The pop-up of Macy's Story strives to be compatible with Instagram – Quartzy



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Macy's tries really difficult to be compatible with Instagram. Today (April 11), the struggling department store giant has rolled out its internal concept store, "Story", in 36 stores in the United States. Most stores will have at least 1,500 m² (140 m²), its flagship location in Manhattan extending over 7,500 m².

Macy's, who also owns Bloomingdales and luxury beauty shop Bluemercury, bought Story during a surprise move. Story looked a little like a gallery-slash-pop-up store (its slogan is "Changes like a gallery, sells things like a store") that rotated its products according to different themes. The store, which will only exist in Macy's offices, and not as such, will also be hosting clbades, workshops and events in its new home, Macy's.

Last year, Macy's announced plans to reduce real estate in order to save money. The company's general manager, Jeff Gennette, told CNBC that the existing space on its sites would then be converted to "create a dynamic destination". Converting real estate into a "hashtagable" story Efforts to create "pop-ups" seem to be an effort to achieve this goal.

For example, Cut indicates that the Story store located in the Macy's Herald Square store has a MAC station where you can create your own palette of eyeshadow and a rainbow "light tunnel" that drives you at the store. CNBC writes that it also has the world's largest "Lite-Brite Illuminated Display", a ping-pong table, and many "instalables".

Macy & # 39; s

The "light tunnel" of the Macy's Herald Square Story store.

The department stores, palaces of consumption and society that grew in importance at the end of the 19th century, have in recent years resembled ghost towns. Online shopping and direct-to-consumer business models have defeated these retail bastions. Struggling to stay afloat, former monsters like Bon-Ton and Sears have filed for bankruptcy, while others, like J.C. Penney and Kohl's, are blocking stores because of declining sales.

To avoid the same fate, surviving department stores are forced to innovate. Macy's Story echoes his rival "PopIn @ Nordstrom" from Nordstrom, a series of ephemeral, monthly-run stores. Like Story, everyone is based on a different theme (K-beauty, Paris) or a collaboration (Goop, Everlane). Each is, of course, extremely unstoppable – they are designed more like art installations than the usual dummy goods jungle will see in the rest of the store.

Macy & # 39; s

The first version of Story is called "Color".

Overall, Story seems to be a step in the right direction for Macy's. Investors speculate that traditional retailers who thrived during the boom of e-commerce, such as beauty shops like Sephora and Ulta, have made in-store experience a major plus.

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