Bloomberg Audio Studios, Podcasts, radio News. I'm pleased to say that the CEO of Macy's Ink joins us right now, Tony Spring here in studio too, Tony, great.
To see you here, to see you.
Three percent comp sales growth of Bloomingdale's with your old job which used to run there, phenomenal ten percent comp sales growth, and the turnaround that you've been trying to execute for the Macy's brand seems to be really taking hold one point six one and a half percent of growth there. And I think if you just take the stores that you've remodeled, your over two percent there.
This is now what four straight quarters of this?
This is four straight quarters or growth, five quarters of beating our guidance ten point two percent growth you mentioned at Bloomingdale's. Two point four percent growth at the reimagined stores. We feel like we are on the curve beginning to transform the Macy's in portfolio company.
The conversation was a bit different even a year ago. I mean, people were writing Europe at Shortan the Macy's obituary. They was right at the department store obituary. Is this turnaround just about a better experience in the stores, or is it about something different that we're not really picking up on.
Well, I never bought into the extinction of department stores. I think it's bad stores don't have a place in the retail ecosystem. Sometimes they can survive longer than they should great stores. People love people, love Harroads, they love Selfridges, they love their department stores. We're a departments where we do a really good job. When we do, we get credit from the consumer. When we don't, we don't get
credit from the consumer. So I really just took it internally and challenged our team to say, let's satisfy the customer. Let's put people back in the stores. Let's update the product mix, Let's do a little storytelling on the visuals. How about some help in the fitting room where the customer's craving support once she's taking her clothes up and is looking to figure out what size is going.
To work for her.
So customers seem to be a little bit more excited about what's going on. I am curious about the brands of vendors that the things you sell there are they also, I mean, are you seeing more interests from brands that maybe had left the Macy's ecosystem in the past and maybe are knocking back on your door.
Yeah, we've talked about new brands coming in Donna Karen, Donna Karen Weekend. Rothy is new to both Macy's and Bloomingdale's. The addition of Ted Baker and Theory and Reese Bloomingdale's certainly big luxury expansion. So I think the brands we're looking to see, are you ready to take care of the business. Will you be a creative to my brand positioning? Will you help me to reach customers I can't reach
without your support? And I think the team has done a good job of explaining that Macy's thirty eight million active customers that is not easy to buy in the media market. So how do we make sure that we're presenting our brand in the right way so that we're capturing new customers that maybe we're the first time that they're learning about our brand, and that we're proud of the level of business we do.
I'm curious.
One of the big criticisms of your bold new chapter, your turner round plan, is that you're basically shrinking the idea that you're leaning heavily on Bloomingdale's, which is obviously a success story, and there are a lot of people that want to know sort of is this sort of a big structural shift for you with regards to what Macy's Inc.
Overall is going to be.
Is it going to be weighted more towards luxury and Bloomingdale's, or is it going to be the complete sort of ecosystem Macy's, Bloomingdale's, and bloom Mercury.
Well, it was a three part strategy from the very beginning. Yeah.
The first chapter of a bold new chapter was strengthen and reimagined Macy's. And while we had to close some stores, we still have a few more stores to close. The primary focus was reimagining stores. I think when you and I talked last time, I said, a strategy is not a strategy, but it's just about closing underproductive stores or monetizing assets. The strategy is making it better for the consumers.
So we put more people in the stores, We added more inventory, we brought in new brands, we made the website you more inspirational. But the second part of the chapter is to grow Bloomingdale's. Because why wouldn't we We've owned Bloomingdale's. It's a great brand and has so much potential organic potential, physical potential, digital potential.
And then the third piece of.
The strategy was to make sure that we were operating efficiently and effectively and serving the customer. So I'm proud of the fact that the supply chain team, we're in stock better, We're flowing inventory to the customer faster, We're having less issues with the consumer.
That's why our net promoter scores, how we measure customer service or going up.
Bloomingdale's growth.
There are some people that said, certainly in the most recent quarters has benefited partly from let's just say the relative absence of SAX Global Neiman marcus Bergdorf Sachs.
They're in bankruptcy proceedings.
They are expected to come out some time this year, and I've spoken with their CEO and he's got some pretty ambitious plans for what he think SAX can be. Does that potential increase in competition worry you with regards to Bloomingdale's trajectory.
No, I'm focused on Bloomingdale's. I'm focused on Olvia.
Do you want this team?
You never you don't go into Sacks.
Oh, I certainly shopped the competition, But I'm focused on what we do.
You know, I learned a long time ago.
If you depict and on other people failing for you to succeed, you're not going to get very far. Our focus is on delivering a great experience for the Bloomingdale's customer.
You and I could go over and.
Walk fifty nine straight across the street from this great building and see new brands, great people, great visuals, inspiring marketing, forty carrots, yogurt. There's so much interest within the Bloomingdale's brand. Does competitive missteps help Bloomingdale's, of course, But if Bloomingdale's
wasn't running effectively, wasn't healthy. And this strategy started a number of years ago, as we added new brands, as we declared our right and reason for being at our one hundred and fiftieth anniversary in twenty twenty two, we said we can do better.
