Macy's – On a Quest to Regain Momentum

Macy’s was founded by Rowland Hussey Macy as a dry goods store, R H Macy & Co., in New York in 1858. By 1877, the store had grown to occupy space in 11 buildings on 14th Street, New York. In 1902, Macy’s opened a store in Herald Square, which was in a nine-story building with escalators and elevators. In 1924, Macy’s

Herald Square store was the world’s largest department store, occupying 1 million sq ft of retail space. In the next few years, Macy’s expanded to several locations across the country. In 1929, Federated Department Stores Inc. (Federated) was formed as a holding company for several family-owned department stores including Abraham & Straus, F&R Lazarus, and Filene’s. In 1930, Bloomingdales, which was founded in 1872, joined Federated. Later on in the 1980s, Campeau Corporation acquired Federated, but filed for bankruptcy the next year. In 1992, Federated emerged from bankruptcy.