1 The world's largest department store is Macy's (/) located in New York, USA
Macy's is the largest department store chain in the United States, with its flagship store located in New York City. Herald Square at Seventh Avenue and 34th Street was billed as "the largest store in the world" when it opened here in 1902. Today, 105 years later, Macy's has opened more than 800 branches around the world, and the title of "The World's Largest Store" is still well-deserved.
R. H. Macy & Co. was founded by Rowland Hussey Macy in 1858. At first, it was located at the corner of 14th Street and 6th Avenue in Manhattan, New York. There was a unique small dry goods store in the area. No one thought at the time that this small store would suddenly rise to prominence in the next few decades and become the aircraft carrier of the American retail industry.
At the beginning of the store, Lorand Heather Macy designed a red five-pointed star logo for his store. On the one hand, he commemorated his past days as a sailor, and on the other hand, he hoped that Achieve more. On the first day of opening, Macy's department store's turnover was only US$11.06. By the end of the year, its turnover had reached nearly US$90,000. The subsequent revenue performance was like a helicopter ride. By 1877, Macy's was promoted to a comprehensive department store, expanding in size and becoming more and more prestigious in New York.
In November 1902, Macy's moved to Harold Plaza at the intersection of Broadway Avenue and 34th Street and began to attract shoppers from all over the world. By 1924, Macy's Department Store expanded further. Its main store building almost covered the entire Seventh Avenue, with a store area of ??more than 1 million square feet (about 90,000 square meters), winning the title of "The World's Largest Store".
In 1918, Macy’s annual sales were $36 million. In 1922, the department store's stock went public, followed by a series of mergers and acquisitions: in 1923, it acquired LaSalle & Kocks in Toledo; the next year, it acquired DAVISON-PAXON in Atlanta; in 1936, it acquired the New York-based WACKER's BAMGERGER'S. In 1945, the company expanded westward and purchased the O’Connor Moffatt Company in San Francisco. In 1946, it created the first department store flower show in California, which became the beginning of the store’s current annual perfume promotion in the cosmetics department.
On December 19, 1994, Federated Stores, another American retail giant, acquired Macy’s Department Store, creating the world’s largest high-end department store. Alliance Department Store operates more than 400 department stores and more than 157 specialty stores in 37 states in the United States. Macy's has become a branch of Alliance Department Store.
However, the "Macy's" brand is too famous. After investigation, company executives found that consumers have a very high degree of brand recognition for Macy's department stores. Therefore, in the following years, the "Alliance" Department Store" will rename all the more than 240 branches it acquired back to Macy's Department Store.
In March 2005, "Alliance Department Store" once again wiped out all its regional stores and changed their names to Macy's. The number of Macy's stores increased to 425 across the United States. In September 2006, MAY Department Store was merged into the company, and all branches were renamed Macy's. So far, Macy's has become an American retail aircraft carrier with more than 800 branches.
Macy’s has always been an innovator and has created many “firsts” that have changed the American retail industry.
First of all, Macy's was the first retailer to promote women to senior executives, a first in the business world.
Secondly, Macy’s Department Store pioneered the revolutionary approach of “one-price system” to ensure that all products are sold to every customer nationwide at the same price. Same. At the same time, it also pioneered the promotion method of advertising in newspapers and marking the prices of special products.
Thirdly, in terms of product innovation, Macy’s was the first store to introduce tea bags, Idaho baked potatoes and colorful bath towels, which can be said to lead the trend of lifestyle fashion. It was also the first retailer in New York City to hold a liquor sales license.
These "firsts" have made Macy's department store more and more famous and popular with consumers.
The annual Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade has become a highlight of New York culture.
In addition to making impressive achievements in the retail industry, Macy’s also created the famous “Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade.”
In the 1920s, Macy’s Many employees are from Europe. To celebrate their new life in the United States, these new immigrant employees organized the first Christmas parade in 1924. The parade included balloons, bands, zoo animals, etc., attracting tens of thousands of people.
Due to the popularity of this parade, it has since become a tradition in New York and has evolved into today's annual Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade, becoming another highlight of New York culture.
Attachment: Strauss, the founder of Macy’s Company
Nathan Strauss (Nathan Strarus) was born in a Jewish family in Germany in 1848. Before he finished elementary school, he The family immigrated to the United States and settled in the American South. Due to a difficult family life, he only completed the first grade of junior high school after arriving in the United States, and had to drop out of school to make a living in society. When he was 14 years old, he came to New York from the South and worked as a child laborer in a store.
