Local Focus With Macy's Lundgren

The Los Angeles Lakers won the NBA championship in June, and the much celebrated victory also represented a slam dunk for Macy’s Inc.’s local merchandising program, called “My Macy’s.”

Macy’s local district merchants and planners in Los Angeles flagged the Lakers victory as one of the most important events on the city’s 2009 calendar. They made recommendations to Macy’s central buyers in New York, who ordered a bunch of Lakers merchandise, and during the week of the team’s victory, the downtown Los Angeles Macy’s store alone sold $46,000 in Lakers T-shirts, hats and other merchandise. The success would not have happened if all of the retail giant’s buyers were conducting business far away in New York, said Terry J. Lundgren, Macy’s chairman and chief executive.

Lundgren told the Lakers story and talked more about the direction of Macy’s Inc. on Sept. 23 at a lunch at the downtown Los Angeles offices of the Los Angeles Area Chamber of Commerce. One of those in attendance was Chris DeMoulin, president of MAGIC International.

Lundgren’s talk was part of a hectic itinerary. The day before, he announced the debut of the Macy’s iPhone app at the Las Vegas convention of online-retailers group Shop.org. The morning of Sept. 23, he talked with the Los Angeles team of My Macy’s buyers.

My Macy’s started in 2008, and Lundgren said it will eventually be implemented in all Macy’s stores throughout the United States. He told the audience his company will continue with its My Macy’s rollout, despite the challenges brought on by the current recession. “Our view is ’Let’s change every single thing we thought about changing and do it now,’” Lundgren said. If companies delay change until economically healthier times, he reasoned, the window for change typically closes because no one wants to fix what is not broken.

In his wide-ranging speech, the California-born executive said his native state is a crucial part of the New York–headquartered Macy’s company. There are 135 Macy’s and nine Bloomingdale’s stores that do business in California. Most of the surf and skate vendors and women’s contemporary labels with which Macy’s does business are located in Southern California.

One important direction for Macy’s is its e-commerce businesses Macys.com and Bloomingdales.com. The sales for these e-commerce businesses have increased 13 percent so far this year for the seven months that ended Aug. 31, 2009. (The Macy’s retail calendar begins in February.)

Although the physical stores will remain a crucial focus, the e-commerce business is influential. What sells on the e-commerce store will typically end up selling at a greater volume at bricks-and-mortar Macy’s stores just a week later. —Andrew Asch