ALEXANDRA JACOBS GOES SHOPPING: Shoe Battle Edition

Since everything comes back to shoes these days, it's no surprise that Critical Shopper Alexandra Jacobs has quickly found her way to Macy's immense new shoe department. In today's Thursday Styles, she give us a pretty good sense that she's not likely to return there anytime soon. It turns out that even with a sleek new setting, the main problem with Macy's new shoe 'salon' is that it's still in Macy's and retains a few drawbacks that all the fresh drywall in the world can't cure. It turns out that the tremendous expansion of the department and its inventory also brought a complicated system of messaging to remote stockrooms in order to convey merchandise for customers to try on. Apparently, there are still some kinks to work out that have been frustrating people on both sides of the register,

This meant a lot of people parked on squishy Naugahyde divans with rolling suitcases betwixt their knees and sour expressions on their faces.
“I’ve been standing here 15 minutes waiting for Julio — he has, like, seven shoes,” was a typical ejaculation from an exasperated floor manager.
“Everybody that’s with me here, you definitely need to help me put this back!” roared another, referring to the opened boxes and pieces of tissue paper scattered on the floor.

So, perhaps the world's largest store is still suffering from growing pains. We still think that Macy's will at least look a thousand times better once its storewide renovation is finally completed in a few years, but the service overhaul seems to have quite a ways to go as well.

Critical Shopper: A Leopard in a Cage at the Shoe Zoo By Alexandra Jacobs (NYTimes)
Macy’s Shoe Salon 151 West 34th Street at Broadway, second floor, Herald Square
Previously:
Works In Progress: Renovations Just Might Turn Macy's Herald Square Into A Store Where You Will Want To Shop