Downtown Macy's Closing (Philadelphia, Taylor, Oxford: apartments, hotel, homes)

[jay5835]

Truth is, shopping at Macy's has been an annoyance at best since the 1980s. Their Pentagon City store was legendarily awful. Everyone I knew had a "Macy's sucks" story.

The big question: would Kaufmann's be any better now if it had survived?

I miss department stores.

[_Buster]

They had zero creativity or original ideas to make the store vibrant again. There really is no excuse for not being able to operate a profitable store in that location, with virtually no competition, with at least 100,000 office workers and 10,000 residents in walking distance. And thousands more visitors / tourists.

I'm guessing the downtown stores in general just don't fit their plan anymore, they don't want to have separate strategies to deal with them, and they are going to do strictly suburban with the exception of a few outliers like NYC.

Clock needs to go to the History Center.

They should leave the clock on the building, though.

[Geeo]

I miss department stores, too. But they were designed for a different time, when women didn't work and went downtown in their hats and gloves to shop, have lunch and take in a matinee. It was an event.

Now people run to the strip center or mall and consider it a success if they find a parking space less than 50 feet from the store. Or they just sit in front of a computer, click on what they want and lament the demise of downtown shopping at the same time.

This isn't a Pittsburgh thing. I was in downtown Atlanta about ten years ago when they were holding the going out of business sale for that Macy's. Now that's it's all owned by one company nationwide, it's in control of the bean counters who live by a spreadsheet.

I think they have been planning this for a while and may be one reason they pulled out of the holiday parade a couple years ago.

[PreservationPioneer]

This is absolutely awful news, in my opinion. End of an era, indeed. A better era, for shopping. I always shop downtown, and hang out downtown. At least we have Burlington.

[doo dah]

Originally Posted by Geeo

I miss department stores, too. But they were designed for a different time, when women didn't work and went downtown in their hats and gloves to shop, have lunch and take in a matinee. It was an event.

Now people run to the strip center or mall and consider it a success if they find a parking space less than 50 feet from the store. Or they just sit in front of a computer, click on what they want and lament the demise of downtown shopping at the same time.

This isn't a Pittsburgh thing. I was in downtown Atlanta about ten years ago when they were holding the going out of business sale for that Macy's. Now that's it's all owned by one company nationwide, it's in control of the bean counters who live by a spreadsheet.

I think they have been planning this for a while and may be one reason they pulled out of the holiday parade a couple years ago.

Erm, where do you think the secretaries shopped? There is a reason why hosiery and cosmetics are on the first floor.

[norcider]

I was in there recently, hoping to show my kids the wooden escalators, bit they have walled them off for "safety" reasons. Anyhow, all I could tell was they slapped a new sign out front and did very little else to the interior. It felt like it did when it was still Kaufmann's. The store is so huge, no idea how they managed to stay open this long, would have probably done better if town was open past 5PM.

[Moby Hick]

Originally Posted by _Buster

They should leave the clock on the building, though.

Yes. I don't see why the clock can't stay there.

[doo dah]

Originally Posted by Moby Hick

Yes. I don't see why the clock can't stay there.

I'm afraid they would take it down and store it somewhere, as not in keeping with their image.

[I_Like_Spam]

Originally Posted by Moby Hick

Yes. I don't see why the clock can't stay there.

Maybe Macy's might want to bring it out to their Ross Park store?

[ForYourLungsOnly]

Sad . The inside of Downtown's Macy's had seen better days, but there is/was always something special about shopping downtown. Let's just hope the development that replaces it is worthy. There is just something nostalgic about those old downtown department stores (and I'm only in my 20s). I make a point to go to the State Street Macy's in Chicago (the old Marshall Field's store) as opposed to the one on Michigan Ave. There's just something great about those old downtown department stores with fancy clocks on the corner.


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