Seller: Macy's; Rating: 4.4; Total Feedback: 23503

---

No one would have guessed that the small, fancy dry goods store that opened on the corner of 14th Street and 6th Avenue in New York City in 1858 would grow to be one of the largest department store retailers in the country. But after several failed retail ventures, Rowland Hussey Macy's determination and ingenuity paid off at the age of thirty-six with the launch of R.H. Macy and Co. He adopted a red star as his symbol of success, dating back to his days as a sailor. First day sales totaled $11.06 but by the end of the first full year, sales grossed almost $90,000. By 1877, R.H. Macy & Co. had become a full-fledged department store occupying the ground space of eleven adjacent buildings. By November 1902, the store had outgrown its modest storefront and moved uptown to its present Herald Square location on Broadway and 34th Street, establishing an attraction for shoppers from around the world. With the store's 7th Avenue expansion complete in 1924, Macy's Herald Square became the the World's Largest Store with over one million square feet of retail space. By 1918, R.H. Macy & Co. was generating $36 million in annual sales. Yet, the prosperity of the retailer was never more apparent than when the company went public in 1922 and began to open regional stores and take over competing stores. In 1923, the Toledo-based department store LaSalle & Kock was acquired; the next year, Davison-Paxton in Atlanta was acquired and in 1936, the Newark-based Bamberger's was purchased. To help celebrate their new American heritage, Macy's immigrant employees organized the first Christmas Parade in 1924. The procession featured floats, bands, animals from the zoo and 10,000 onlookers, beginning a time-honored tradition now known as the annual Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade¬. In 1945, the company expanded west and purchased O'Connor Moffatt and Company in San Francisco. Two years later, O'Connor Moffatt stores, including the landmark Union Square store which opened in 1866, were converted to Macy's after a survey indicated that San Franciscans would welcome the name. Macy's California broke new ground with the first department store flower show in 1946. What began as a fragrance promotion in the cosmetics department now annually welcomes the spring season, treating visitors to a botanical, cultural and community spectacle. It caught on in New York six years later. On December 19, 1994, Federated Department Stores (FDS) merged with R.H. Macy & Co., creating the world's largest premier department store company. Federated Department Stores operated over 400 department stores and more than 157 specialty stores in thirty-seven states. As of November 2003, there are 248 Macy's stores in twenty-one states, Puerto Rico and Guam.

---

---