Yeah.
Also, just as a personal note, you know they had a sun Life pop up there by the way, You need to get that back. It was only temper forever in all series. I do want to ask you about just the consumer overall. I mean, it's one thing to say, Okay, your business is doing great. There are certain things you control you don't necessarily control the economy. Gas prices are significantly higher than where they were three months ago. Most
economists don't think they're coming down anytime soon. You already had a consumer, as you have characterized in the past as being kind of a K shaped or even E shaped economy. Here do you see the state of the US consumer improving anytime soon?
I think the consumer is going to continue to buy rewards and things that they can enjoy, find a way to escape. We talk about retail escapism or retail therapy, and the gas prices being higher is not helpful to the business, there's no question, but it's not an excuse to not do business. Every single day we are doing business at Macy's and blooming those in Blue Mercury. How much business? How do we take business from the competition?
How do we inspire you to find things? So if we have a new brand and sunglasses, if we have a new Hookah sneaker, if we have a new pair of page DNM genes, there's a reason for you to buy. And by the way, we're actually accessible luxury. We are in categories that for the most part, our core customer can buy multiple times without putting a dent in their wallet.
A reminder for our Bloomberg audiences on television and radio. Speaking right now with Tony Spring, the CEO of Macy's, Inc. And with regards to that though, Tony, are you able going to hold a price because part of the success of Macy's that isn't just the comp sales growth, but it's also been on the bottom line as well, to avoid having a heavily discount. If we are indeed seeing economic pressures out there.
Well, I think it's our job to manage the bottom line. You know, it starts with first the top line, delivering a right experience for the consumer. If we have the right brands, if we don't overbuy the inventory, we're going to be fine on the bottom line. Last year, we had to navigate the uncertainty of tariffs, what country we're going to make products in, how we're going to adjust orders, how much of the cost was going to be shared by the vendors versus shared by Macy's versus shared by
the customer. This year, we can be focused on taking care of the customer. This year, we can be focused on what are going to be the impacts of some of the macro and geopolitical issues.
But you bring up tariffs.
I mean, I thought the tariff thing was behind and then yesterday we had news here on Bloomberg that the Trump administration is kind of reupping a.
Lot of those.
But it's not last year's tariffs.
And I don't like tariffs in general as a policy, but we accept what happens. They're not the higher rates and inconsistencies country by country you have people moving production from China to Vietnam and back to China again.
So that's not going on this year.
How much opportunity cost did we lose last year because we weren't focused on the consumer, because we weren't focused on taking care of the customer. I'm excited about the opportunities this year. I walked through the Father's Day assortment. We looked terrific. I looked at the World Cup assortment. We got lots of fun jerseys, and we got the Knicks and the playoffs. So there's so much opportunity for us to do business and play into fandom. I think that exists in every family.
Are you a Knicks fan?
I am an ex fan? Okay, well, Congraticha. I'm a bus fan, but I still wish you the best here. I am curious though recently, and I know it's a small investment, but we had the disclosure from Berkshire at the way that they had taken a stake in Macy's, a relatively small sake, what it was significant because it was, I believe, the first stake that they've taken in a department store in decades.
What does that say to you, not just with.
What Ferkshire and Warren Buffett might be doing, but just overall the confidence that maybe might finally be returning to Macy's Inc.
As a stock And my father used to call it a shot in the arm. And we all need them every once in a while. We love all of our investors. I think Berkshire just has a wonderful reputation of believing and investing for the long term. And I think it's a proof to our team that doing the right things, even if you don't see the immediate success, they will be beneficial over time as long as you're honest with yourself. I have an adage about the garden. Sometimes you plant
seeds and you want to go pick the fruit. It doesn't work that way if you believe in what you're doing. You have to take the time. You got a water, you got to till the soil. Some things we do are going to take a little bit of time. I believe this.
Strategy is the right strategy for Macy's Inc.
You came into this job as CEO of Macy's Inc. With this bold new chapter. It's a three year plan is basically the third year. I am curious if you can look ahead you're four or five and beyond and maybe articulate what you think that next chapter, if you will to use the analogy, might actually look like.
Yeah.
I think it's going to include more brands. It's going to include more reimagined stores for Macy's. It's going to include new ways of incorporating AI into powering a bold new chapter so that we're able to be ahead of the consumer and be able to deliver more of what he or you're looking for. I think it's going to be that continued expansion of Bloomingdal's, because with only fourteen of the top fifty DMAs in the country, there is
plenty of expansion potential for Bloomingdals. And it's going to be making sure that we continue to stay focused on the customer, because sometimes when you get distracted by a problem and opportunity outside of the business, you stop taking care of the people that make the everyday business happen, which is the consumer.
All right, Tony, we have to leave it there. I really appreciate you joining us.
Thank you. Good to see you.
Ony Spring there.
He is the CEO of Macy's, fresh off the company's gar needs four straight quarters of comp sales growth.