Although Strauss did not read much, he was deeply influenced by traditional Jewish education at home. From a young age, the seeds of life struggle had been sown in his heart. He understood that the Jewish people had been persecuted for more than two thousand years, had lost their homeland for a long time, and had to rely on others to live. It would be difficult to survive without any skills. To this end, like most Jews, he started his own business by learning culture and mastering technology. With such goals and will, we will have all kinds of perseverance to overcome various difficulties, and we will be able to think of various ways to open up paths for survival and development. This is what the saying goes: "Nothing is difficult in the world, only those who are willing to do so". Strauss was a man of great determination and perseverance. He started working as a shop boy at the age of 14. He was not afraid of hard work and low status. He worked diligently during the day and studied culture by himself at night.
Strauss was very much appreciated by his boss because he was diligent in work, good at learning, and did everything neatly. First, he was transferred from a handyman to a bookkeeper, and then he was made a salesperson, sales department manager, and finally he was made the manager of the company. After more than 20 years working in various store departments, he is very familiar and experienced in store retail work. At the same time, he knows the market well and understands the laws of market development and change. In addition, we have close ties with various manufacturing companies. More than 20 years of work, especially the last 10 years as a store manager, gave him a little personal savings. At this time, he believed that the time had come, and in 1896 he and his brother raised funds to open their own small department store, named "Mays". Since Strauss had long been an expert in retail stores and had a wide range of supply and sales channels, everything went smoothly after the opening of Macy's Department Store and the business developed rapidly. In a few years, Macy's developed into a medium-sized department store and gained a certain reputation.
Strauss is an ambitious entrepreneur. He is not satisfied with the achievements he has made and is determined to make Macy's a first-class department store in the United States and even the world. He carefully studied today's market development trends, and then worked with experts to develop his own development strategy. He believes that the market is still divided into two types: (1) Seller's market, which is a market in which the seller has an advantage. In areas or eras with backward production, goods are scarce in the market and supply exceeds demand. The seller has no worries about sales, and the buyer There is not much room for choice. (2) Buyer's market, the market has a variety of products, oversupply, sellers compete fiercely with each other, and strive to sell their products, and buyers have a broad choice. Strauss believes that the U.S. economy is developed and the U.S. market is undoubtedly a buyer's market. This is why the saying "The consumer is king" is popular in the United States.
In view of this, Strauss concluded that today's market is customer-oriented, and the difficulty faced by enterprises is not how to produce products, but how to sell products. In short, a firm's primary efforts focus on marketing. If an enterprise cannot sell its products in a surprising and winning way, its performance will inevitably be poor, and it may even be eliminated from the market. In today's marketing work, it is not enough to just rely on high-quality and low-price strategies. New concepts and methods of modern marketing must be used as weapons and various sales strategies and tactics can be used to attack and retreat and respond well. In order to make Macy's department store prosperous, Strauss developed a series of salesmanship. The characteristic of his salesmanship is "low-pressure salesmanship", that is, the salesman must stand in the customer's position and serve the customer. Benefits, introduce the benefits brought by purchasing a certain product, and arouse customers' interest in purchasing. Therefore, he requires the company's salesmen to have 10 knowledge points about the product (the background information of the product, the appearance of the product, the composition of the product, the manufacturing process, the use of the product, serviceability and durability, the protection and use of the product, price and type, the company's history and policies, competitive products); salespeople must be good at using different strategies for different customers; they must have the ability to take advantage of opportunities to suggest sales (suggesting to buy related products, suggesting that you can save money by purchasing needed products in large quantities) Save time and money, recommend buying high-end products, recommend products that the company is promoting and developing, recommend substitute products, etc., and act according to the situation); sales must be good at discovering future customers (using various existing list information, tracking customers who inquired about the company, similar products, etc.) Product market research, cooperation with salespeople from other industries, introductions to groups and friends, use of exhibitions, observation and speculation, etc.).
With the development of market competition, Messi Company has successively launched the "Gifts to Consumers Method", "Consumer Competition Prizes Method", "Gift Points Method", and "New Product Live Performance Method" , "product showrooms", "fashion shows" and other promotional methods have effectively promoted the sales of various commodities.
Strauss understood that enterprises are all about people. No matter how good the sales method is, if the quality of the people in the enterprise is not high, good methods will not be implemented or good results will not be achieved. Therefore, he attaches great importance to the training and education of the company's employees, and formulates various requirements and standards for all types of employees. Only those who pass the assessment can take up the job. This ensures the quality of the company's sales services and wins customer satisfaction.
Strauss pays special attention to the company's image in his operations. In order to establish the first-class image of Messi's product quality among customers, various products it operates are marked with Messi's trademarks. If the customer is not satisfied after purchasing, they can get a refund or exchange.
After more than 30 years of operation, Macy's Department Store grew from small to large and eventually became the largest first-class department store in the United States and even the world at that time. Strauss also became the world's leading rich man at that time. Strauss passed away in 1931, and Macy's Baihua Company was continued by his descendants, and it remained a well-known large company in the United States until the 1970s. Unfortunately, after entering the 1990s, due to various reasons such as poor management, it was unsustainable and had to be closed in 1993.