Macy’s New Direction

It’s hard to be glib about the massive reorganization and consolidation that Macy’s announced this week. Clearly, almost every retailer is reviewing how it does business these days, and Macy’s is larger than most. It also has that clunky regional arrangement, a holdover from the old Federated, Allied, Campeau and Macy’s mergers, and then the May Co. acquisition.

If, as Terry Lundgren said, this is no time for sacred cows, this might be the clean sweep and cleaning out Macy’s has needed for some time. When it comes to sacred cows, Macy’s has resembled the streets of Kolkata.

The localized, regionalized My Macy’s initiative seems counter-intuitive to the emerging national department store brand the retailer was so proud of four years ago. But four years is a long time. And a willingness to review and revise seems bold and courageous now.

Look, I’m rooting for this to work. As I’ve relocated around the country, I’ve always felt an affinity for the big department stores Macy’s now owns: Marshall Field’s, Bloomingdale’s, Bamberger’s, Rich’s, Lazarus. I remember going to those stores to buy TVs, furniture, books, sporting goods, after-shave, lunch. And Lundgren seems the right guy for the job, the Pat Riley or Bill Belichek of retailing.

So do these new initiatives really signal a strong new direction for a struggling retailer in a struggling concept at a struggling time? Or are they just rearranging the deck chairs?