's a bad thing. Also, with a smaller portion of the floorplates dedicated to selling space, I think it's less likely that Macy's will reduce the number of floors, which was the rumor with Famous-Barr for years.



Everything I've heard in the last year or so tells me that Macy's seems pretty committed to remaining as a fixture and the anchor of downtown St. Louis retail. With Mercantile Exchange on the way, I'd say that future looks even brighter. (And I'll keep my fingers crossed for better merchandise, another restaurant in the basement, and a rejuvenated look on Locust Street once that skybridge comes down!)

I think within the last 7 years they have dropped a floor, which may account for the loss in floor space.

Not sure how Macy's does it, but May used to label stores by class (A,B,C,D) to determine stock levels and assortment depth. An 'A' door would get both more volume of goods, and a larger (and often times better) blend of merchandise. A store could be bumped up in a particular area if the responsible folks wanted, but that tended to be an exception



For May Stores, Famous-Barr had no A stores and very few B stores. Believe downtown was a D at the end, but was a C in some merchandise categories (ie Men's Dress Shirts, etc).

Took the wife and kids down on Friday evening just to see the window displays. They enjoyed the trains the best. After we were done, we checked out the store to warm up. We hit every floor. I think there are 7 in total. The wood trim on the escalators was pretty cool. I talked to one of the associates, and he mentioned that there were six stores in the metro region that were consistantly hitting their sales quota and the downtown store was one of them. I asked how business was and he said it has picked up over the last couple of years, but he was still skeptical of long term success.

I have a friend that works for Macy's Inc. Midwest, and from what he has told me the St. Louis Galleria is the top door in the Midwest division. West County is 3rd or 4th, and Chesterfield is 6th if I remember correctly, all three of these are considered A stores. St. Clair Square was pretty high up as well, I think being a B+ door. Mid Rivers and South County are both B stores. But downtown is not the worst store in St. Louis, Northwest Plaza takes that honor, but I can not remember what grade either of these stores got but they were both towards the bottom of the list that had about 100 store locations on it.

1st in the Midwest? Does that make the former flagship Marshall Fields not part of the Midwest or is something wrong?

^ IIRC, the former Marshall Field's stores are part of Macy's North.



I would have to imagine that Jamestown, Alton Square, and Crestwood Plaza locations have to be at or near the bottom with the Northwest Plaza store, and I still think at least a couple of those stores will be closed within the next few years.

I did a bit of shopping there Saturday afternoon and was pleased to see a decent crowd there. Enough people to make me feel festive but not so many to be a pain in the arse. I did notice some departments seemed to be a bit picked over. I can understand if they were being a bit conservative and didn't want to overstock this year, but based on 2007 numbers hopefully they will stock a little more next year.

Like jmed said, it seems like the windows and other improvements are paying off. And that's really all we ever wanted when the store was owned by May - some sign that they actually give a crap. Hopefully, Macy's will build on the momentum it generated this year and make continuous upgrades.

DeBaliviere wrote:And that's really all we ever wanted when the store was owned by May - some sign that they actually give a crap.

=D>



Amen!

Macy's is closing nine stores around the country. None here.

^ Northeast Ohio was particularly hard hit by Macy's closings- one in Akron, another in Canton, and a location in North Randall (an eastern Cleveland suburb). I still think we'll see at least one or two Macy's closings in the metro area in the next few years, but there's also a chance that one or more of those stores could be replaced. (For example, I wouldn't be surprised to see the Alton Square store close only to be replaced by a location in the booming Edwardsville area.)



That's why the many improvements made to the downtown store, along with those that may be forthcoming, are encouraging. It looks like Macy's is committed to sticking it out downtown, which is why I'm looking forward to the completion of Mercantile Exchange, for which Macy's will serve as an anchor.

The wife and I headed downtown last Sunday while we were in town to check out the Macy's window displays. We're actually quite impressed. First, the displays were on par if not better than the Macy's on State St. in Chicago. There were a few other families walking around looking at the displays as well so we felt comfortable. I also pulled my wife into the store because she had never been and she was blown away. Again, it doesn't compare to the department stores in bigger cities downtown, but it sure has more charm than ones in the county. There were definately a few people shopping, but overall it was quiet. It was also about 11:00 AM on Sunday so that explains a lot.



We came out with a big smile on our faces and I see positive things for the store and MX. We also drove around and were generally impressed with how many new stores have opened in the last year or so. I also loved going by the Roberts Tower site and seeing the drills going.

Real estate sources are speculating about whether Macy's will sell the 22-story Railway Exchange office building at 601 Olive St. in downtown St. Louis. In February, Macy's announced plans to close its Midwest headquarters, cutting 850 jobs in St. Louis within the next 60 days. The Macy's department store downtown is located on the bottom six floors of the Railway Exchange Building. The Macy's Midwest headquarters offices are located on upper floors.



A Macy's spokesman said the Railway Exchange Building is not currently on the market. "We have been looking for ways to better use the building, but we don't have anything planned at this time," said spokesman Jim Sluzewski. "There is a significant amount of unused and underutilized space."



http://stlouis.bizjournals.com/stlouis/ ... ory13.html

That link doesn't seem to match the quoted content. Unless non-subscribers are only shown a subset of the article.

innov8ion wrote:Unless non-subscribers are only shown a subset of the article.

yup