Macy's history

Macys 1936 Photo: New York Public Library*2

Jack I. Straus, Jesse's son, became chairman of Macy's in 1940.

In 1945, the company expanded west and purchased O’Connor Moffatt & Company in San Francisco.

Macy’s California broke new ground with the first department store flower show in 1946.

The company acquired Bloomingdale in 1949.

The public relations impact of the event went national when two major television networks began to cover the parade in 1952.

Herbert L. Seegal and his protegé Finkelstein came to Bamberger's in 1962 to step up its growth, using new customer-oriented merchandising.

Finkelstein was sent to bail out Macy's California in 1969.

In 1971, Macy’s Union Square store’s lower level, once cluttered with bargains, was transformed into “The Cellar,” changing the way customers shop for housewares.

Finkelstein was brought back to the East in 1974 to work on the Herald Square store.

The revitalized Macy's had its biggest holiday season ever in 1976, and increased its annual earnings greatly from the previous year.

The building that houses Macy’s in Herald Square was added to the National Register of Historic Places as a National Historic Landmark in 1978.

Bamberger's of New Jersey's sales for the fiscal year ending July 31, 1981, were $799 million; with Macy's California and New York divisions, it formed a powerful triad generating 86 percent of Macy's sales.

In 1982 corporate sales gains of 20.1 percent topped the industry, and Macy's surpassed its major competitors in operating profit per square foot.

However, it wasn’t until 1983 that Macy’s began opening stores outside of the New York City-Long Island area.

In 1984 Macy's had its theretofore best year.

The year 1985 was tough for most retailers, including Macy's.

Then, in 1986, Edward Finkelstein, the Chairman and CEO of R.H. Macy & CO, led a leveraged buy-out of the company and then lost a takeover battle with Federated Department Stores.

In 1988 Macy's added further to its debt, however, by purchasing Federated's Bullocks and Bullocks-Wilshire and the I. Magnin chains.

The $1 billion expenditure weighed heavily on company finances, but a confident Macy's stocked stores with merchandise in anticipation of a strong holiday season in 1989.

The rumors persisted throughout the year and on December 4, 1990, Finkelstein took out a full-page ad in the trade journal Women's Wear Daily to quash them once and for all.

Sales throughout 1991 continued to be slow and Macy's sustained further losses.

Store expansion continued, however, and in August 1992, a new department store was opened in the Mall of America in Minneapolis, the company's first in Minnesota.

By early 1993, the plan had begun to demonstrate its effectiveness as Macy's showed its first profit--$147.7 million--since filing for bankruptcy.

In 1994 it agreed to a merger with Federated Department Stores, Inc., which included key retailers such as Bloomingdale’s.

Following the model of A&S, Jordan Marsh Department Stores of Boston, already owned by Federated, was converted to Macy’s in March 1996.

By the middle of 1999, Macy's East operated a total of 87 stores, occupying a total of 23.8 million square feet.

In January 2001, Macy’s absorbed 17 Stern’s Department Stores located in New York and New Jersey.

In 2005, Federated made several critical moves including acquiring The May Department Stores, Lord & Taylor, and Marshall Fields.

The company changed its name from Federated Department Stores, Inc., to Macy’s, Inc., in 2007.

In March 2015, the company also acquired Bluemercury Inc.

As of January 2016, Macy’s had 770 stores.

Macy’s Interior in 2017 – Photo: Jagger Kachejian.

In February 2019, there were 867 Macy’s Inc stores including Macy’s, Bloomingdales, Bluemercury, Backstage, and Story—641 of those were Macy’s.