NEW YORK, USA

MACY’S iconic flagship store, which is already the world’s largest, is about to get even bigger.

The department store chain announced yesterday that it plans to spend about US$400 million over the next four years to expand and overhaul its storied flagship location at Herald Square in Manhattan. The makeover will affect every floor and virtually every department from shoes to luxury goods. The facelift comes as department stores are figuring out new ways to excite consumers in an era when shoppers are shifting toward the Web and using the latest technology to search and buy merchandise.

The renovations will begin in early spring 2012 and continue in phases through the fall of 2015. Macy’s will add about 100,000 square feet (9,290 square metres) of selling space for a total of 1.2 million square feet (0.11 million square metres) by opening up space currently used for stock and offices. The store’s current total space is 2.2 million square feet (0.2 million square metres).

“The excitement, size and scale of this remodel reinforces our conviction that Macy’s Herald Square is and will remain a retail store in a class by itself,” Terry J Lundgren, Macy’s chairman, president and CEO, said in a statement. “It is our company’s most productive store, and experience shows that improvements in this location consistently result in higher customer traffic and sales volume.”

More than 20 million people visit Macy’s flagship every year, making it a top tourist destination, and Lundgren said he wants to make an even more powerful impression. He told reporters that Macy’s had done a lot of research and was inspired by Harrods and Selfridges in London as well as other stores in Japan and France.

“This is a smart move at the right time,” said Faith Consolo, chairman of retail leasing and marketing at Prudential Douglas Elliman. They’re going to up the image. They want to be Harrods of the US.”

As part of the renovations, Macy’s will create the world’s largest shoe department, featuring as many as 300,000 pairs of shoes on any one day, and infuse technology into the shopping experience ranging from interactive store directories to a new mobile app to guide customers as they shop. The flagship store will also have a new hall of luxury brands that will include a series of two and three-level designer shops. Louis Vuitton, for example, will be enlarged to multiple floors. The store will also have 22 restaurants and foodservice stations with seating for about 1,000 customers, an increase of 40 per cent. The roster includes a new restaurant on the sixth floor with views of the Empire State Building.

Macy’s said the flagship store will continue to operate during the construction. By fall 2015, the company says it plans to add about 800 new positions to the store’s existing year-round workforce of about 4,600 people.

The first portion of Macy’s Herald Square store was opened in 1902. It was expanded in three additional phases to its current configuration by 1931.

AP