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Macy’s Department Store

A visit to New York would be incomplete without a visit to the world’s largest department store – Macy’s! When visiting New York with Comfort Tour, we make sure you have the time to browse through Macy’s store and do some shopping.

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Key facts:

  1. An estimated 20 million shoppers visit Macy’s Herald Square over the course of each year.
  2. The annual Flower Show at Macy’s Herald Square attracts an estimated 1.1 million visitors to the store each year.
  3. In 1902, Macy’s Herald Square was among the very first American retail stores with escalators. Original wooden escalators remain in operation today and will be preserved in the 2012-2015 remodeling project.
  4. Macy’s Herald Square introduced the first colored bath towels to America in 1932. Macy’s also introduced the tea bag and baked potato to American consumers. It helped popularize the board game “Scrabble” in the early 1950s.
  5. Macy’s holds the first liquor license issued in New York City after Prohibition.
  6. Initially, the ninth floor (home to the current furniture and luggage departments) was an exhibition hall and not used as selling space. In the 1940s and 1950s, houses, airplanes and automobiles were sold on the ninth floor.
  7. In 1939, Macy’s offered installment credit to customers for the first time. Previously, it was known as a cash-only retailer.
  8. When the 1924 section was completed, Macy’s became the largest department store in the world and retained that designation for 85 years.
  9. The original Macy’s Thanksgiving parade didn’t include any balloons. Instead, there were live animals borrowed from the zoo.
  10. Thanksgiving Day Parade – which began in 1924 – was originally called the Christmas Parade and was started by Macy’s as a way to attract customers to their new store. The Parade balloons take six hours to inflate and are done the night before the parade. Some of the larger balloons require 50 people to hold them down.
  11. The classic holiday film, Miracle On 34th Street,opens in 1947 and is set in Macy’s Herald Square, proving that Macy’s has the one and only true Santa Claus.
  12. Macy’s celebrates its 155th birthday on October 28th, 2013. In true Macy’s style, this milestone is marked by celebrity-filled mega-events, community and charity initiatives, commemorative product and new exclusive brand launches.
  13. The Macy’s logo – the star – originated from a tattoo that the founder, Rowland Macy, had done as a teenager while working as a seaman.
  14. Today, the Herald Square store is a National Historic landmark.
  15. Macy’s Herald Square offers about 4 million individual items (SKUs) for sale on a typical day.
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Categories: New York City

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