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Department stores like Macy's rely on an old shopping model. Can they change?

Feb 27, 2024
In the age of globalism and online shopping, the department store’s strength — as a place for everything — has became its weakness.
Justin Sullivan/Getty Images

The problem of "sameness"

Jan 31, 2024
Why department stores struggle to retain relevancy.
Can you tell whether this photo was taken inside of a JCPenney? A Dillard's? A Macy's?
Jeenah Moon/Getty Images

What happened to the "magic of Macy's"?

Dec 11, 2023
Investors are reportedly offering less than $6 billion to buy the once-iconic department store chain.
Macy's hasn't kept up with consumer shopping preferences, analysts say.
Michael M. Santiago/Getty Images

A 118-year-old department store perseveres in a tenuous economy

Feb 17, 2023
How a department store more than a century old has survived two pandemics, the Great Depression, and multiple recessions.
Dunham's Department Store in Wellsboro, PA. Ann Dunham Rawson, whose great-grandparents opened Dunham's, said the store is doing well despite wider economic anxiety.
Courtesy Ann Dunham Rawson

Department stores rebound, but have a long way to go

Aug 20, 2021
This week, we saw positive quarterly earnings from Macy’s and Kohl's, and news that Amazon plans to open what are essentially department stores.
Customers enter a Kohl's store on Aug. 21, 2018 in San Rafael, California.
Justin Sullivan/Getty Images

For public good, not for profit.

Did department stores train people to be difficult customers?

Aug 13, 2021
Amanda Mull, a staff writer at The Atlantic, argues that department stores had a hand in building class consciousness.
Customers shop at Macys department store in New York on Black Friday, Nov. 27, 2020.
Kena Betancur/AFP via Getty Images

Are malls and department stores really springing back to life?

May 24, 2021
Retailers realize the pandemic has also shifted a lot of shopping online.
Retailers like Macy's and T.J. Maxx reported significantly higher sales this first quarter relative to 2020.
Joe Raedle/Getty Images

Amazon in talks with Simon Property Group on taking over mall space

Aug 10, 2020
But for those other mall tenants, sharing space with Amazon might feel like an insult.
A closed JC Penney department store in North Carolina. Amazon is in talks with Simon Property Group — which owns closed Penney and Sears stores — about using the space as fulfillment centers.
Andrew Caballero-Reynolds/AFP via Getty Images